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Who We Are
Dr. Maya E. Carrasquillo
Founding Director & Principal Investigator
Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley
Born & raised in Albany, NY, Maya E. Carrasquillo (she/her/hers) is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and is the Principal Investigator of the Liberatory Infrastructures Lab (LiL) at the University of California, Berkeley. The mission of LiL is to develop systems of critical infrastructure that supports liberation and restorative justice for all. She holds a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of South Florida. Her research has primarily studied the intersections of stormwater management, environmental justice, and complex hydrosocial systems, particularly focusing on historically underserved communities to develop a conceptual framework for equitable decision-making. Her work employs mixed methods approaches including GIS, and qualitative methods which emphasize community engagement, ethnography, and co-creation of design solutions for critical infrastructure. Dr. Carrasquillo is a Huelskamp Faculty Fellow which recognizes a promising new assistant professor in UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering for their innovative research. She is also the faculty director of UC Berkeley’s new initiative for Community Engaged Education in Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE^2). Dr. Carrasquillo is a certified Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP) and EcoDistricts Accredited Professional (EcoDistricts AP).
Adriana Gonzales
PhD Student
Geography, UC Berkeley
Adriana Gonzales is interested in investigating and mapping the pasts, presents, and futures of development and resilience across the Caribbean through the lenses of disaster, infrastructure, and agroecology. Adriana currently focuses on the political ecologies of disaster in Dominica and Puerto Rico from the late, post-Emancipation 19th century to the post-Hurricane Maria present. Adriana is a co-founder of the Caribbean Coalition at Berkeley.
Before her time at Berkeley, Adriana was an international research associate working to evaluate and improve the efficacy of international energy and maternal health projects in West Africa, the Caribbean, and South Asia. She was also a practicing full spectrum doula, childbirth educator, and lactation counselor.
Fouzia Hossain Oyshi
PhD Student
Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley
Fouzia is a fourth-year PhD student focusing in environmental engineering. Her research interest lies in the intersection of stormwater management and environmental justice. She is currently exploring where environmental justice officially stands in current stormwater practices. She is working towards developing a framework for decision makers to execute environmental justice in stormwater management practice. Fouzia holds masters in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington. She is from B-Baria, Bangladesh and loves to stay on the beach on a cloudy day.
J'Anna-Mare Lue
PhD Candidate
Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley
J’Anna-Mare Lue is a Civil and Environmental Engineering PhD student with an environmental engineering focus. She is interested in the reparative capacity of engineering in thinking through questions of climate justice in the Caribbean. J’Anna is interested in the ways colonial legacies have influenced built, natural, and social infrastructures in Jamaica, which in turn impact communities' ability to cope with the realities of climate change. Water and decoloniality are J'Anna's primary research interests. Her dissertation research focuses on flood exposure risk in Jamaica. She argues that increased vulnerability to climate risk is an engineered phenomenon. She has previously conducted research on water, sanitation, and hygiene as well as research equity. J'Anna has worked on green stormwater infrastructure and water infrastructure monitoring and planning. She has a MS in Environmental Engineering from Drexel University. In her free time, J'Anna enjoys reading, cooking, live music, dancing, and tending to plants.
Jasmine McAdams
PhD Student
Energy & Resources Group
Jasmine is a fourth-year PhD student in the Energy & Resources Group (ERG) at U.C. Berkeley with a passion for supporting robust and equitable decision-making in climate and energy. Her research interests lie at the intersection of electric power system resilience, energy justice, utility regulation, and climate policy. Jasmine hopes to develop a better understanding of how climate impacts the grid and of the consequences these impacts may have at the community level. Prior to graduate school, Jasmine worked with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, providing technical assistance to utility commissions across the country on topics such as energy justice and transportation electrification. This has inspired Jasmine to work at the nexus of engineering and decision-making to support a more resilient, people-centered, and carbon-free electric system. Additionally, as a native of Florida, Jasmine's personal experiences with grid vulnerability during extreme weather have led her to focus her research on the impacts of climate-induced power outages in the most at-risk and underinvested communities. Jasmine recently graduated with a master's degree from ERG.
Kristida Chhour
PhD Student
Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley
Kristida (she/her) is a fourth-year Ph.D. student studying environmental engineering. She is interested in food systems and urban resilience. Her current research examines urban agriculture and composting as pathways towards circular food systems, with a focus on related policies, on-the-ground practices, and environmental impacts. In her free time, Kristida enjoys growing, preparing, looking at, reading about, and, of course, eating food in the company of her three cats. She also supports coordination for the Food Institute Graduate Council at Berkeley and the Land and AgriFood Research Collective.
Pratiyush Singh
MS Student
Development Engineering
Pratiyush is a second-year NSF Digital Transformation of Development Fellow in the Development Engineering program at UC Berkeley, where he also completed his undergraduate studies in Civil & Environmental Engineering and Data Science. His work sits at the intersection of climate adaptation and data science, exploring how tools like spatial analysis and machine learning can inform equitable and just adaptation strategies. He is especially drawn to approaches that combine rigorous data-driven methods with community-engaged research, ensuring that climate solutions are not only technically sound but also responsive to the lived realities of frontline communities. Outside of research, Pratiyush is passionate about photography as a medium of engagement, as well as documentaries and reading political nonfiction.
Angela Gil
MS Student
Civil and Environmental Engineering - ECIC, UC Berkeley
Angela is a Master's student in the ECIC program. She recently graduated with a Bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College in Engineering and Environmental Studies. In the past, Angela has worked on research projects about modular hydroponics, resilient tiny houses, and microbial lithium-ion battery recycling. She has also done environmental remediation work and worked in a solar lab!