Meet the PCJ in the Bay Fellows
This summer, Partnerships for Climate Justice in the Bay Area (PCJ in the Bay) is supporting 16 students working with climate and environmental justice organizations across the Bay Area, as far north as Richmond and as far south as San José. The students, ranging from first-year undergraduates to advanced PhD students, come from a broad range of academic disciplines with a desire to contribute meaningfully to local environmental justice projects.
Meet the 2026 PCJ in the Bay Fellows
Ashley Antonio
Valley Verde
Ashley Antonio is a freshman interested in pursuing political science on the pre-law track. She holds a strong dedication to community service and advocating for communities to become more self-reliant. Her experiences back home have shaped many of her academic and personal endeavors. Ashley views education as one of the most effective ways to empower the next generation of leaders—to lead with resiliency and collective action.
Ashley's Reflection
My photo essay, Raíces y Comunidad, or Roots and Community, encapsulates that summer I spent at Valley Verde and how I strengthened my love for nature, community, and my culture. I photographed moments that spoke to me, from the initial photo of Valley Verde's garden beds to the final photo of my last day at work. Throughout the essay, I chose photographs that reflect how much I've grown – appreciating the moments when I saw the fruits of one’s labor and recognizing the patience and care that go into producing an abundant harvest.
My favorite moment by far was when I made a cultural dish for the [Valley Verde] team. Sharing a piece of my background with the community I had become a part of showed me the impact food can have in fostering deeper friendships, connections, and appreciation. Therefore, I believe food should be easily accessible and affordable for all because I’ve witnessed the excitement it fosters when we sit down at the dining table, share how our day went, and enjoy a nice, hot meal together.
Amanda Campos
Communities for a Better Environment
Amanda Campos (she/her) is a senior studying environmental and energy policy and justice. Born in the iconic city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she moved to the 20-million-people, skyscrapers-filled São Paulo when she was three years old and then to South Florida when she was 13. She is a climate justice, immigrant rights, and Free Palestine activist. She’s either got her head in the clouds or her nose in a book. Amanda has worked at an environmental conservancy, the DOJ’s Environmental Enforcement Section, and the nonprofit Earthworks. She cannot wait to help advance environmental justice knowledge and help deliver wins for communities at Communities for a Better Environment.
Amanda's Reflection
View as a PDF:
Joelle Cheeseman
North Fair Oaks Community Alliance
Joelle Cheeseman is a freshman exploring electrical engineering and symbolic systems. She is passionate about addressing the climate crisis with community-focused engagement and accessible education. Joelle previously led youth STEM education initiatives for climate science and hands-on engineering programs and currently serves as a director of Golden Gate Science Olympiad, a non-profit organization providing STEM competitions for high school students. She helped found the Bay Area’s first Urban Schools Initiative for Science Olympiad, bringing accessible STEM education and mentorship to under-resourced schools. Joelle is an avid member of Stanford Society of Women Engineers, Engineers Without Borders, and the Public Interest Technology Lab, where she is focused on developing sustainable technologies supporting the needs of underrepresented communities. This summer, she is working with the North Fair Oaks Community Alliance (NFOCA) to improve unification, outreach, and communication with the North Fair Oaks community to respond to health, safety, and climate related emergencies.
Joelle's Reflection:
View as a PDF:
Title: Shades of Middlefield Road
By: Joelle Cheeseman
Date: September 14, 2026
Medium: Colored Pencil
Left Location: North Fair Oaks, California, 37.47037° N, 122.20131° W
Right Location: Menlo Park, California, 37.45892° N, 122.17264° W
Shades of Middlefield Road is a complementary diptych comparing the afternoon streetscapes of Middlefield Road through the bordering communities of North Fair Oaks (left) and Menlo Park (right). It is intended to illustrate the words of North Fair Oaks residents, “You know you’re in North Fair Oaks when the trees end.” North Fair Oaks is an unincorporated area which means it lacks its own municipal government and instead receives public services from the county. This has led to instances of infrastructural neglect toward the community in subtle ways that can be hard to parse until compared side-by-side with neighboring incorporated cities, from unrepaired cracks in the pavement, to worn paint lines instead of median strips, to the missing shade from trees.
