People & Partners

Stephanie Carlisle is a Principal at KieranTimberlake Architects where she is an environmental researcher in the firm’s interdisciplinary research group. She is also a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design and a Co-Editor of Scenario Journal. Her work investigates the interaction between the natural and constructed environment, including embodied carbon, life cycle assessment (LCA), urban ecology, material toxicity and equity. Combining a background in environmental science and architectural design, Stephanie serves as a bridge between research and practice, bringing data-driven analysis and topical research to complex design problems. She leads the materials database and LCA methods development for Tally®, a whole building LCA tool and serves as the chair of the Education and Research focus group of the Embodied Carbon Network. Stephanie’s writing on embodied carbon and the architecture has appeared in FastCompany, Architect Magazine, Domus, Buildings and the Environment, and the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.

J. Mijin Cha. J. Mijin Cha is an assistant professor of urban and environmental policy at Occidental College. She is also a fellow at the Worker Institute, Cornell University and a senior fellow at Data for Progress. Dr. Cha’s research explores the intersection of inequality and climate change, particularly labor/climate coalitions. Her current research focus is on just transition- how to transition fossil fuel communities and workers equitably into a low-carbon future. Dr. Cha received her B.S. from Cornell University, J.D. from Univ. of California, Hastings, and LLM and PhD degrees from the Univ. of London, SOAS.

Nicholas Pevzner is a landscape architect, educator, theorist, and researcher working on the socio-spatial impact of energy infrastructure, including spatial planning for the renewable energy transition. He is a Senior Lecturer in landscape architecture at Penn’s Weitzman School of Design, and a Faculty Fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. Nicholas teaches graduate landscape design studios, which have included regional- and territorial-scale studios focused on landscape infrastructure and energy infrastructure, and most recently focused on strategies for resilient energy facilities in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria that promoted energy democracy and local community power. Nicholas is the co-editor of Scenario Journal, a digital open-access journal focused on interdisciplinary conversations about ecology, design, and landscape performance. He also teaches courses on urban ecology, history of energy systems, and negative emissions. Nicholas holds a Masters of Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Architecture from the Cooper Union.

Seth J. Prins is an assistant professor of epidemiology and sociomedical sciences at Columbia University. He studies the collateral consequences of mass incarceration for public health, and how the division and structure of labor influence depression, anxiety, and substance use. He also directs the Decarceration and Public Health Research Collaborative. He is the principal investigator on a K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development Award K01DA045955-01: Adolescent substance use as determinant and consequence of the school-to- prison pipeline: Disentangling individual risk, social determinants, and group disparities. 

Thea Riofrancos is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Providence College. Her research focuses on resource extraction, renewable energy, climate change, green technology, social movements, and the left in Latin America. These themes are explored in her book, Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador (Duke University Press, 2020), as well as in peer-reviewed articles in Perspectives on Politics, Cultural Studies, and World Politics, essays that have appeared in The Guardian, n+1, Dissent, Jacobin, In These Times, Logic, and NACLA, and in her coauthored book, A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal (Verso Books, 2019). Her next book is provisionally titled, Brine to Batteries: The Extractive Frontiers of the Global Energy Transition.