Environmental Justice and Policy Research Lab
Dr. Linda E. Méndez-Barrientos
I am an Assistant Professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, where I lead the Environmental Justice & Policy Research lab (ejpr), which is dedicated to understanding how inequality and power asymmetries shape institutional change processes and environmental justice.
As an environmental social scientist, I research and teach about environmental policy, with a focus on water governance and environmental justice in the western United States and the "Global South". Using a mixed-methods approach, I examine the implementation of sustainability and equity reforms in California and South Africa, cooperation and conflict in environmental justice cases across the world, and water justice in Colorado River policy processes. I’m also the founder of s2e-Science to Empower, an environmental justice initiative that facilitates applied research to support the defense of human and nature rights.
I’m the recipient of a number of prestigious awards, including the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (2016-2021), NSF Integrative Graduate Education & Research Traineeship (2015-2017), and European Commission Agris Mundus Scholarship (2008-2010). Born and raised in Nicaragua, I earned a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California Davis, and hold two master’s degrees, one on Water Management from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and the other on Tropical Agrarian Systems from Montpellier SupAgro in France.
I am a second-year graduate student at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies from Nigeria and Mozambique, studying Global Environmental Sustainability with a specialization in Environmental Justice. I am interested in energy justice within the context of energy transitions. And the intersection of climate-induced disasters and conflict, particularly the potential for these interactions to create or exacerbate environmental insecurity.
I’m a chemist from Turkey with a decade of corporate experience. Currently, I’m pursuing a master’s degree in Global Environmental Sustainability at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, where I focus on the intersection of environmental policy and justice. My research interests include sustainable agriculture, with a particular emphasis on advancing food and water security for disadvantaged communities.