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Student Spotlight: Gabrielle Wong-Parodi
Student Spotlight Directory
ERG PhD student,
Gabrielle Wong-Parodi.
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"Understanding Perceptions of Technological Risk"
Gabrielle Wong-Parodi is a PhD student in the Energy and Resources Group (ERG). Her current research interests lie in understanding the perceptions of risk of large-scale climate change mitigation technologies and how advocacy organizations and the public dynamically interact to shape those perceptions.
Her dissertation work will likely build upon her master’s project where she investigated opinions of geologic sequestration – a supply-side climate change mitigation technology where carbon dioxide emissions are captured and injected underground. In her work Gabrielle investigated non-governmental organization (NGO) opinion of geologic sequestration which included understanding how NGOs perceive this technology as a way to mitigate climate change and how these organizations plan to frame this potential solution to the public. In addition to her work on NGO perceptions, she has spent the past year investigating public perceptions of WESTCARB’s geologic sequestration pilot project in California’s Central Valley. Working closely with communities in the Central Valley has given her a new perspective on her home state and Gabrielle has grown to love the beauty and unique culture of the communities along the Sacramento River.
Before coming to ERG, Gabrielle worked as a staff research associate with the Energy Efficiency Standards Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. There she worked developing efficiency standards for furnaces and boilers. In addition, she worked with the United States Postal Service to develop an energy consumption database that tracked gas and electricity consumption for retrofitted offices and facilities in the Pacific area. Gabrielle continues to provide advisory support to the Energy Efficiency Standards Group on a new efficiency standards rulemaking for heating products that include direct heating equipment, pool heaters, and hearth products.
 Central Valley community of Rio Vista.
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Gabrielle came to ERG because of its reputation as a program where students can creatively pursue independent research in an inter-disciplinary environment. She has not been disappointed. Gabrielle looks forward to being part of the ERG community. ERG has been, and will continue to be, a wonderful and nurturing environment with fantastic faculty and students.
Gabrielle received her bachelors in Psychology from UC Berkeley in 2003. In her senior year she completed an honors thesis that examined cultural differences in gendered expectations. She related her interest in factors that influence perceptions to education-related policy goals. Next year, Gabrielle will be a graduate student instructor for Environmental Science 196 – an honors seminar class for the Environmental Science major.
7/2/07
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