Dr. Brandon Hunter (he/him) is a civil and environmental engineer and a community-based environmental science researcher, based in Washington, D.C. Dr. Hunter works full-time for the Natural Resources Defense Council as a community scientist and has appointments as a Technology & Innovation Fellow at the Center for Rural Enterprise & Environmental Justice and as an Affiliate Researcher at Duke University.
Brandon has topical expertise in decentralized and on-site sanitation infrastructure, but also works in a variety of contexts to build the capacities of impacted marginalized communities so that they can effectively execute their own advocacy strategies to influence state and federal infrastructure policy. Dr. Hunter’s work combines engineering design, scientific research, and community-based strategies to advance climate and environmental justice goals for communities domestically and abroad.
Brandon’s motivation to be a part of the UCLA’s Center for Diverse Leadership in Science’s Early Career Fellowship Program is to build the capacities of the Center’s different stakeholder demographics. Dr. Hunter is motivated to work with CDLS staff and Fellows to support community-led projects and advance advocacy strategies of CDLS’ community-based partners. Brandon is also excited to serve as a peer- and step-ahead mentor to other researchers and graduate and undergraduate students in the geosciences as they transition from students to early career professionals. He is also motivated to help develop internal CDLS programming and write grants to ensure sustainable support for CDLS staff, students, Fellows, and its community partners.