SSL Advisory Board
SSL’s direction and work are guided by our Advisory Board, composed of professionals with varied expertise, representing different sectors and spaces within UMass Boston and in New England.
Current Advisory Board Members
Pratyush Bharati is Professor of Management Information Systems at UMass Boston. His research interests are artificial intelligence, social media analytics, big data, and green information systems. He received the 2013-14 Fulbright Senior Researcher award. He is the Senior Editor of The Data Base for Advances in Information Systems Journal and an Associate Editor of Communications of the AIS. He served as an Editorial Review Board member of an Information Systems Research special issue. He is a Distinguished Member of the Association for Information Systems (AIS) and former President of AIS Special Interest Group on Green Information Systems (SIGGreen). He currently serves as AIS’s Associate Vice President (AVP) Sustainability for the Americas (Region 1).
Prior to joining Harvard, Dr. Cash served as the Regional Administrator for the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s New England office during the Biden Administration. Dr. Cash has spent his career in public service harnessing science, innovative policy, and community involvement to help solve challenges and seize opportunities at the intersection of equity, environmental protection, public health, and economic development. Before joining the EPA, Dr. Cash was Dean of the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the UMass Boston, where he was on the team that launched the Sustainable Solutions Lab.
Laura is an Assistant Professor at the School for the Environment at the University of Massachusetts Boston. As a sustainability scholar, she engages in community-based research to tackle some of society’s most pressing challenges. She uses various collaborative frameworks and methods to examine the impacts of, and responses to, water and energy injustices across different scales, from individuals and local communities to the global stage. Currently, she is working on projects aimed at reducing the water gap in high-income countries and co-designing nature-based solutions that address the specific needs of local communities.
Bob Chen is a Professor in the School for the Environment and Director of Grand Scholarly Initiatives at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He was the Principal Investigator of the NSF Cool Science Advancing Informal Science Learning project where youth create art posters about climate change that are displayed on public buses to educate adults. He was also PI of the NASA PATHS Diversifying Engineering project. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles and is an active researcher in coastal observations, carbon cycling, and contaminant distribution and fate. He works with communities to tell stories of coastal resilience, STEM diversity, and environmental justice.
Melissa Colón (PhD) is an applied, participatory, and community-engaged scholar who is committed to democratizing research. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor at the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Massachusetts Boston in the program of Urban Education Leadership and Policy Studies. She is also a Research Associate at the Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy (UMass Boston), the Sustainable Solutions Lab (UMass Boston), and at Tufts Interdisciplinary Evaluator Research (TIER) (Tufts University). Her research largely focuses on schooling as a developmental context for Black and Latine youth.
Gabriel Cira is a licensed architect based in Massachusetts. As project lead for The Emerald Tutu—visionary nature-based floating infrastructure for urban-scale coastal flood protection—he has brought it from the initial idea through multiple awards and grants to its present National Science Foundation-funded R&D activities and strong community links. Gabriel is active in local politics and advocacy in the Boston area, including the discourse on city-wide adaptation to climate change. He teaches the longstanding Architecture of Boston course at MassArt, which connects cooperative infrastructure history with the future of climate resilience. Growing up on Cape Cod, Gabriel has been a sailor since he was 5 years old. Other current ARCH CIRA projects include building a geothermal greenhouse for an urban farm, restoring a historic 1886 Black church, and working with The Architecture Lobby’s Coop Network group.
Tim oversees Health Care Without Harm’s US state and local policy portfolio, focusing on advancing local solutions at the intersection of healthcare, decarbonization, and community climate resilience. He previously facilitated a Boston Green Ribbon Commission (GRC) working group and, in 2023, was appointed by Mayor Wu to Chair Boston's BERDO Health Institution Working Group. Tim has also worked at Climate XChange Education & Research (CXC) and the Climate Action Business Association (CABA). In 2019, he was the MetroCommon scenario planning co-chair for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), where he helped support MAPC's 2050 Greater Boston region plan. Tim has a bachelor’s degree in economics and public policy from Stonehill College and a Master of Public Administration from the McCormack Graduate School at UMass Boston.
Katherine Dafforn is Director of the Stone Living Lab and Distinguished Professor at UMass Boston. She co-founded the award-winning Living Seawalls project and has led global research on restoring marine habitats impacted by built structures. Katherine received her Bachelor of Science (Honors and University Medal) in marine biology and spatial information systems and her PhD in biological sciences from the University of New South Wales, Sydney.