The trees along Middlefield Road between 5th and 9th Avenues were planted over 25 years ago, but the trees are often cut, removed, or simply die from lack of maintenance, leaving the streets barren compared to wealthier neighboring cities like Menlo Park. Traveling between these two places takes less than five minutes, yet the feeling while passing through shifts dramatically. While trees can beautify and provide necessary shade for roadsides, many invisible benefits go unnoticed such as reducing stress levels and crime rates, absorbing air pollution from car traffic, and lowering temperatures by limiting the heat island effect. Read about work from the North Fair Oaks Community Alliance to improve infrastructure and maintenance for trees along Middlefield Road at bit.ly/TreesNFO.
Eliana Contreras
Rise South City
Eliana Contreras (they/them) is pursuing a BA in History and Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and an MA in Earth Systems. They are passionate about environmental justice and sustainable food systems, and they value using interdisciplinary and community-based approaches to tackle these issues. This summer, they will be interning with Rise South City, a community-based organization that focuses on promoting zero waste, efficient and affordable housing, and improving public transportation.
*Fellowship sponsored by the Center for Just Environmental Futures in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Eliana's Reflection:
Karen Contreras Cubas
Climate Resilient Communities
Karen Contreras Cubas (he/him) is a freshman majoring in Electrical Engineering and minoring in Political Science. He is motivated to use his education to fight against climate change and ensure climate justice for all. By helping work towards a future based in sustainable technologies and helping ensure that climate policies include the voices of the frontline communities who are usually the most affected yet also ignored. This summer, Karen will apply these principles through his work with Climate Resilient Communities (CRC), where he will focus on strengthening local resilience and dismantling climate injustice within the Bay Area. A central component of his mission involves empowering youth in vulnerable areas; by fostering a new generation of climate-educated leaders, he aims to provide them with the technical and political literacy necessary to influence future policy. Through this blend of engineering innovation and grassroots advocacy, Karen is committed to building a more equitable and sustainable world.
Karen's Reflection:
Art has always been a huge part of my life and to me is the best way to express my emotions. So, going into this final project I wanted to encapsulate this incredible summer I’ve had with CRC through a drawing that depicts what CRC really stands for. This summer I mainly helped out CRC’s Youth Climate Collective program that set up workshops for bay-area youth living in frontline communities. These workshops included visiting local environmental organizations to learn about their impact, going to the SF exploratorium to learn about sea level rise, touring the Monterey Bay Adult school to learn about food security, or hiking at Jasper Ridge Biological preserve to learn about environmental conservation. I’ve personally been able to see how the students have grown as a result of the program and become more motivated to do good with their lives and future careers. This all goes back to CRC’s mission to help elevate frontline communities and give them the ability to stand up for themselves against their continual neglect.
Therefore, the main subject of my drawing was the power of community and the hope for a brighter future. Starting with the signage I included multiple important locations in each of the letters in CRC. The first letter, ‘C’ depicts an image of Alviso which is a historically marginalized neighborhood in San Jose that was built on a trash dump and is currently sinking. CRC has multiple efforts in order to support the community of Alviso to pull it out of its currently disregarded state. The second letter ‘R’ shows the Golden Gate Bridge, an iconic symbol of the bay area. Finally the last letter, ‘C’ shows Cooley Landing which was once disregarded but is now being built up as a center for education in East Palo Alto (Also where CRC’s resilience fair was recently hosted on September 12th). For the bottom left of the drawing I wanted to show the community-aspect of CRC showing a group of people and their community being empowered. This section is meant to show how they’re standing up for themselves and speaking out. Meanwhile the right is meant to represent the hope for a better future with the plant growing out towards the sun, the hands carrying it symbolizing the seeds of education we are sowing right now. Overall, the piece was meant to give hope, truly showing the ‘power of the people’.
Hannah Dimock
Nuestra Casa
Hannah Dimock (she/her) is a rising junior majoring in biology with a focus on ecology and the environment. She is passionate about the intersection of climate justice, community-based resilience, and sustainable resource management, and is pursuing a minor in environmental justice through the Earth Systems program. This summer, Hannah is partnering with Nuestra Casa to support research and policy development advocacy initiatives serving Latinx residents in East Palo Alto and neighboring communities.
