About

I grew up between Cape Cod, a fragile coastal area that was rapidly developing, and the densely populated urban neighborhood of Chelsea, MA. This shaped my appreciation for how different environments impact human health, and how unsustainable and destructive so much of our development really is.

After graduating college with a degree in environmental studies, I spent five years working at an organization focused on democratizing science and technology. That’s when I discovered BU’s environmental health program at the School of Public Health - it felt like the perfect place to merge my interests in environmental sustainability and human health.

BU Highlights

Much of my research has focused on identifying the causes of an epidemic of chronic kidney disease, sometimes referred to as “heat stress nephropathy,” in Central America, where many people work in extreme heat. That work led me to realize that my own community of Chelsea, where I have settled, is considered an urban heat island. People with kidney disease are especially vulnerable in such environments, and extreme heat events in the U.S. are also associated with poor renal outcomes. While I continued my research in Central America, I launched the C-HEAT project in Chelsea and Boston in partnership with my colleague Patricia Fabian. Our work focuses on examining exposure to heat where we live and work, and we seek to better understand and address heat exposure and related health concerns among the area’s most vulnerable populations. We also evaluate urban cooling strategies and study how they affect city temperatures and public health. More recently, we’ve expanded this work to Phoenix and New Orleans through the Community Adaptations to City Heat (CATCH) project.

I’m also a core faculty member at BU’s Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS), which has connected me to a network of faculty from across BU’s schools and colleges who are all engaged in sustainability work. It’s great to be at the table together to share ideas around research, education, and practice.

Each fall, I teach a course on community-based participatory research in partnership with community members. It’s open to all graduate students from across the university, and we focus on practical methods, approaches, and skills to build and maintain equitable research partnerships.

Beyond BU

I helped found GreenRoots in 2016, a grassroots environmental justice organization that focuses on improving the urban environment and advancing public health in Chelsea, East Boston, and neighboring communities. GreenRoots is a core partner of C-HEAT, which we launched in 2020.

I also serve as Chair of the Board of Directors for the Science and Environmental Health Network, a nonprofit focused on promoting sustainability and supporting communities in their efforts to protect environmental and public health.

Advice for BU Students

Sustainability has many dimensions - where we live, how we work, and how we get around. Find the aspect that resonates most with you and start there. What matters most is balancing our individual actions with the broader values we advocate for - whether that’s in our conversations or the policies we support. It's also important to support systems and institutions that make sustainable choices easier and more accessible for everyone.