Missed our Cohort 7 Q&A webinar last week? Here is a recap of what was covered! 💻 ⏰ Applications close on October 1 -- we look forward to reading yours! 📧 Please email us for a recording of the webinar.

Last summer, geospatial scientist and AoC fellow Dr. Ufuoma Ovienmhada walked inside a prison in Missouri as part of a legal team building a case that the heat there is unconstitutional. She wrote the full account of that day. Read it here: agentsofchangeprogram.substack.com/p/what-it-ta...

What It takes to prove a Missouri prison is too hot to be legal

A scientist’s role in a lawsuit challenging extreme heat as cruel and unusual punishment.

agentsofchangeprogram.substack.com

Applications for AoC's Cohort 7 are now open! For our 2026-2027 fellowship cohort, our vision is to catalyze fellows’ research to policy translation. To achieve this vision, we are looking for individuals involved in a policy translation issue that intersects with their research expertise. 📄🌱

Got questions about Cohort 7? We've got answers. 👇 Join Dr. Ami Zota (AoC Director) + Dr. April Ballard (AoC Senior Fellow) for a live Q&A on what it takes to get in, what a year in the fellowship looks like, and how to know if your work fits. 🔗 Link to register: www.linkedin.com/events/74905...

Your research already has something to say. We're here to help you get it into the room. 🌱 Agents of Change is looking for the next generation of early-career environmental health researchers Applications close October 1, 2026. Apply here: agentsofchangeinej.org/apply/

⚽ While the World Cup has been in full swing, our fellows have been making their own game-changing contributions to environmental justice. ⭐ We present AoC's star-studded lineup for the month of July! Follow us along as we highlight our fellow's work every month.

Meet Timnit K., an environmental scientist, educator, and advocate who hopes to bring her research to the communities most affected by microplastics.

🌍 How do you turn research into real-world impact? AoC fellow in residence April Ballard transformed her research on Atlanta public toilet access into meaningful policy action. 📑 Read this article to learn how April has inspired our fellowship's new direction as we seek our new class of fellows.

This is how one of our own inspired our new direction

Back in 2019, when we started this program, what our program did was part of the zeitgeist. We solidified in the summer of 2020, when public conversations revolved around including new voices and face...

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Meet MyDzung Chu, an environmental health researcher and professor studying the health burdens faced by Asian American communities. 📊Her community-based research aims to turn numbers and data points into change.

⭐️7️⃣ Something’s coming…stay tuned for what it could be!

🌻 This summer, our fellows are harvesting in every direction — from childhood lead poisoning disparities to PFAS contamination, immigration detention infrastructure, cycling equity, ancestral wisdom, and toxic beauty exposures.

⭐️Next up in our AoC Fellows in Residence spotlight is Valerisa Gaddy:

This Pride Month, we're spotlighting research that fills a gap that has been ignored for too long. 🏳️‍🌈

🏞️The Colorado River Basin supplies water to millions of people across the Southwest. Yet, many indigenous communities continue to face barriers to reliable water access.

🏞️ The Colorado River is shrinking. Join us next Tuesday, June 16th, from 2 PM to 3PM EST for a webinar exploring the critical state of the Colorado River, organized by Watershed Management Group. Presenters include AoC fellows in residence Valerisa Joe-Gaddy and Kevin Patterson.

⚽🏆 The World Cup is starting this week. But people might not be paying attention to an important aspect of It: Toilets. 🚽

🧵 Pride and climate have everything to do with each other. Here's why — and why it matters right now. 🏳️‍🌈🌍 [1/9]

🏳️‍🌈 Happy Pride Month! This June and beyond, keep an eye out for the work of queer environmental leaders and organizations advancing climate justice.

🌡️ Did you know that heat waves are an environmental justice issue? According to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, the average heat-wave season in the US has increased by 46 days since the 1960s. 🔥

🥤 This Wednesday, May 20, Agents of Change and Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation co-hosted an online panel about re-imaging our relationship with plastic.

Our Fellow in Residence Timnit Kefela is a microplastics researcher who received a rare diagnosis — and found in it a reckoning with everything her field already knows and refuses to do. Read her essay: 🧵 agentsofchangeprogram.substack.com/p/i-learned-...

I Learned to See Invisible Plastics. The System Chose Not To.

A dwindling sight showed a microplastics researcher that a vision for our future was never only about the evidence in front of our eyes.

agentsofchangeprogram.substack.com

Plastic pollution is an environmental justice issue. From its production to its disposal, the harms of plastic are not shared equally. 🥤

May is Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. 🌺 Agents of Change celebrates our fellows whose work and lives embody this year's AAPI Heritage Month theme: "Power in Unity: Strengthening Communities Together." 🤝

🌸 Spring is in full bloom, and so are our fellows with their recent inspirational achievements! Here is what some of our fellows have been up to:

The same industries warming the planet are the ones putting chemicals in your shampoo bottle. It's not a coincidence. Thread 🧵🌎

🔬✨New Research Alert 🔬✨ Dr. Marissa Chan cataloged nearly 40,000 hair products across 117 stores in Boston. What she found connects a 1930s government policy to the products on beauty store shelves today. Keep reading. 🧵

‼️ Did you know that there are plastics in your couch, your carpet, your clothes, and even your water?

🎤 This Wednesday, April 1, AoC founder and director Dr. Ami Zota @amizota.bsky.social inaugurated the Mailman EHS Distinguished Professor Series with her lecture "Where Science Meets Justice: Environmental Health as a Catalyst for Social Change."

Here is what a few of our fellows have been up to! We are proud to share some recent accomplishments of three AoC fellows:

🌍This week, from March 23 to 29, governments and organizations from around the world are gathering in Campo Grande, Brazil for the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.