Facilitator of diverse collaborative spaces and projects aspiring to achieve community well-being in the Greater Boston Area. Focus on accessing and mobilizing resources to build structures that increase the quality of life in a climate change context. Skilled in participatory practices, project management, research, environmental justice work, and climate resilience. Native Boricua 🇵🇷 who earned a B.Sc. in Biology with a concentration in Environmental Sociology and Public Policy at the University of Puerto Rico - Mayagüez. Received a Master's in Public Health from Boston University's School of Public Health with a certificate in Community Assessment, Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation.
In her role representingrepresenting A Better City’s 130-member business organizations, Isabella works to move equitable climate and clean energy policy agendas forward at the city and state levels in Massachusetts. Isabella also leads A Better City’s extreme heat work with a focus on community resilience and participates in a variety of policy coalitions. She helps staff the Commercial Real Estate Working Group of the Green Ribbon Commission (GRC) and serves on the Community Advisory Board for Boston’s 20-Year Urban Forest Plan, the Advisory Group for the GRC’s Climate Justice Initiative, and the Steering Committee for a MA/Boston Climate Bank. Prior to joining A Better City, she worked as a Policy Officer for the United Nations’ Biodiversity Law and Governance Initiative and on domestic and international conservation networks with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. In addition to the SSL Board, Isabella is honored to serve on the Board of Visitors and Young Leaders Council of Fenway Health. Isabella holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in environmental studies from Wellesley College and a Masters in Conservation Leadership from the University of Cambridge.
Kari Hewitt brings 18 years of experience as a climate action and resilience practitioner, collaborator, and educator. Her career has centered equity and systems thinking for solving our greatest challenges from climate change with a focus on elevating collaborative, reparative, and regenerative solutions for sustainable and thriving communities. In addition to working as a private consultant for the past 16 years, she has also worked in the public, non-profit, and academic sectors. As an adjunct lecturer at Tufts University since 2020, Kari teaches courses in applied sustainability and a field projects course connecting students with community partners throughout Greater Boston. Kari additionally serves on the Board of Directors of New Ecology, Inc., and is part of the Steering Committee for the Boston area Climate Adaptation Forum. She holds an M.A. in Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning from Tufts University and a B.A. in Sociology from Smith College.
Alexander More is an environmental scientist and economist. His research focuses on the impact of climate change on population and ecosystem health and the economy. By using ultra-high-resolution climatic, epidemiological, ecological and archeoscientific records, More brings recent drastic environmental changes into a broader perspective, one that permits stark comparisons between current and past trends in temperature, pollution, pandemic disease, and extreme weather, all of which directly impact food production, human health, economic prosperity, and political stability. He is author of several landmark studies of the impact of climate on pandemics and pollution, and an active contributor to the fields of environmental health and planetary health.
Dr. Denise Patmon is a Professor and Director of two UMass Boston initiatives: the William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture and the Boston Writing Project. She joined UMass Boston in 1995 as an Assistant Professor and since then has served UMass Boston and the College of Education and Human Development in a variety of ways including, but not limited to holding positions as Director of the Center for Innovative Teaching, Director of the Office for Faculty Development, and Chair of the Leadership in Education Department. Professor Patmon's research and teaching interests focus on the preparation of K-12 teachers to teach writing for an anti-racist urban public school context and the experiences and historical contributions of Black Bostonians. She has lectured at Oxford University, Tallinn University, Ehime University, University of Southern Denmark, Abo Akademie and numerous other universities both nationally and internationally.
Rajini Srikanth is Dean of Faculty and Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Boston. In addition, she is a core faculty member of the Human Rights program and the graduate program in Critical Ethnic and Community Studies. Srikanth’ s research and teaching span place-based pedagogy, literature and human rights, transdisciplinary approaches to climate justice and public health, and comparative race and ethnic studies. She is co-editor of the collection Climate Justice and Public Health: Realities, Responses, and Reimaginings for a Better Future (2024). Srikanth is PI of the multidisciplinary (English, anthropology, environmental science, and indigenous studies) “Living with the Urban Ocean,” grant, from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Boston Harbor and the Boston Harbor Islands are strong pedagogical and research foci in her work.
