Denise Moreno Ramírez

PhD Granting Institution: The University of Arizona

Department: Community, Environment & Policy

College: Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health

Mentor: Mona Arora, Ph.D. & Paloma Beamer, Ph.D.

Research Proposal: Local and Scientific Climate Change Knowledge of Geographical Spaces Communicated Creatively to Inform Mitigation and Adaptation Solutions

Denise Moreno Ramírez completed her Ph.D. at The University of Arizona studying Soil, Water & Environmental Science with a minor in Medical Anthropology. During her graduate studies, Denise was the recipient of multiple prestigious fellowships and in 2022 was named an Agent of Change in Environmental Justice Fellow. Her groundbreaking work was recently featured at SXSW.

Denise grew up in the Arizona-Sonora border region (Sister Cities of Nogales or Ambos Nogales), a community deeply impacted by climate change and contamination. Growing up in a border city and witnessing environmental contamination and social injustice is what fueled Denise’s passion for studying environmental racism and producing knowledge that will close health disparities in the Southwestern United States.

During her fellowship, Denise will lead a project partnering with rural museums as hubs of local climate knowledge. Geographic spaces connected to the museums will be selected due to the immediacy of the impacts of climate change, alongside three UA scientists and three local climate observers. Both the scientists and observers will originate from a rural Sky Island town. They will collaboratively interpret the climate history of the geographical spaces selected, including ideas of energy consumption, loss of water resources, or environmental justice. The resulting interpretation will be translated into a creative communication product. Creative climate communication pieces will also be displayed or performed in rural museum spaces. Denise’s research will expand conversations about equitable climate change solutions, presenting new ways of interpreting climate change data embedded in local knowledge as "living" records.

In her letter of support, mentor Dr. Mona Arora, Assistant Research Professor in the Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, wrote, “Dr. Ramírez’s project aims to collaborate with rural communities to preserve local, cultural knowledge through oral histories and storytelling, ultimately providing a platform for dialogue, trust building, and collaborative learning on issues relating to climate change and environmental justice.”