Bhavna Shamasunder
Professor
UCSB Mellichamp Chair in Racially Just, Resilient and Sustainable City Futures
B.S./B.A., UC San Diego; M.ES., Yale University; Ph.D., UC Berkeley
bhavna@ucsb.edu
Bhavna Shamasunder is a professor in the Environmental Studies Program at UC Santa Barbara. Bhavna teaches and conducts research on environmental justice with a focus on disparate and cumulative burdens faced in urban and low-income communities of color. She conducts research in partnership with communities who live on the frontlines of industrial pollution. Her research extends frameworks of cumulative burden to consumer products that considers health disparities for women of color from synthetic chemicals in beauty products; and the types of information (i.e. economic, public health, etc) used by US immigrant communities in public health decisions. Her work has been supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the California Breast Cancer Research Program, and the National Science Foundation. She is co-editor of the MIT Press Urban & Industrial Environments Series and serves on the board for the Center for Race, Poverty, and the Environment.
Joaquín Madrid Larrañaga
Junior Specialist - Research Programming
joaquinml@ucsb.edu
Joaquín Madrid Larrañaga (all pronouns) has a bachelors of computer science from Occidental College and he specializes in web development, interactive art installations, and software development. He supports the EJ research team with data analytics, technology solutions, website development, and web scraping.
Sandy Navarro
Community Health Promoter
admin@lagritmedia.com
Sandy Navarro is a graphic designer, videographer, and Community Health Promoter who utilizes her skills to bring visibility to the social issues in her community. Sandy is the founder of L.A. Grit Media, an agency dedicated to working collaboratively with organizations, researchers, and public health groups to produce community-driven media and advance community-based research. She has produced educational videos, designed health literacy intervention materials, and created art exhibitions for Esperanza Community Housing, Occidental College, USC Environmental Health Centers, Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center, and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Sandy holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film, Media, and Social Justice and recently earned her Master’s degree in Business Administration.
Kavya Thiagarajan
Research Assistant
Kavya is an Environmental Studies student at UCSB, emphasizing Public Health within the department. She is really interested in the topic of synthetic endocrine disrupting chemicals and how they affect human health. Her research is focused on the marketing of consumer products, specifically skincare, selfcare, and cosmetic products, to younger children, despite the body of evidence that suggests that the chemicals used in these products are distinctly harmful to child development.
Leo Cota
Research Assistant
Leo Cota is a 4th-year Biopsychology major. He is a research assistant in Professor Bhavna Shamasunder's Environmental Justice Research Group, where he works on research focused on the health impacts of oil drilling in urban communities of South LA. His role involves conducting phone surveys with participants of the Las Voces Study, where he primarily works with Spanish-speaking residents. Through this research experience, Leo hopes to gain deeper insight into public health and the health inequities that impact marginalized populations. Outside of research, Leo serves as the Healing Our Communities Co-Chair of Los Curanderos, where he will co-lead their annual outreach event aimed at promoting higher education and careers in healthcare to high school students from predominantly low-income and Latino communities. After college, Leo aspires to become a physician who engages in community-based work, and that will help address the health disparities faced by underserved groups, which are often overlooked in healthcare and health policy.
Anusha Singh
Student Researcher
Anusha is a fourth-year Environmental Studies and Sociology student from St. Louis, interested in environmental justice and climate policy. Her senior project uses GIS to explore how historical inequitable practices continue to shape disparities in damage and recovery following the May 2025 St. Louis tornado, with an emphasis on community impacts. Outside of her research, Anusha serves as the Editor in Chief of the Daily Nexus, UC Santa Barbara's largest student-run, independent newspaper. She hopes to build a career that blends research, policy, and storytelling to push for more equitable climate solutions.