Environmental devastation and racial inequities are deeply intertwined. Experts from a variety of fields will explain and explore the connections between climate justice and racial equity and how they both factor into new solutions for clean energy transition. 

• Santina Contreras is an assistant professor of Urban Planning and Spatial Analysis at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. Her research focuses on examining the implementation, equitability, and underlying power dynamics associated with community engagement activities in hazard, disaster, and environmental planning spaces. Contreras has extensive experience working in the private and nonprofit sectors on the design and implementation of resilience-building and post-disaster recovery projects. She has published numerous papers and reports focused on assessing equity, justice, and engagement approaches surrounding natural hazard events, environmental planning projects, and broader resilience-building efforts.
• Juan De Lara is director of the Center for Latinx and Latin American Studies and an associate professor in the department of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC. His research focuses on social justice and social movements, urban political economy, nature, environmental justice, race and ethnicity, labor, science and technology studies, Los Angeles, and the U.S./Mexico border. His book Inland Shift: Race, Space, and Capital in Inland Southern California uses logistics and commodity chains to unpack the black box of globalization by showing how the scientific management of bodies, space, and time produced new racialized labor regimes.
• Dr. Manuel Pastor is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies and Ethnicity at USC. He currently directs the Equity Research Institute at USC and is the inaugural holder of the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change at USC. His most recent (2024) book, Charging Forward: Lithium Valley, Electric Vehicles, and a Just Future (co-authored with Chris Benner), delves into the pivotal role of California’s Lithium Valley in the “lithium gold rush” and its broader implications for climate challenges, justice, and democracy.
• Allison Agsten (moderator) is the inaugural director of USC Annenberg’s Center for Climate Journalism and Communication where she conceptualizes initiatives to bolster public understanding of climate change. She is also executive producer of the energy transition podcast series, Electric Futures, and the author of a range of reports addressing climate change and the media, corporate sustainability practices, and policy-related issues. In addition, Agsten serves as the USC Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability’s first curator. She has worked as producer at CNN, Director of Communications at LACMA, and Curator of Public Engagement at the Hammer Museum, amongst other roles.