MESM 2024
Pronouns: he/him
Bio
Seth Villanueva graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a minor in Mathematics. While an undergraduate at UCSB, Seth was a Gretler Fellow research assistant exploring the impact of renewable power development on local communities. Before coming to Bren, Seth worked as a climate policy researcher at Resources for the Future (RFF)—a nonprofit and nonpartisan environmental economics research institution in Washington, DC. His work at RFF involved analyzing global energy projections, assessing the efficacy of federal just transition programs, and studying the regional and distributional consequences of clean energy and climate policy. He also conducted a pair of value of information studies to quantify the benefit to society of NOAA’s freely available HYSPLIT air dispersion model and Digital Coast coastal management platform. With this experience researching federal climate policy, Seth became inspired to return to California to ensure the equitable advancement of climate adaptation and the energy transition within the state. Seth is currently a Master of Environmental Science and Management student striving to progress environmental justice through climate planning efforts.