Javier Garay

Description: The UCI Regional Resilience Project is an exploratory, community organizing project focused on climate change impacts, vulnerabilities, action, and activism from the deserts of Riverside County to the coast of Orange County, California. While climate change is a global problem, its effects are—and will continue to be—felt locally. Increasingly, municipalities are looking regionally for support, knowledge sharing, and partnership to address local climate challenges. Regional knowledge hubs, like the University of California, Irvine, can play an important convening, coordination, and scientific role in this work. The UCI Regional Resilience Project seeks to better understand the matrix of existing activities and budding opportunities to enhance climate preparedness in Orange and Riverside Counties and their borderlands.

Student Project: To begin building a data-driven narrative synthesizing the various environmental, demographic, social, and other factors that contribute to the current opportunity for regional climate resilience collaboration in Orange and Riverside Counties and their borderlands. This project will include quantitative and qualitative data analysis and reporting, and may include analysis and/or synthesis of the climate mitigation and adaptation policies that are having an impact on the region.

Javier Garay was born and raised in Bell Gardens, California. Javier is currently a third year Environmental Science Major. He has worked with an environmental justice organization has assisted in identifying his passion for clean air, quality of life, and community. Outside of work and organizing, enjoys coffee, video games, joking around, and having fun experiences.