Meet the 2024 Alumni

Reeya Shah is a senior at Temple University with a double major in Geography & Urban Studies and Spanish with a certificate in GIS. She is extremely passionate about environmental injustice in urban zones, most notably in Philadelphia, and learning methods to address inequitable impacts of climate change through community input and creative expression. Reeya created the Residential Climate Resilience Dashboard to centralize key data relevant to several departments in connectivity with the Office of Sustainability in the City of Philadelphia as an internal source. The dashboard allows for the offices to highlight residential homes that are within the floodplain, along with relevant information for grant acquisition to allow the City departments to better assist local residents. 

Grace Brigham is a senior at Temple University, majoring in Social Work and minoring in Environmental Studies. She is deeply passionate about advocating for and supporting underserved and vulnerable populations. She firmly believes that environmental justice is essential for fostering healthy, thriving communities and strives to implement these principles into her academic and professional endeavors. Through community meetings, the Clean Air Council learned that residents want to better understand climate change, how climate change affects local environmental issues, and how to build community resilience. To address this need, Grace created a web page on extreme heat and flooding, their impacts on low-income communities in Philadelphia, and resources and action steps that individuals and communities could take to mitigate and adapt to the environmental burdens they face.

Grace Brazunas is a senior at Temple University and is passionate about climate justice and addressing the unequal distribution of environmental harms. She participated in a dual-placement internship with the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge and the Philadelphia Office of Sustainability to support flood resilience planning for Eastwick and environmental justice community in southwest Philadelphia. In this role, Grace conducted case study research about community-led climate adaptation practices in other cities to support the work of Eastwick’s new community-led flood mitigation council. She also created environmental justice-focused activities for visitor use at the Refuge.

Anya Wojciechowsky is a senior in Temple’s Environmental Studies program. Anya is from Schuylkill County, PA and has an interest in sustainable development and policy. Anya worked with the U.S. Department of the Interior to create a Tribal Engagement Toolkit for recently federally recognized tribes. The toolkit included resources on grants and grant writing, hazard mitigation planning, and how to utilize resources available through partnerships with the federal government. She also conducted informational interviews with each bureau of the department to assess their strengths and identify resource needs.

Alex Wynne is a senior at Temple University in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies with a minor in community development, and a master’s degree in geography and urban studies. His research focus has been oriented towards environmental justice, urban green space, affordable housing, and social determinants of health. During his work with Riverways, Alex located, documented, visited, and mapped the 15 highest overflowing combined sewer overflow (CSO) locations in Philadelphia and investigated the effectiveness of CSOcast, provided by the Philadelphia Water Department. This information was used to create informational maps used to apply for grants surrounding CSO monitoring, and these maps have also been adapted as a community science resource to increase awareness about sewer overflows after rain events.