Alaina is a doctoral candidate in Northeastern’s school of Public Policy and Urban Affairs who researches the role of policy in advancing climate justice. Her dissertation research examines power, obstruction, and justice in climate policy for sites of contested energy transition, for which she is funded on an NIEHS T32 pre-doctoral training grant with Northeastern’s Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute (SSEHRI). She recently completed work on a grant from the Climate and Social Science Research Network with Dr. Jennie Stephens and colleague Yutong Si to assess the political implications of interconnections between the petrochemical production, particularly the fossil fuel energy, plastic, and industrial agrichemical sectors.

In summer 2021, she was a Civic Action Project (CAP) and Barr Foundation Climate Policy Fellow with the Office of Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu, where she published an evaluation of Councilor Wu’s Fare-Free Public Transit proposal. Her previous work has included evaluation research for Nature-based Adaptation in Latin America and the Caribbean at the UNDP and narratives in Puerto Rican climate policy on an NSF grant with Dr. Laura Kuhl. She has also led multi-generational research teams, collaborated with colleagues, and worked independently to publish a comparative analysis of Green New Deal proposals, an award-winning proposal for a paradigm shift toward Green New Deal policies in institutions, multiple papers connecting justice and climate-resilient development to Nature-based Solutions projects, an evaluation of environmental justice policies at the state and federal level, and a study of the policy diffusion effects of regional climate policy collaboration.

See Alaina’s Northeastern student page and her LinkedIn profile.

Explore this site to see more of Alaina’s previous work, including her CV and links to previous research and presentations. For more information, please contact Alaina through the form at right.