Jen Stevenson Zepeda (she/her) is a Commercial Solar Consultant for ReVision, an employee-owned B Corp that installs solar, battery storage, and other clean technologies across northern New England. In her role, Jen uses an educational approach to help nonprofits and businesses understand their decision to go solar. Prior to joining ReVision, Jen was involved in clean community microgrid projects in Massachusetts and Puerto Rico, making these complex energy systems accessible for environmental justice communities. Originally from Maine, she enjoys being out on the water and spending time with family, friends, and her dog. She is also passionate about music, equity, and low-impact development. Jen has a BA in Anthropology, Sociology and Spanish from Middlebury College and a Master's in Sustainable Design from the Boston Architectural College.
Fabián Torres-Ardila holds a PhD in mathematics from Boston University. He has many years of experience providing professional development to STEM teachers who work with English Language Learners. Dr. Torres-Ardila has been the coordinator for the Title III grant "Math Sheltered English Teacher Training Project" at UMass Boston from 2012 to 2017, and interim director of the TAG/ALERTA program. He aims to strengthen the institute’s research on current educational policies that impact the inclusion of Latino families in Massachusetts
Stacy D. VanDeveer is Professor of Global Governance and Human Security in the John W. McCormack School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston – and Graduate Program Director. He has been a visiting professor or research fellow at Uppsala University (Sweden), University Manchester (UK) and Brown University (US). His research interests include EU environmental and energy politics, global environmental policymaking and institutions, comparative environmental politics, connections between environmental and security issues, the roles of expertise in policymaking, and the global politics of resources and consumption. In addition to authoring and co-authoring over 130 articles, book chapters, working papers and reports, he has co-edited or coauthored 12 books including Stability and Politicization in Climate Governance (2025) and Oxford Handbook of Comparative Environmental Politics (2023).
Paul Watanabe is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institute for Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He served on President Obama’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and as the first Chair of the U.S. Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations. He is President of the Board of Directors of the Nisei Student Relocation Commemorative Fund; a member of the Advisory Board of the New Americans Integration Institute; the Board of Directors of the South Shore Health System; and the Board of Trustees of the Harry H. Dow Memorial Legal Assistance Fund. His publications have appeared in the principal journals of his field as well as in scholarly volumes. He is the author of Ethnic Groups, Congress, and American Foreign Policy.
J. Cedric Woods, of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, has served as Director of the Institute for New England Native American Studies (INENAS) at the University of Massachusetts, Boston since 2009. In this role, he has connected Native New England with university research, innovation, and education; and he has worked on projects with tribes in the areas of tribal government capacity building, Indian education, economic development, and chronic disease prevention. Cedric has served as a consultant to the National Museum of the American Indian; North Carolina's Haliwa Saponi Indian Tribe; and as a member of the Board of Trustees for Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Former Advisory Board Members
Thank you to our former board members for their support and guidance over the years.
Program Officer of Climate Resilience at the Barr Foundation
Kalila joined Barr as the Climate Resilience Program Officer in 2018. Kalila has over a decade of experience in community organizing around affordable housing, land development, and environmental justice. She served as the Executive Director at Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE) for eight years. Before joining ACE in 2009, she worked as a Senior Organizer at Community Labor United. Kalila has a Bachelor's degree from Bates College, where she studied American Studies and Spanish, and a Master of Public Policy from the Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning School at Tufts University. Kalila currently lives in Roslindale and enjoys walking in the Arboretum, listening to podcasts, and cooking for friends.
Amy Korté
President at Arrowstreet
As President, Amy leads the design of much of Arrowstreet’s residential work and has played a key role in orchestrating the firm’s large-scale mixed-use and commercial projects in Boston, Cambridge, Worcester, and Revere. Her multi-disciplinary background in environmental design, retail design, and development allows her to deliver creative project solutions that bridge multiple disciplines. Amy leads much of the research thinking at Arrowstreet, and launched the firm’s Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality Studio. She is the recipient of Banker and Tradesman’s award for Women in Real Estate, which recognizes Massachusetts women who demonstrate talent, ambition, innovation, and philanthropy.
CEO and Founder, ISeeChange
Julia Kumari Drapkin is the CEO of ISeeChange, a climate data and engagement platform to help cities combat climate change. Drapkin founded ISeeChange after reporting natural disasters and climate change for 12 years across the globe and in her own backyard on the Gulf Coast. Under her leadership, ISeeChange has received national awards and recognition from the White House Climate Data Initiative, NASA, MIT Solve, Echoing Green, Grist, AGU, the AAAS, Verizon, Exelon, and Morgan Stanley. Prior to journalism, Julia did anthropology research for 7 years in Central America, where she geeked out on Mayan farmers' almanacs.