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2023

Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP)

Paul Davidoff Book Award

2023

American Sociological Association (ASA) - Section on Environmental Sociology

Practice and Outreach Award

2023

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

Latino/a Water Pioneers, Leaders & Heroes Award

Harold & Margaret Sprout Award

Betty & Alfred McClung Lee Award

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

Connecting physical and social science datasets: challenges and pathways forward

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

Only One Earth: Global health and climate justice on world environment day and beyond

Queer and present danger: understanding the disparate impacts of disasters on LGBTQ+ communities

Climate Change from the Streets: How Conflict and Collaboration Strengthen the Environmental Justice Movement

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.

Global climate change policy

Environmental Planning

Public Policy

Legislative Relations

Climate Change

Personal Website

UCLA Faculty Profile

The Center for Progressive Reform Profile

Google Scholar Citations

Out in the Storm

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

The Growing Challenge of Urban Wildfires

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

Farmworkers in the L.A. area have little to no protection from wildfire smoke

Wildfire Impact on Latino Communities

2024 Seed Funding Opportunity for Mobilities to Mexico

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

Newkirk Faculty Fellow

Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy

GradCAMP is a cohort of 20 graduate students studying working lands in the Northeast who are interested in incorporating climate justice and equity into their existing research. This is the 1st in a series of 7 speakers with focuses on environmental and climate justice. 

Website: https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/hubs/northeast/project/gradcamp

Dr. Michael Méndez is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Planning and Policy at the University of California, Irvine, an Andrew Carnegie Fellow, and a Visiting Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).  He most recently served as the inaugural James and Mary Pinchot Faculty Fellow in Sustainability Studies and Associate Research Scientist at the Yale School of the Environment. 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. 
Dr. Méndez's new research focuses on climate-induced disasters and social vulnerability. This research has been supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Faculty Award. In conjunction with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), this project explores the disparate impacts of extreme wildfire events on undocumented Latino/a and Indigenous migrants.
Méndez received his PhD from UC Berkeley's Department of City and Regional Planning, where he was a Ford Foundation Fellow and UC Chancellor’s Fellow.

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.

GradCAMP Speaker Series: Dr. Michael Mendez: Environmental and Climate Justice in California

Michael Méndez, University of California, told a timely story of people, place, and power in the context of climate change and inequality, exploring the perspectives and influence that low-income people of color bring to their advocacy work on climate change. His presentation, held on June 17, 2021, was part of Metcalf Institute's Annual Public Lecture Series. Learn more at https://metcalfinstitute.org/2021-annual-public-lecture-series.

Climate Change fromt the Streets - Michael Mendez, University of California

Dr. Méndez’s award-winning book, Climate Change from the Streets
(Yale University Press, 2020) provides an urgent and timely analysis
of the contentious politics of incorporating environmental justice
into global climate change policy. Méndez tells a timely story of
people, place, and power in the context of climate change and
inequality. He explores the perspectives and influence low-income
people of color bring to their advocacy work on climate change.

Dr. Michael Méndez is an Assistant Professor of Environmental
Planning and Policy at the University of California, Irvine, an
Andrew Carnegie Fellow, and a Visiting Scientist at the National
Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). 

He most recently served as the inaugural James and Mary Pinchot Faculty Fellow in Sustainability Studies and Associate Research Scientist at the
Yale School of the Environment. Méndez 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.

MICHAEL MÉNDEZ: CLIMATE CHANGE FROM THE STREETS// 04.24.23

The Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability is pleased to present its fall lecture featuring Julie Sze and Michael Méndez in conversation about their new books on Wednesday, September 30, 4-5:15 pm PDT.

Authors, activists, and academics Michael Méndez (UCI) and Julie Sze (UC Davis) join RRC Interim Director Susan Phillips for a conversation about the intersection of climate change and environmental justice.

Sze’s new book, Environmental Justice in a Moment of Danger (UC Press 2020), examines mobilizations and movements, from protests at Standing Rock to activism in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. The book is the essential primer on environmental justice, packed with cautiously hopeful stories for the future.  All proceeds from this book are split between the Community Water Center https://www.communitywatercenter.org/ and UPROSE https://www.uprose.org/, two environmental justice organizations.

Méndez’s new book, Climate Change from the Streets: How Conflict and Collaboration Strengthen the Environmental Justice Movement (Yale 2020), tells an urgent and timely story of the contentious politics of incorporating environmental justice into global climate change policy. Méndez contends that we must incorporate local knowledge, culture, and history into policymaking to fully address the global complexities of climate change and the real threats facing our local communities.

This event is sponsored by the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability and the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation.

More about our speakers:

Michael Méndez is an assistant professor of environmental planning and policy at the University of California, Irvine. He previously served in California as a senior consultant, lobbyist, and gubernatorial appointee during the passage of the state’s internationally acclaimed climate change legislation.

Julie Sze is a Professor of American Studies at UC Davis. She is also the founding director of the Environmental Justice Project for UC Davis’ John Muir Institute for the Environment, and in that capacity is the Faculty Advisor for 25 Stories from the Central Valley.

Redford Conservancy Fall Lecture: Julie Sze and Michael Méndez

New Directions in Environmental Law 2020 Conference
Keynote | Michael Méndez, UC
Irvine Professor & Author of
“Climate Change from the
Streets”
Burke Auditorium

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