Michael Mendez

Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy UC Irvine

  • Irvine CA

Michael Mendez has experience in the public and private sectors, where he consulted and actively engaged in the policymaking process.

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UC Irvine

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Biography

Dr. Michael Mendez is an assistant professor of environmental policy and planning at the University of California, Irvine. He previously was the inaugural James and Mary Pinchot Faculty Fellow in Sustainability Studies at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Michael has more than a decade of senior-level experience in the public and private sectors, where he consulted and actively engaged in the policymaking process. This included working for the California State Legislature as a senior consultant, lobbyist, gubernatorial appointee, and as vice chair of the Sacramento City Planning Commission.

​During his time at UC Irvine and Yale, he has contributed to state and national research policy initiatives, including serving as an advisor to a California Air Resources Board member, and as a participant of the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s workgroup on “Climate Vulnerability and Social Science Perspectives.” Most recently, Michael was appointed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to the Board on Environmental Change and Society (BECS). He also serves as a panel reviewer for the National Academies of Sciences’ Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP).

Michael holds three degrees in environmental planning and policy, including a PhD from UC Berkeley’s Department of City and Regional Planning, and a graduate degree from MIT. His research on the intersection of climate change and communities of color has been featured in national publications including Urban Land (published by the Urban Land Institute); the Natural Resources Defense Fund Annual Report; the American Planning Association’s Planning Magazine; Green 2.0: Leadership at Work; USA Today; and Fox Latino News. His new book “Climate Change from the Streets,” published through Yale University Press (2020), is an urgent and timely story of the contentious politics of incorporating environmental justice into global climate change policy.

Areas of Expertise

Global climate change policy
Environmental Planning
Public Policy
Legislative Relations
Climate Change

Accomplishments

Paul Davidoff Book Award

2023

Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP)

Practice and Outreach Award

2023

American Sociological Association (ASA) - Section on Environmental Sociology

Latino/a Water Pioneers, Leaders & Heroes Award

2023

Mujeres de la Tierra in collaboration with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Water Replenishment District

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Education

University of California, Berkeley

PhD

Science and Technology Studies and Environmental Policy

2015

Department of City and Regional Planning

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MCP

Environmental Planning and Policy

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

California State University, Northridge

BA

Urban Studies and Planning

Media Appearances

Millions of Americans don’t speak English. Now they won’t be warned before weather disasters.

Grist  online

2025-04-14

It’s an issue even in states with a large population of Spanish speakers, like California. “It’s assumed that automatic translations of emergency information is commonplace and ubiquitous throughout California, but that’s not the case, particularly in our rural, agricultural areas where we have farmworkers and a large migrant population,” said Michael Méndez, a professor of environmental policy and planning at the University of California, Irvine. Méndez said that Spanish speakers have been targeted by misinformation during extreme weather.

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The Growing Challenge of Urban Wildfires

National Academies  online

2025-03-10

Multiple states — California, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Montana, and others — are now facing increased wildfire risks, noted moderator Michael Méndez of the University of California, Irvine, whose research focuses on how climate change affects vulnerable populations. “The best way to cope is to better understand extreme wildfire events and the methods to prepare our communities, and especially those that are most at risk and socially vulnerable,” he said.

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Trump Orders and Atmospheric Rivers: How Prepared Are California's Levees?

KQED  online

2025-02-06

In California, this frequently means that low-income people, migrant farmworkers and undocumented people are disproportionately impacted, according to Michael Méndez, assistant professor of environmental policy and planning at UC Irvine. Many of those at risk are in the Central Valley, where hundreds of levees protect farmland and agricultural workers. “Our communities that are low income are not able to prepare or safeguard from these disasters because they’re not being provided with adequate resources to do so,” he said.

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Research Grants

2024 Seed Funding Opportunity for Mobilities to Mexico

University of California

2023-2024

2024 Integrated and Equitable Climate Action (Land Use Planning and environmental Justice)

University of California, Office of the President

2023 -2026

Newkirk Faculty Fellow

University of California Irvine, Newkirk Center for Science & Society $5000

2023-2024

Articles

Climate Change, Migration, and Health Disparities at and Beyond the US-Mexico Border

JAMA

2024

In 2022, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported that weather-related events had displaced approximately 21.5 million people worldwide each year between 1999 and 2019, more than twice the number of people displaced by conflict and violence.

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Connecting physical and social science datasets: challenges and pathways forward

Environmental Research Communications

2023

The integration of physical and social science data can enable novel frameworks, methodologies, and innovative solutions important for addressing complex socio-environmental problems. Unfortunately, many technical, procedural, and institutional challenges hamper effective data integration—detracting from interdisciplinary socio-environmental research and broader public impact.

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Understanding Challenges to Health Equity in Climate Action and Land Use Planning

American Journal of Public Health (AJPH)

2023

Cole et al. (p. 185 in this issue of AJPH) argue that health equity is crucial to addressing the human health consequences of climate change. They underscore how effective climate action requires meaningful public engagement processes focused on increasing community capacity and the power to reduce health disparities in marginalized neighborhoods.

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