Mayra Cruz

Mayra is a PhD Candidate and Abess Fellow at the University of Miami in the Environmental Science and Policy program. She holds an MPH in Environmental Health Sciences and a Certificate in Climate and Health from Columbia University. Her areas of expertise are in public health, social science, climate adaptation, and climate justice. Her dissertation is focused on chronic heat and understanding its impacts on underserved households while exploring meaningful policy and heat governance solutions. Throughout her dissertation she has incorporated community based participatory research practices and facilitated the Urban Heat Research Group, an interdisciplinary collaborative in South Florida focused on extreme heat. For several years she worked at a local non-profit, Catalyst Miami, and as the Climate Justice Director she worked with communities most burdened by environmental and climate injustices to address concerns around extreme heat, climate gentrification, and flooding. In her final year, Cruz is exploring career opportunities that combine research, practice, and policy to better serve communities disproportionately impacted by climate change and extreme heat.