[Image description: A portrait of Angélica posing with ceiba elder in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico. She is seated on the roots of the ceiba, legs extended towards the camera, arms behind her and her head tilted back in an expression of joy. Angélica is wearing a large white shirt knotted in the front, black leggings, hiking boots, and her dark hair loose around her shoulders.
BRIEF BIO
Hi! I’m Angélica, an environmental social scientist focused on the policies, practices, and infrastructures that support building long-term climate justice and energy equity. I have over a decade of experience designing, implementing, and evaluating a diverse range of research from wet-lab experiments and community based participatory research (CBPR) to policy evaluation and data driven business process improvement. I've also worked as visual artist, event planner, community organizer, and grassroots arts curator.
My professional and personal work is guided by a responsibility to the archipelago of Borínken (the ancestral home of my father’s people), my maternal and paternal grandmothers whose labors and knowledges shape my own, and to future generations who will inherit what we sow. As a prima de afuera, or Boricua who grew up outside the islands, I am deeply drawn to intergenerational and long-term climate adaptation and energy sustainability work that moves Black and Indigenous communities (particularly on small islands) beyond failing energy infrastructures and towards ethical climate solutions that center Black liberation + Indigenous sovereignty, and the health of all for many generations.
I’m currently working and teaching as a doctoral researcher at Michigan State University (MSU). In addition to these roles, I am member of MSU’s Indigenous Graduate Student Collective (IGSC) and the MSU Chapter of The Society for Advancing Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS).
Most recently, I was awarded a 2024-2025 Smithsonian Institute Climate and Culture fellowship to support forthcoming dissertation work around de/anti-colonial climate adaptation strategies in the so-called US territories.
When not writing or buzzing between projects, you can find me fulfilling my most important role of mother, visiting waterways, or (on rare occasions) adding to my blog.
Want to chat? Email me @ dejesu16@msu.edu.