Felicia Cruz

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Bio
Felicia recently graduated with a degree in Environmental Studies and Economics from UC Santa Barbara. Growing up in the Mojave Desert, Felicia was faced with wildfire evacuations at a very young age. This, in addition to experiencing the impacts of the Thomas Fire and Montecito mudslides on Santa Barbara during her freshman year at UCSB led to her interest in extreme weather events. She is particularly interested in how these events are amplified by climate change and how they impact surrounding communities. During her senior year, Felicia worked as a research analyst for UCSB’s Economic Forecast Project. As part of the community indicators team, she utilized R to analyze and visualize data pertaining to things like air quality, water quality, and energy consumption. Combining graphics and written explanations, a large part of her job was making research conclusions digestible for the greater Santa Barbara community. This experience gave her a first taste of how valuable technical tools in conjunction with communication methods can be when faced with environmental issues. At Bren, Felicia is excited to further hone her technical and interpersonal skills, preparing her to apply data science in the environmental industry to spark policy change in favor of disadvantaged communities and populations.