Our Team
DSG is working to build a diverse team across a wide set of expertise and geographies. This includes organizational staff, an advisory board, and a range of external collaborators working with DSG on different projects.
We are excited to recruit for more positions very soon.
staff
Shuchi Talati
Founder & Executive Director
Dr. Shuchi Talati is an emerging climate technology and governance expert and the founder of The Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering. Dr. Talati was a Visiting Scholar at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania and a Scholar in Residence at Forum for Climate Engineering at American University She was also a co-chair of the Independent Advisory Committee to oversee SCoPEx, an effort to provide oversight for the potential outdoor solar geoengineering experiment proposed by Harvard University. She most recently served as a Presidential Appointee in the Biden-Harris Administration as Chief of Staff of the Office of Fossil Energy & Carbon Management at the U.S. Department of Energy where she was focused on creating just and sustainable frameworks for carbon dioxide removal. She was also previously the Deputy Director of Policy at Carbon180 and the Fellow on geoengineering research governance and public engagement at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Dr. Talati was a AAAS/AIP Congressional Science Fellow in the U.S. Senate and served at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Obama. Dr. Talati earned a BS in environmental engineering from Northwestern University, an MA in climate and society from Columbia University, and PhD from Carnegie Mellon in engineering and public policy.
hassaan sipra
Director of Global Engagement
Hassaan Sipra is a former consultant and senior researcher from COMSATS University Islamabad, having worked on climate change and environmental protection issues for developing countries. He is a former Yale Law School Gruber Fellow on Global Justice/Women’s Rights and a former Andrew Sabin International Environmental Fellow. He holds a Master’s in Environmental Management from Yale University and a Bachelor’s in Economics and Environmental Science from Westminster College MO.
Clara Botto
Director of Youth Engagement
Clara has been engaged with sustainable development at a grassroots and international level, from arts to politics, for the past 9 years. She co-founded SRM Youth Watch initiative, following her outreach activities with the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G) Youth Voices for Emerging Climate Governance project. As part of that, she was an observer in the SRM fieldwork taking place at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, participated in several events and workshops, and wrote contributions to the UN. Clara is currently also a campaigner with World’s Youth for Climate Justice seeking an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice on the climate crisis as a human rights issue, a New European Voice on Existential Risk with the European Leadership Network and the Science-Policy Thematic Facilitator of the Major Group of Children and Youth to UNEP. She holds a MSc in International Development and Public Policy, having written her thesis as a pedagogical public policy case study of deep sea mining in Portugal, and a BSc in Business with focus in Creative Economy and Marketing, where she researched about sustainable fashion and the universities’ lack of preparation to equip youth for sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro.
Whitney Peterson
Director of Communications
Whitney Peterson is an experienced climate and sustainability communicator with extensive experience in creating public affairs strategies, generating media coverage, and crafting digital and social media content. Prior to joining DSG, Whitney drove strategic sustainability communications for U.S. dairy, partnering with subject matter experts to translate complex topics, creating innovative partner integrations and supporting high-profile events and media opportunities. Whitney also has extensive experience working with small islands on climate change, supporting capacity-building initiatives in American Samoa and throughout the U.S.-affiliated Pacific islands. Whitney has a BA in Social Ecology from University of California, Irvine, and an MA in Climate & Society from Columbia University.
Alia Hassan
Director of International Policy
With extensive experience spanning government, non-profit organizations, and international governmental agencies, Alia Hassan is a seasoned expert in policy advocacy, diplomacy, and stakeholder mobilization. As a former Outreach Officer at the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G), Alia collaborated with governments, intergovernmental organizations, and civil society across Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa to enhance awareness of carbon dioxide removal and solar geoengineering approaches. Her efforts were instrumental in advocating for effective governance mechanisms and capacity-building initiatives to support informed decisions in international forums. Prior to her tenure at C2G, Alia served in roles such as Project Coordinator at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Director of International Relations at the Ministry of Education of Ecuador. She holds a Master of Science in International Relations from the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).
Zachary Dove
Research Fellow
Zach is a PhD student in the Politics Department at University of California, Santa Cruz, where he studies public engagement, emerging technologies governance, and global environmental politics. His dissertation research explores how different forms of engagement matter for emerging technologies governance, specifically how engagement can enhance or erode justice in solar geoengineering governance. He is enthusiastic about supporting DSG’s work to develop inclusive and effective governance capacity building programs in climate vulnerable communities. He received a BA in political science from Western Washington University, where he was also active in supporting farmworkers and First Nations in the Pacific Northwest region.
