Faculty & Staff
Lectures will be delivered by Yale School of the Environment’s renowned faculty and highly trained staff and will include the participation of other Yale partners, alumni, and leading experts.
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Lead Faculty
Eli Fenichel
Professor Eli Fenichel’s research approaches natural resource management and sustainability as a portfolio management problem by considering natural resources as a form of capital. Fenichel also has a strong interest in how people respond to risk, especially from infectious diseases, and how those responses shape system dynamics.
In his research he has used data from satellites to cell phones and from surveys to market transactions. These projects have contributed to understanding of topics such as forestry, fisheries, groundwater, infectious diseases, biodiversity and conservation, and more.
Professor Fenichel has served an Assistant Director at White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (2021-2023), the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis’s Advisory Committee, and various committees for the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, United Nations Statistics Division, and World Health Organization.
Jennifer Marlon
Jennifer Marlon, Ph.D. is a Research Scientist and Lecturer at the Yale School of the Environment and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC). She obtained her Ph.D. and M.S. in Geography from the University of Oregon. Dr. Marlon uses surveys, experiments, and modeling to understand public perceptions of and responses to rapid environmental changes, particularly relating to climate and extreme weather events. Examples of her recent projects include the Yale Climate Opinion Maps and studies of coastal Connecticut residents’ hurricane attitudes and heat wave risk perceptions.
Dr. Marlon also studies the wildfire and climate change using sediment records. She developed the Global Charcoal Database, now an international collaborative effort, that houses hundreds of sediment records from lakes, soils, and oceans around the world. Her research has traced the shift from climate- to human-driven fire regimes globally and has provided evidence of how wildfires respond to abrupt climate changes in the past. She has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers in journals such as Science, Nature Geoscience, Nature Climate Change, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Simon Queenborough
Simon Queenborough has 25 years experience working with environmental data, collecting, cleaning, managing, and analyzing small and large datasets, and working in such areas from grasslands and agricultural fields to temperate woodlands and tropical forests across the world.
He taught himself R as a PhD student and has not looked back, teaching R to many students here at Yale and Ohio State, as well as international workshops. He appreciates both the fear and the power of data and code, and believes that this certificate program will be an invaluable resource for learners from around the world.
At Yale, Simon developed a popular course on data visualization, building on the strengths of human perception to convey messages. He is interested in using data to address biases in how people view their world, putting issues in context and using evidence to support decision making.
Featured Instructors
Luke Sanford
Luke Sanford is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy and Governance at Yale School of the Environment. He graduated in 2021 with a PhD in Political Science and International Affairs from the Political Science department and the School of Global Policy and Strategy. His work focuses on environmental policy making–especially how political institutions mediate the relationship between the environmental preferences of constituents and the incentives and actions of policymakers. He also study the distributional consequences over space and time of decisions about natural resources, and how those play into policymaking. He develops methods for using new sources of digital data, including text and satellite images, to measure individual and group preferences, and to observe outcomes on the ground. I use those to help understand preferences for different policies, and what the effects of those policies are. His work has appeared in Nature Sustainability Environmental Research Letters, Natural Resources Forum, Water Resources Development, and the American Journal of Political Science.
Angel Hsu
Angel Hsu is an associate professor of public policy and the environment at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She is founder/director of the Data-Driven EnviroLab, an interdisciplinary research group that applies data-driven approaches to pressing environmental issues. Her research explores the intersection of science and policy and the use of data-driven approaches to understand environmental sustainability, particularly in the areas of climate change and energy, urbanization and air quality. She was a contributing author to a 2022 report released by the National Academy of Sciences on greenhouse gas emissions information necessary for decision making, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, and was the lead author of the 2018 UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report special chapter on non-state and subnational actors. In addition to publishing in academic journals, Hsu has been committed to public outreach and was a TED 2018 Age of Amazement and 2020 Climate Countdown Speaker and recognized as a 2022 Bloomberg New Economy Catalyst and inaugural Grist 50 leader. She also regularly contributes to the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Councils, serving as co-chair on Fourth Industrial Revolution and Global Public Goods and as a member of the Clean Air council. She holds a Ph.D. in environmental policy from Yale University, an M. Phil. in environmental policy from the University of Cambridge, and a B.S. in biology and B.A. in political science from Wake Forest University.
Mitchell Horn
Mitch Horn is a senior research data analyst focused on empowering researchers with advanced computing, data management, and AI-driven solutions to enhance research efficiency and innovation.
Staff
Johanna Riddle
Program Manager
Johanna (Jo) Riddle is a 2024 graduate from Tufts University having completed a Master of Science in Urban Environmental Policy. She has published research at the intersection of technology and urban planning focusing on the implications of biometric technology and human wellness. Prior to Yale University, she worked alongside inner-city social services in Worcester, Massachusetts connecting individuals with mental illness to essential educational, health, and vocational resources. She completed her BA in Communication from Worcester State University in 2020.