In this week’s episode, Allie sits down with Kristiana Lachiusa. She is currently a Master of Public Policy (MPP) student at UEP. Before this, Kristiana was the Director of Transit and Outreach at Livable Streets where she led the transit advocacy team.

Kristiana discusses how a near-death experience on a bike changed her perspective on access to transportation and started her on a journey in transportation advocacy.  Listen to the full episode now to hear how you can get involved in making your streets safer, the benefits of working at a small non-profit, and tips to make friends with your neighbors!

Click HERE to Become a Street Ambassador!

Kristiana’s Advocacy Orgs to Get Check Out:

Transportation focused:

In this week’s episode, Allie and Peter get another water quality update from Abbie at her internship with the SFPUC. Peter explains how the death care practice of embalming became trendy in the United States. Abbie reflects on her time in the drinking water lab; they discuss the challenges the SFPUC faces in achieving its sustainability vision.

In this week's episode, Peter meets Lara for a coffee chat. 

They discover their shared love of mushrooms, not on their plates, but as an innovative building material; discuss their most impactful class of the semester and more.

Lara Isiolaotan is in her first year as a Master of Public Policy student. Previously, she has been working in the nonprofit space in her home country, Canada, advocating for the needs of marginalized communities for about 7 years. Listen now to learn more about Lara’s interests in social impact investing and hopes while at UEP.

All current students and alumni are invited to participate in coffee chats. If you’re interested in joining next semester, please look out for an email from Casey Auch or contact her directly via email: [email protected].

Peter and Allie sit down with Chelsea Spaman, MSS Candidate, and professional dumpster diver, to catch up about their current semester and learn about her experience as the Environment and Sustainability Intern at the Denver International Airport.

Listen now to learn what scope emissions are and how someone, like Chelsea, might go about collecting and analyzing information such as gallons of gas bought per week to determine the total emissions released from the Denver Airport. Later we test Chelsea's airport trivia skills and discuss the equity concerns related to private planes.

If you’d like to read more about Chelsea’s experience check out her internship profile on the Practical Visionaries Blog.

San Francisco is home to some of the cleanest drinking water in the country, says Abbie. Stick around to hear why. 

Later in the episode, hear Abbie's perspective on SFPUC's Community Benefits Approach Policies and whether a utility company can truly foster sustainable community development. 

Tune in next time to hear about Abbie's experience collecting drinking water samples during a trip with the field services team. 

In this week’s episode, Peter and Deniz meet for the first time and chat as a part of the department’s Coffee Chat series. All current students and alumni are invited to participate in coffee chats. If you’re interested in joining next semester, please look out for an email from Casey Auch or contact her directly via email: [email protected].

Peter and Deniz chat about their favorite movies, the interdisciplinary work they do at UEP, and much more!

“I'm a first-year Master's of UEP student. Currently, my interests include energy policy and transit oriented development, but I'm very open to developing new ones during my time at UEP. I'm from Ann Arbor, Michigan. I'm coming to grad school after about five years of working in the software industry and I'm excited to be back in school.”

-Deniz Karabakal.

Wondering how we keep municipal drinking water safe and free of contaminants? Stay tuned to hear from Abbie Kubota, a second-year MS Sustainability candidate, who is completing her 6-month long internship with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) tasked with sampling drinking water and wastewater and analyzing their quality in the SF Bay Area.

This is the first episode in a biweekly series featuring Abbie Kubota as we follow her throughout her time at SFPUC. If you have specific questions about her internship or about Abbie, in general, please email us at [email protected].

In this week's episode, we introduce Abbie and learn about her background leading up to, and her experience, working in the water quality testing lab at SFPUC for the past few months. Later in the episode, Abbie reflects on what UEP coursework and experiences have been impactful and helpful as she completes this internship. 

A message from Abbie: I have grown up in the East Bay Area of California my entire life, and I am so fortunate to be able to work in San Francisco, a city that Bay Area kids like me dream of living in. If you don’t find me at work, I’ll be at the Farmer’s markets, trying new recipes, and spending time with my friends & family. I miss everyone back in Boston! See you guys in 2023!

Stick around for the next update, in two weeks, where Abbie discusses the role of SFPUC in supporting environmental justice communities through community engagement. 

Listen in for a conversation with UEP Lecturer and Alumni, Mark Chase. Mark is Founder and Principal at Neighborways Design, a Boston area based firm specializing in low stress streets, placemaking and public art on the street. He was part of the senior management team that launched the innovative car-sharing program Zipcar and social networking car-pool site GoLoco. He co-founded Central Bike Services, a bicycle facility installation and maintenance company based in Boston.

Mark has been teaching a graduate level Transportation Planning at Tufts University since 2008. He is actively involved with creating neighborhood shared streets and has been a long time proponent of parking-reform as a key component of sustainable transportation systems. Mark also serves as an adviser and technical expert for the Boston Based Livable Streets Alliance. In this episode, Allie and Mark discuss his journey to UEP and how his role has changed over the years.

Please join me in welcoming our new co-host, Allie Christensen, to the podcast. Allie is from Connecticut and is in her second year of the MA program in Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy at UEP. Her career interests are in transportation planning and accessibility. She is currently working on her thesis to research public transportation in America's National Parks. Peter and Allie discuss how they maintain connections to the landscapes around them. 

Settle in for a tarot card reading as we discuss cultivating connections between spaces, places, and people. Allie offers a second-year student's perspective on her thesis requirement and connects her class work to her job at PJ Ryans.

Please email general questions to:  [email protected]

Please contact Peter via email at [email protected] to be a guest on the show. 

Contact Allie: 

LinkedIn: @Allie-Christensen

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @alliechristens

Have you ever wondered how bees can survive in urban places? Supporting pollinator populations, like bees, in cities is easier than you may think!

Join us this week for an in-depth conversation with Nick Dorian, co-founder, and Jessie Thuma, co-president, of the Tufts Pollinator Initiative (TPI). Learn why bee populations are under threat, discover the Big 5 during a Pollinator Safari, and see how you can engage with TPI around Tufts campus or from afar.

Find more information by visiting the Tufts Pollinator Initiative website, follow them on Twitter and Instagram @pollinatetufts.

Connect with Nick on Twitter, @bee_searcher, and Instagram, @beesearcher.

Connect with Jessie on Twitter @jessie_thuma.

View the episode's transcript here.