Liyang is a PhD student in the Energy & Resources Group and a Senior Research Associate at Berkeley Lab. Her research interest is at the intersection of decision science, climate science, and infrastructure planning.
María is interested in exploring rural and peasant women’s role in the advancement of food sovereignty and in understanding the complex negotiation processes between communities, individuals, and the environment in rural and agricultural communities in Mexico.
Alana Ballagh (she/her) is a second year Master’s student at the Energy and Resources Group. Alana is interested in exploring the role of more participatory decision-making in adaptation to infrastructure-related disasters. Her recent work examines the impacts of the renewable energy transition on water in the Great Basin and the impacts of climate and infrastructure development on fisheries in the Greater Mekong subregion.
Alana holds a BA in Environmental Studies and Political Science from Swarthmore College. Prior to joining ERG, she worked as a Fulbright ETA in Vientiane,...
Kelsey is a PhD candidate, focusing on qualitative research spanning the fields of global climate and environmental politics, political ecology, critical development studies, human and Indigenous rights, and environmental conflict.
Dawson is a Master’s student in the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley. His interests lie at the intersection of data science and sustainable development, with a focus on climate adaptation, agriculture, and natural resource economics. He’s currently studying weatherization policies in Europe and the domestic political economy of climate finance in Latin America. Before joining ERG, Dawson worked on natural resources policy in Alaska’s state legislature. He grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska, and holds a BA in Political Science from Stanford University.
Sarah Sarfaty Epstein is a first year M.S. student interested in landscape-scale climate resilience decision making in California’s agriculture sector, particularly at the agriculture-energy-water nexus. Currently, Sarah is part of an equitable agrivoltaics research team, as the Berkeley Food Institute’s Policy Assistant.
Sarah has held a variety of professional roles in the environmental and human services sectors, most recently as an Associate at Ross Strategic where she worked on various food system, rural development and energy resource projects....
Lily is a Master’s student in the Energy and Resources Group. Her research focuses on expanding utility access for medically vulnerable and low-income American communities.
