Diana Giraldo with the California Foundation on the Environment and Economy

Hi all, I’m Diana Giraldo. I am a second-year EPM graduate student with a passion for working collaboratively with people. I began my career as a print journalist covering community interest stories in the San Joaquin Valley and transitioned into public affairs a few years later. I came to the EPM program with a direct focus. I wanted to gain experience merging science and policy in a collaborative structure.

My previous academic experience as an undergraduate of the Mass Communications and Journalism department at California State University, Fresno, prepared me with the skills to understand complex problems and communicate the stories to a wide audience. At UC Davis, my goal was to learn to transfer these skills into a policy setting in which I could work directly with California environmental leaders.

My practicum with the California Foundation for the Economy and Environment (CFEE) presented me with this and more. CFEE is a nonprofit institution, founded in 1979, dedicated to educating public and private sector decision-makers on and developing creative solutions to California’s economic, environmental, and social issues. The Foundation hosts discussion forums and study travel projects focused on energy, water, housing, transportation, telecommunications & technology, and the circular economy designed to provoke engagement and collaboration on California’s complex public policy issues.

While at CFEE, I analyzed state, national, and foreign environmental policy on the topics of energy, telecommunications, transportation, water, and the circular economy. The research was used to develop 1. public policy conferences, in which solutions-oriented discussions on environmental challenges within labor, business, local government, environmental leaders, and elected officials were facilitated, and 2. international study tours where state leaders gained insight from the experiences of global partners.

My work began with the preparation of materials for CFEE’s Recycling Research Trip, held in the summer of 2022. A bipartisan delegation, led by Senator Ben Allen, was set to leave for Portland, Maine and Quebec, Canada to study circular economy policies with the objective of bringing the knowledge home. My tasks for the study trip included writing a press release, creating factsheets, and developing briefing documents on the locations, discussion topics, and speakers being visited on the trip.

In the second part of my practicum, I worked on the development of the Water Conference session topics, held December 7 to 8 2022. To prepare for the Water Conference Steering Committee Meeting, which would set the preparation process in motion, I created a 20-page briefing document for CFEE staff that outlined the 10 most important topics in California water policy. My practicum concluded in the middle of the planning process for the Water Conference, and I was asked to stay on for the following quarter.

CFEE provided me with the opportunity to speak one-on-one with California’s key environmental policymakers, from elected officials to technological innovators, which allowed me to gain a further understanding of the positioning of each sector. The work I did at CFEE taught me the benefit of transcending the traditional policy actor sector boundaries. It provided me with a lived experience of what school teaches – multidisciplinary thinking leads to better policy.

Diana specialized in Water Resources Management, and Climate Change Science and Policy. She graduated in June 2023.

Recommended Resources:

• https://www.cfee.net/

Deliverables:

• Tracing Portland's Circular Economy in Action
• The Vision: Maine's Developing Circular Economy
• Sustainability Stories in the Lobster Industry
• Data Drive Quebec
• Data Dive Maine
• Water Conference Topic Notes