Harvard  University has today announced its first-ever cohort for the brand new Climate Justice Design Fellowship, recognizing young leaders across the country in the fields of environmental justice advocacy, law, and climate organizing.

The first class of fellows consists of seven members, primarily from the non-profit sector. Each fellow will be tasked with pursuing data-oriented tools (e.g., the First Street Foundation’s new wildfire risk map) to aid their individual communities’ strides toward environmental justice.

The fellowships are funded through Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) and are pilot programs of the broader Harvard-Google Data+Climate Initiative that incorporates proprietary innovations like Google Data Commons and the data visualization service Glue to further empower both scholars and engineers to fight challenges related to climate change.

The progress of the fellowship can be followed online on both Twitter and Instagram. Scroll down to find out more about what the inaugural class will bring to Cambridge as put together by the GSD and Berkman Klein Center.

J'reyesha Brannon – City of Portland, Oregon

J'reyesha is making data more accessible for frontline communities, while exploring Portland's Urban Heat Dome and tree canopy equity.

Carlos Claussell Velez – Institute for Sustainable Communities

Carlos implements equity-driven processes that support environmental justice and communities of color in Puerto Rico, Philadelphia, and the U.S.

Laura K Robinson – The Neighborhood Design Center

Laura is creating an interactive advocacy tool that quantifies the environmental and economic benefits of climate resilient school landscapes.

Jacqueline Thanh – VAYLA New Orleans

Jacqueline is deepening Asian American and Pacific Islander leadership with data driven design justice for equity in the south and beyond.

Dominique Thomas

Dominique helps Black communities use an Afrofuturist Black Feminist Ecological praxis to build power in environmental justice.

Idalmis Vaquero

Idalmis is finding and creating data for her advocacy on behalf of communities burdened by pollution in southeast Los Angeles.

Alexa White – University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Alexa is engineering environmental justice screening and mapping tools for state and local governments.