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Resume

Experience

2024 - Present

Climate Research Fellow / Project Manager

Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment at  University of California, Berkeley School of Law

2024

Consultant

Elevate Climate

Conducted research for the Carbon Quality Lab on cap-and-trade policy, credit over/under accounting, and emerging science around carbon removal, while providing support for communications workstreams.

2022 - 2024

Carbon Removal Fellow

Appalachian Voices

Designed a 1,000-acre, $5 million pilot project to reforest former mine lands in  environmental justice communities of Central Appalachia as a nature-based carbon sequestration solution.
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>> Reforesting Mine Lands through the Carbon Market (2023)

2022

Graduate Student Research Assistant

Electricity Markets & Policy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Collected and analyzed data to support a project with the Department of Energy Building Technology Office on the programs and electricity rate structures that promote demand flexibility and electrification in buildings nationwide. 

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>>The State of Demand Flexibility Programs and Rates (2024)

Education

2023

M.S. Energy and Resources

University of California, Berkeley

Studied in the Energy & Resources Group under Dr. Andrew Jones in the Earth Systems and Society Lab and earned a Graduate Certificate in Security Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy while holding a fellowship with Appalachian Voices.

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Thesis: "Reforestation For Carbon Removal Within Coal Communities: Evaluating the potential of carbon credits from reforested mine land to support environmental justice communities of Central Appalachia" (2023)​

2012

B.A. History

B.A. Environmental Science

University of Florida

Studied both Environmental Science with an Environmental Policy concentration and History in the History Honors Program, where my thesis was advised by Dr. Paul Ortíz.

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Thesis: "Contributing to World Community: Peace Corps Service in Historical Perspective" (2012)​

Presentations

“Reforesting Mine Lands: How the Forestry Reclamation Approach Works for Coal Communities.” Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative with the Appalachian Citizens Law Center, 2023.

 

“Ecology of Forest Carbon Management.” Forest Carbon Management in Central Appalachia Conference presented by West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 2023.

 

“Sustainable Utilization of Appalachian Resources.” Appalachian Carbon Forum presented by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Gatlinburg, TN, 2023.

 

“The Climate Farm Bill: Establishing U.S. Leadership in Forestry.” Carbon Removers Summit presented by Carbon180, Washington, D.C., 2022.

 

“Celebrating a 50-Year Oral History Collaboration Between the Poarch Band of Creek Indians and the University of Florida.” Oral History Association Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, 2020.

 

“Standing with Elders: Fieldwork in the South.” Oral History Association Annual Meeting,  Tampa, FL, 2015.  

Certifications

Project Management Professional (PMP), Project Management Institute - in progress

Community Direct Air Capture Workshop Series, Georgia Tech - in progress

© 2035 by Maya Nelson.
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