The Climate Science Alliance team is thrilled to welcome three new Advisors to our team. We hope you will join us in welcoming Nikki Cooley, Melodie Lopez, and Tamara Wall into their new roles supporting the development and vision of the organization and learn more about them below.
The Climate Science Alliance team is thrilled to welcome three new Advisors to our team. We hope you will join us in welcoming Nikki Cooley, Melodie Lopez, and Tamara Wall into their new roles supporting the development and vision of the organization. All three of these amazing climate leaders have been involved with Climate Science Alliance for many years and bring extensive background, expertise, vision, and heart to this work. They join a cadre of four other incredible women who have supported the Alliance since its creation. With these new additions we further advance a strong collective of advisors who bring different backgrounds, expertise, experience, knowledge, and a commitment to the Alliance’s vision and mission. We highly value the guidance, participation, and advice provided by advisors and are grateful for their time, expertise, and guidance as we move our work forward in the right way. Learn more about Nikki, Melodie, and Tamara below and check out the rest of the advisor team at https://www.climatesciencealliance.org/team
Nikki Cooley is of the Diné (Navajo) Nation and resides in Northern Arizona. She is very passionate about advocating for and educating about the protection and preservation of the environment and its resources. Nikki fluently speaks her Diné language and studies her culture and is committed to encouraging people to continue the path of holistic respect and knowledge towards the care of our relatives on Mother Earth and Father Sky. Nikki received her Bachelor’s and Master’s of Forestry (emphasis in ecological restoration and traditional ecological knowledge) from Northern Arizona University (NAU). Professionally, she works as the co- manager of ITEP’s Tribes & Climate Change Program and interim assistant director of ITEP, whose goal is to strengthen tribal capacity and sovereignty in environmental and natural resource management through culturally relevant education, research, partnerships, and policy-based services.
Melodie Lopez (Hopi/Navajo/Pueblo/Mexican) received her BA in Psychology & American Indian Studies from CSU Long Beach and her Master’s in Social Welfare, with an emphasis on Indian Child Welfare from UC Berkeley. Serving Indian Country for the past 30 years, Melodie blends traditional Native Knowledge and contemporary Indigenous Scholarship to provide unique strategies in environmental education, youth leadership and strategic planning. She is the President of Indigenous Strategies LLC whose services includes program development through Indigenous evaluations to tribes and tribal nonprofits centering Native Nation building and Indigenous data sovereignty.
Dr. Tamara Wall is a research professor at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, NV and deputy director of the Western Regional Climate Center. Additionally, Dr. Wall works with the Center for Climate, Ecosystems, and Fire Applications, and is the lead PI for the California Nevada Adaptation Program (part of the national NOAA-sponsored Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments network) and a co-PI in the Southwest Climate Science Center Consortium. Dr. Wall has worked extensively with stakeholders in California, Nevada and other regions of the West in co-produced climate science projects for the last nine years. Her research focuses on qualitative and quantitative social science research in climate information use by stakeholders, evaluating co-produced climate science, understanding the process of climate information dissemination and utilization for climate resiliency and adaptation in natural resource management agencies, and public and agency use of fire weather forecasts and fire behavior/fire danger information.
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The Climate Science Alliance team acknowledges the Indigenous peoples whose traditional territory we work. We honor the continued presence and resilience of Indigenous communities and nations, and thank those we work with for your friendship and your good will in our efforts to collaborate.