*Fellowship sponsored by the Center for Just Environmental Futures in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Aliyah Dunn-Salahuddin
Nuestra Casa
Aliyah Dunn-Salahuddin (she/her) is a PhD candidate of history at Stanford University and current Thomas D. Dee II Graduate Fellow with Stanford's Bill Lane Center for the American West. Her research examines the Black experience in Northern California through the intersection of environment, race, and urban infrastructures. Utilizing dance, film, and the performing arts in addition to her scholarship, Dunn-Salahuddin's work aims to make both the archive and history accessible to local communities. This summer she will support Nuestra Casa's initiatives related to climate justice in East Palo Alto by highlighting the shared environmental burdens marginalized communities in the Bay Area face through the development of curriculum, analysis of qualitative data, and field-based work.
*Fellowship sponsored by the Center for Just Environmental Futures in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Müge Gedik
OneShoreline
Müge Gedik (she/her) is a Ph.D. Candidate in Comparative Literature and a Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow (SIGF). She explores the capacities of narrative and how literature documents the shift from small-scale to industrial fishing, portrays islands as sites of ecological resilience, and envisions climate futures rooted in reciprocity and justice. Her fellowship with OneShoreline will focus on a community-centered oral history project to document how frontline communities along the shoreline experience the burdens of sea level rise and create an intergenerational repository of knowledge.
*Fellowship sponsored by the Center for Just Environmental Futures in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Mariko Hashimoto
Valley Verde
Mariko Hashimoto (she/they) is a graduate student studying Epidemiology and Clinical Research. She is passionate about food system sustainability, nutrition, and environmental health. With Valley Verde, she will be measuring the impacts of urban gardens and gardening education on the surrounding community.
Gabriella Ignacio
Acterra
Gabriella Ignacio is a junior majoring in Symbolic Systems and coterming in Education. She is interested in how education research can support early childhood students and educators from underserved communities. This summer, she will work with Acterra to develop and organize transportation initiatives for schools across the Bay Area.
Gabriella's Reflection:
This summer I worked as a Youth Education intern at Acterra, a Bay Area environmental nonprofit. During my time at Acterra, I primarily helped organize their “Ride for Clean Air” campaign. This campaign was developed in collaboration with the San Jose Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and aims to expand safe, accessible, and equitable biking opportunities in East San José’s Equity Priority Communities. To do so, our team engaged with East San Jose schools and residents in co-designing campaigns, mapping safe routes, and piloting incentive programs that improve mobility, reduce transportation costs, and enhance air quality.
One of the most impactful projects that I worked on was helping lead a Youth Leadership Committee composed of 12 high school students from East San Jose. We held five meetings in total, and worked with them to create biking campaigns that reflected the needs and priorities of ESJ students. We engaged in discussions about general transportation infrastructure and specific routes that needed attention around their schools, heard presentations by community leaders from VTA, Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, and other Bay Area transportation organizations, and helped plan a culminating bike party celebration. Hearing the voices of local high schoolers was incredibly empowering, and strengthened my resolve to work with youth in the future.
Koto Imahori
Rise South City
Koto Imahori (she/her) is an M.S. student in Community Health and Prevention Research at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She earned her B.S. in Applied Psychology from New York University (NYU) in May 2025. She is interested in environmental justice, climate resilience, and the role of environmental conditions in shaping population health. At Rise South City, Koto supports projects related to air quality monitoring, urban tree canopy expansion, and community outreach in South San Francisco. She works on data collection, analysis, and communication, helping translate environmental information into accessible materials for community members. She is particularly interested in bridging research and practice to support locally driven climate resilience efforts.
*Fellowship sponsored by the Center for Just Environmental Futures in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Sukie Kevane
Communities for a Better Environment
Sukie Kevane (she/her) is a Stanford student completing a coterminal Master’s in Earth Systems, where her work focuses on environmental justice at the intersection of science, policy, and community power. Sukie’s experience spans research and advocacy, including work on sustainable agriculture and nitrogen cycling in the Soil & Environmental Biogeochemistry Lab, as well as policy and communications roles with Environmental Defense Fund and Public Citizen. In these roles, she has translated complex environmental issues into accessible, justice-oriented narratives. Grounded in hands-on work—from regenerative farming in California to community-based projects in Tanzania—Sukie is especially interested in how environmental harms intersect with inequities in policing, incarceration, and access to resources. She plans to pursue a career in human rights law, focusing on environmental and climate justice. Outside of academic and professional work, Sukie is involved in sketch comedy at Stanford, using humor as a tool for critique and connection.