Advisory Board
holly Jean Buck
Dr. Holly Jean Buck is an Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University at Buffalo. She is a human geographer and environmental social scientist whose research focuses on public engagement with emerging climate technologies. Her research on carbon removal, solar geoengineering, and climate policy has appeared in journals like Nature Climate Change, Climatic Change, Nature Sustainability, Environmental Research Letters, and others, and she has also published two books related to climate intervention and decarbonization. She was a contributing author to the IPCC’s AR6 Working Group III report chapter on cross-cutting issues, including governance of land-based mitigation, carbon removal, and food systems. She has also served on the National Academies committees to develop research agendas on ocean carbon removal and atmospheric methane removal. Dr. Buck holds a Ph.D in Development Sociology from Cornell University and a M.Sc. in Human Ecology from Lund University.
Rachel Licker
Dr. Rachel Licker is principal climate scientist with the Climate & Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. In her role, she provides strategic thinking and technical and analytical expertise across the organization, analyzes new developments in climate science, and communicates climate science to policymakers, the public, and the media. Prior to joining UCS, Dr. Licker completed an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Fellowship. For her fellowship, Dr. Licker served as a foreign affairs officer with the U.S. Department of State, where she managed its work with the Global Environment Facility trust fund. Before that, Dr. Licker completed postdoctoral training at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. During that time, she also served as a chapter scientist and contributing author with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Working Group II. Dr. Licker earned her Ph.D. in environment and resources, and her B.S. in biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also holds an M.S. in environmental studies and sustainability science from Lund University in Sweden.
Doug Macmartin
Dr. Douglas MacMartin is an Associate Professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. His research focuses on solar geoengineering methods with the aim of helping to develop the knowledge base necessary to support informed future societal decisions in this challenging and controversial field. He has provided briefings to the UN Environment Program and testimony to the US Congress, and was a member of the US National Academies panel that made recommendations on both research and governance in March 2021. He received his Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT in 1992; previous positions include United Technologies Research Center (1994-2000) and the California Institute of Technology (2000-2015). His research is funded by NSF and by the Cornell Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future.
Juan Moreno-Cruz
Dr. Juan Moreno-Cruz is an Associate Professor at the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development and the Canada Research Chair in Energy Transitions at the University of Waterloo. He is also a CESifo Research Affiliate. He earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Calgary in Canada in 2010 and his B.Sc. (2003) and M.Sc. (2004) in electrical engineering from the Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia. Prior to his current position, he was an Associate Professor in the School of Economics at the Georgia Institute of Technology (2011–2017). He has been a Visiting Researcher in the Department of Global Ecology of the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University and an Advisor for Carnegie Energy Innovation (since 2017) and a Research Associate of Harvard University’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program. Dr. Moreno-Cruz’s research focuses on the interaction of energy systems, technological change, and climate policy. Dr. Moreno-Cruz has investigated how technologies designed to modify the climate affect the strategic interaction among nations. His work on climate geoengineering economics has been published in top journals in his field and presented at venues across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Dr. Moreno-Cruz’s work is at the intersection of applied theory and public policy.
Ambuj Sagar
Dr. Ambuj Sagar is the deputy director (strategy & planning) and the Vipula and Mahesh Chaturvedi Professor of Policy Studies at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. He previously served as the founding head of the School of Public Policy at IIT Delhi. Sagar was a lead author in Working Group III of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report and currently is a member of the Independent Group of Scientists appointed by the UN Secretary-General to prepare the Global Sustainable Development Report 2023. He has served as a respected advisor to various Indian government agencies as well as many multilateral and bilateral agencies and was a member of the NASEM committee that authored the recent report on solar geoengineering research and governance.
Collaborators
Collaborators are external partners or advisors that are deeply engaged with DSG in active projects. More collaborators will be shared here soon.
Sikina Jinnah
Professor of Environmental Studies, UC Santa Cruz
Sikina Jinnah is a Professor of Environmental Studies and affiliated graduate faculty of Politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz. She edits the journal Environmental Politics and co-chairs Harvard University’s Advisory Committee for the SCoPEx. Her research focuses on global environmental governance, in particular in the areas of climate change, climate engineering, and the nexus between international trade and environmental politics. She is the author or editor of 6 books, including Post-treaty Politics (MIT Press 2014), which received the 2016 Harold and Margaret Sprout Award for best book in international environmental affairs from the International Studies Association and her most recent monograph Greening through Trade (MIT Press 2020) was a finalist for the 2021 Canadian Political Science Association Prize in International Relations. She is a 2017 Andrew Carnegie Fellow and holds a PhD from UC Berkeley in Environmental Science, Policy and Management.