Confronting Climate Change Conference – Responding to the impacts of climate change in Santa Cruz County

Borja G. Reguero is an associate research professor at the University of California Santa Cruz. His work spans areas of climate change in coastal areas, socioeconomic impacts of coastal hazards, and climate resilience and adaptation. His research is centered on ocean waves, climate change, the physical processes that govern coastal flooding and erosion, and how ecosystems influence them, including how environmental degradation contributes to climate risks. 

Sherry Flumerfelt is the executive director of the Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust. She has spent the last two decades working with coastal communities to find the balance between environmental and economic sustainability. She also spent eight years as a consultant on a range of fisheries and conservation projects, supporting clients such as the Environmental Defense Fund, CATCH Alaska (halibut charter operators), the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, Ecotrust, and the California Fisheries Fund.

Valentin Lopez is the Chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. He is a Native American Advisor to the University of California, Office of the President on issues related to repatriation. He is also a Native American Advisor to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology. Chairman Lopez is working to restore the Mutsun language and is actively involved in efforts to restore tribal indigenous knowledge and ensure that tribal history is accurately told.

Katherine Seto is an assistant professor of environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz. Her research lies at the intersection of political ecology, governance theory, and sustainability science. Using frameworks from these fields, her research investigates the equity, sustainability, and governance of marine and coastal systems, and the reciprocal relationship they have with human wellbeing and conflict. 

Sikina Jinnah is an associate professor of environmental studies and an affiliated graduate faculty of politics at UC Santa Cruz. She is also an 2017 Andrew Carnegie Fellow, co-editor of the journal Environmental Politics, and a member of the Advisory Committee for Harvard University’s Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx). Her research focuses on global environmental governance, with a focus on climate change, solar geoengineering, and the nexus between international trade and environmental politics.