Researchers

Adrienne Cachelin, Environmental & Sustainability Studies
—SPARC EJ LAB Director

"The SPARC lab has provided me the opportunity to collaborate with community researchers collecting data to inform environmental justice locally while creating educational pathways for students. Working with community partners and students to pursue research projects that shape graduate and undergraduate experiences while shaping local systems is the best part of my job."

Brett Clark , Sociology
—Qualitative Methods Research Advisor

"The community research projects being pursued within the SPARC EJ Lab consistently inspire me, given the transformative insights and the pragmatic actions generated through the work. Additionally, it has been wonderful to learn so much from the students and colleagues within the lab."

Brian Codding, Anthropology
—Applied Quantitative Research Advisor

"SPARC EJ provides an incredible framework to integrate student scholars, community partners, and university researchers on an even field where everyone can work together to solve common problems. This model elevates everyone involved as we all learn from one another in the process of conducting applied research around environmental justice."

Danielle Endres, Communication
—Energy Sovereignty Projects Research Advisor

"I’ve engaged with environmental justice as a guiding framework in my research for years and have worked informally with community organizers and practitioners in projects on nuclear decolonization on Indigenous lands, climate activism, and energy democracy. As I embark on a new project that seeks to engage in more formalized community engagement methods and bring more undergraduate students into the research project, I am grateful for the SPARC EJ Lab’s networks, models, and collaborations that will deepen the centrality of tangible environmental justice outcomes from my project."

Sierra Govett
—IRC Community Garden Specialist,
International Rescue Committee

"The IRC partnered with the SPARC EJ Lab in 2019 to launch the New Roots Foodways for Health Equity Project, a collaborative photovoice research project developed by students and community members. Throughout 2020, several New Roots program members participated as co-researchers by taking photographs documenting food and its role in their lives to respond to the question: “What role does food play in your life?” The group used cameras to answer these questions, combining photos with words sharing their own individual stories. Co-researchers discussed the messages and themes they wanted to present and made a final selection of pictures representing their answer to the research question. In this way, the results of the photovoice project represent the group’s message about how food builds both identity and community. This exhibit is currently on display at the Glendale-Mountainview Community Learning Center."

Leah Joyner, California State University, Sacramento
—Food Projects Research Advisor

My involvement in the SPARC Lab began in 2017 as a graduate student enrolled in the Food Justice course (ENVST 5558), through which I co-launched a CEL project that explores the connections between urban agriculture and food equity in SLC. Since 2017, I have worked with EJ lab students, faculty, and community partners to grow several related food-justice projects. After graduating from the University of Utah, I joined California State University, Sacramento in the Department of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration where I am excited to continue collaborating with the SPARC EJ Lab.

Gilberto "Juan" Rejón Magana
—Coach and Executive Director,
Hartland Partnership for Youth and Families

"Hartland Community for Youth and Families (HC4YF) is a community development organization that addresses the needs of Salt Lake County’s underserved, at-risk and underrepresented population, including people who have refugee and immigrant backgrounds or identify as Latino/a. We are excited to partner with the SPARC EJ Lab on the Growing Educational Pathways for Food Sovereignty program because this program supports HC4YF's mission to provide a pathway to college for Salt Lake County’s at-risk and underserved youth."

Kate Magargal, Honors College
— Energy Sovereignty Projects Lead

"I am a researcher and educator who works with communities and land management agencies on issues of land tenure and energy sovereignty. I started working with students on community engaged research projects in 2017. By synthesizing diverse perspectives, my goal is to identify appropriate questions and methods for research in support of community-lead solutions to inequality in the production and distribution of energy. The unique curiosity and perspective of students enhances community relationships, adding depth to the connections made throughout the research process. The SPARC EJ lab facilitates such important relationships between students, communities, and researchers."

Jarred Martinez
—Education Partnership Manager,
University Neighborhood Partners(UNP)

"University Neighborhood Partners has been working with the SPARC EJ Lab and ENVST students for several years on education pathways projects, and we are now excited to co-launch the Growing Educational Pathways for Food Sovereignty program. This multi-faceted course will be co-taught by community residents and SPARC members, taking place in various learning and community garden spaces both in our local school community and at the university. We look forward bringing together high-school youth, with local and university knowledge-holders, to explore and enhance how place, food-justice and belonging at the U of U campus are connected."

Jeff Rose, Parks, Recreation & Tourism
—Unsheltered Homelessness Research Projects Advisor

"Working with students, faculty, and community collaborators through the SPARC EJ Lab has really heightened existing environmental justice projects, and also catalyzed new ones. The students are insightful and critical, and they are eager to dive in experientially to these projects. I have also learned a bunch about the other projects that are going on in the lab, broadening my understanding of environmental justice."

Jennifer Shah, Geography & Environmental & Sustainability Studies
—Water Quality Research Projects Advisor

"As an ecosystem ecologist and freshwater scientist who dabbles in urban design, EJ is a newer dimension of my research. I recognize its importance through observations of people using urban rivers in a variety of ways, including the provisioning of basic necessities.  I also have been inspired by students who are passionate about building better cities for all residents – whether home is a building or simply the place and the community of people with whom one resides. Working with the SPARC EJ lab, I have been able to solidify community connections and create pathways for students engaging in community-based research."

Søren Simonsen
—Executive Director, Jordan River Commission

"The Jordan River Commission collaborates with the University of Utah’s Environmental Justice Lab and other community partners to better understand and respond to the situations of people experiencing homelessness, especially those who are drawn to Jordan River as a place of refuge. We work with local, state and national partners to find long-term solutions for permanent housing and supportive services to improve their lives and living conditions. We are currently supporting student researchers as they survey, interview, and engage with this hard-to-reach population so that we can collectively envision sustainable relationships for both people, and the sensitive and heavily impacted environment surrounding the Jordan River."

Keri Taddie
—Coordinator,Glendale Mt. View Community Learning Center
—Member,Education Collective SLC

"The Glendale Mt. View Community Learning Center has been working with the University of Utah’s Environmental Justice program to promote educational equity and food justice in the Glendale community for 8 years. Through the SPARC EJ Lab, we have partnered with students at the University of Utah to better understand the role that community centers play in advancing equity, how our residents experience community centers, and how the CLC can be a partner in garden based education for food justice."

Salt Lake City Dept. of Sustainability

"Our office is currently working with students on two projects related to food equity in SLC. In one project, students are ground truthing data that will be used to help improve tools for public administrators and policymakers better to understand the various factors influencing food security across the city, identify areas with the highest risk for food insecurity, and inform policy and program interventions to support equitable food security and access for all residents. Students will also be working with us to research how food policy councils across the country can support urban agriculture, while protecting from unintended consequences such as gentrification."

University of Utah Edible Campus Gardens

"The Edible Campus Gardens have been working with students from the University of Utah’s Environmental Justice Lab for the past several years to explore how we can continue to implement an increasingly inclusive landscape and crop variety that is welcoming to a diversity of students. Through the SPARC EJ Lab our garden stewards have been able to connect their work to the visions of our community partners and we are looking forward to co-launching the Growing Gardens Growing Communities program."

Wood Hauling and Native Livelihoods Research Collective

"On some parts of tribal lands in the US four-corners region, up to 80% of people depend on wood harvested from nearby forested tribal and federal public lands for their daily needs. Our research collaborative works with community partners such as Utah Diné Bikeyah and the Bureau of Land Management to better understand aspects of the cultural and economic importance of this access to wood, and how we can plan for future access. Since 2018 we have engaged with students from the SPARC EJ Lab in fieldwork, data collection and analysis, and through community outreach and presentation of findings."