John Ou
Climate Resilient Communities
John Ou is passionate about pursuing innovative climate solutions and working with people to address injustices within human environmental systems. Within Climate Resilient Communities, he will help communities navigate climate change threats through their Resilient Homes Program, identifying families with climate vulnerable homes, assisting with service application processes, and supporting physical home repairs.
Ruby Saldivar
Acterra
Ruby Saldivar (she/her) is a senior studying Design with a focus on sustainability and energy systems. This past summer she worked with Acterra, where she focused on energy equity, electrification, and community engagement. Committed to ensuring that the clean energy transition is accessible to all, Ruby works at the intersection of environmental advocacy and community empowerment, supporting efforts to help residents in underserved communities make the shift to clean, electric alternatives. Through her work with Acterra and her studies at Stanford, she continues to deepen her understanding of the policies, systems, and grassroots strategies needed to build a more just and sustainable energy future for all.
Abe Jonathan Selvas
Belle Haven Action
John (he/him) is a graduating senior originally from Grants Pass, OR. He strives to knock down barriers and provide ample opportunities for a more equitable world. An advocate for accessible higher education, immigrant rights, and environmental justice, he also loves staying physically active at the Stanford Sports & Rec facilities and classes!
John's Reflection:
My creative reflection was derived from the photos of growth and maintenance that took place while I was spearheading the BHA’s Community Garden Initiative. This was a project that broke ground on June 29, 2026, but that I delivered a proposal for within the first week of my fellowship. I began by acquiring a bird’s eye view of the plot of land that was available to BHA and utilizing this image to develop a two-dimensional model of what I believed would be the optimal method to generate as much produce as possible within property constraints. I arrived at the “optimal method” by delving into research and cultural knowledge regarding companion plants and the sustainability of poly-culture gardens. This led to me contacting several different organizations that were aligned with BHA’s mission to develop reciprocal relationships that would allow for our team to literally break ground.
The physical labor of cleaning up the land plot, plowing the soil, and planting the seeds according to my model was a great team bonding exercise! Further, it feels extremely rewarding to have undertaken such great physical labor after having seen the garden in full bloom and knowing what it means for the Belle Haven Community. This is a community that has experienced great marginalization and discrimination, and it was profoundly fulfilling to be able to create something with the potential to last for generations and to have measurable impact. I am quite fond of this project and as such have asked the BHA team to not hesitate to contact me if they would like advice, input, or anything else that I can provide, now that my fellowship has concluded. Overall, this summer fellowship has been so meaningful and knowledge expanding for me. Thank you.
Elena Vasilache
OneShoreline
Elena (she/her) is a Master of Liberal Arts student with an interest in data analysis to better understand environmental challenges. This summer, she will work with OneShoreline, contributing to projects connected to the Regional Climate Information System (RCIS) and grant writing. In this role, she will support efforts to organize, interpret, and communicate climate‑related data that help communities better understand local risks and resilience strategies. Elena is excited to combine her data analysis skills with her commitment to environmental problem‑solving as she begins exploring pathways at the intersection of data and climate adaptation.
*Fellowship sponsored by the Center for Just Environmental Futures in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Elena's Reflection:
I built a new interactive map tool to help OneShoreline visualize data across San Mateo County related to the Regional Conservation Investment Strategy (RCIS)! You do not need an account or any special software to use it. Just click the link below to open the tool: https://stanford.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/sidebar/index.html?appid=2385f4ca4e83464a9e7e839349b8d2d2
Instructions for using the interactive tool:
- Open the Layers Menu: When the map opens, look at the black panel on the left side of your screen. Click the middle button (the icon looks like three stacked sheets of paper) to open the Layers list.
- Toggle Data On and Off: You will see a list of geographic features (like Watersheds, Protected Lands, etc.). Click the eye icon next to each layer name to turn it on or off. You can overlay multiple layers at the same time to see how the data connects! Be mindful, that upper layers will cover the bottom layers without showing the overlap.
- Explore the Map: Use your mouse, trackpad, or touch screen to zoom in, pan around, and explore specific neighborhoods. Click on any colored shape on the map to see a pop-up window with more detailed information.
Six of this year's fellowship positions are sponsored by the Center for Just Environmental Futures in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, as noted in the students' bios above.