Fighting for the Future

JOANNA DEHAVEN UNDERWOOD ’62 

Joanna DeHaven Underwood ’62, founder and trustee of the New York City–based Energy Vision, has always been interested in finding solutions to environmental problems and getting them adopted. 

She traces her success to her days at Bryn Mawr as a European history major. “The fact is you learn how to study things,” she says. “Bryn Mawr gave me confidence in my abilities. They gave women the right to say, ‘You can lead.’” 

Since the nonprofit’s start in 2007, Energy Vision has focused on advancing new technologies. One of the most promising, Underwood says, is the use of anaerobic digesters to capture methane released from decomposing organic food and animal waste. The result is a renewable natural gas (RNG) source that could greatly reduce the country’s reliance on oil, particularly carbon-intensive diesel fuel. 

At the same time, the amount of methane—one of the most potent greenhouse gases—released into the environment would be cut. 

“Methane capture is what this country needs now most,” Underwood says. “It’s a sprint, and if you don’t win the sprint, then the long-term race to master CO₂ almost doesn’t matter.” 

Without methane reduction, she says, the world would face “runaway climate change.” Warming temperatures would lead to melting glaciers, which would lead to the release of enormous stores of methane trapped underneath. 

“Bryn Mawr gave me confidence in my abilities. They gave women the right to say, ‘You can lead.’”  

According to Energy Vision’s 2023 assessment of the RNG industry, there were 305 facilities producing enough methane fuel to power 96,900 refuse trucks and displace 843 million gallons of diesel annually. An additional 126 facilities were under construction and 111 were in various planning stages. In total, that’s a nearly 34 percent increase over the previous two years. 

“Now, of course, the federal government backed out of all climate involvement,” Underwood says. The Trump administration broadly froze disbursements of Inflation Reduction Act monies on its first day in an effort to dismantle the Biden administration’s funding of climate change projects.

Although cuts would be a setback, Energy Vision won’t stop its outreach, she says. It’s already helping the state of Washington design plans for anaerobic digesters. Vermont also has expressed interest, she says. 

“There are states who consider this a huge priority,” Underwood says, “and want to move ahead regardless of what the federal government is doing.”

UMA MCGUIRE ’23

Environmental studies major Uma McGuire ’23 can’t say enough about the power of biking.

“It gets you where you need to go,” says the events and communications coordinator for the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, who tools around on a 1970s, single speed, coaster-brake model when not using the city’s e-bicycle sharing system. “It’s carbon free. It’s very accessible pricewise. It’s good for health. It feels like flying.”

Since joining the coalition, this is a pitch McGuire has made often, whether on social media, in newsletters, to volunteers, or in communities. The nonprofit promotes biking as “a safe and fun way to get around,” she says, and looks to increase ridership among communities of color. Recently, she helped organize the coalition-hosted Vision Zero Conference, which has the goal of zero traffic fatalities by 2050. 

McGuire often engages with communities to get buy-in for bicycle infrastructure, such as dedicated bike lanes. “There’s a lot of distrust and gentrification worries,” she says. “They don’t see these projects as being for them. A lot of the job is building relationships. The first step is coming to community ambassadors, meeting them where they are. It’s what I learned at Bryn Mawr.”

McGuire says a “listening-first perspective” was emphasized in classes on community engagement work and the history around land use and urban renewal. That approach has led to wins for the relatively small coalition. After the high-profile death of a bicyclist hit by a car that swerved into the bike lane, the group advocated for more protective concrete barriers. It also lobbied City Council to prohibit cars from stopping in bike lanes. The “Get Out the Bike Lane” bill passed Oct. 24, 2024.

“That was a pretty big policy win,” McGuire says. “It’s incredibly satisfying.” 

LAUREN KURTZ ’06

Lauren Kurtz ’06, executive director of the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF), is busier than ever helping climate scientists under fire.

“Every administration has its anti-science moments,” she says. “Some are worse than others.”

The nonprofit, started in 2011, deals primarily with climate and environmental scientists facing politically motivated attacks on their credibility and stays out of debates on the merit of the research, Kurtz says. A biology and economics double-major at Bryn Mawr, she considered a career in science. But an opportunity to work as a summer research assistant made her realize it wasn’t for her. Kurtz headed to law school at the University of Pennsylvania, where she specialized in environmental law, and joined CSLDF in 2014 after working as a defense attorney for the law firm Dechert. 

In 2024, her organization helped about 60 scientists, either with direct representation or by answering questions. “There’s an effort to stop scientists from communicating research to the public,” Kurtz says. “Climate change is here. It’s happening. There’s a value in scientists talking to us about what the future holds and how we can mitigate it.”

But, she adds, that doesn’t mean people want to hear it. Some academics are being targeted for providing briefings on research findings or policy issues to government officials as inappropriately engaging in political activism. During the first Trump administration, government researchers were prohibited from publishing on certain topics, such as the role of human activity on climate change, Kurtz says. In one instance, her group helped one scientist find a pathway to publish as a private citizen. “Not a perfect solution,” she says, “but better than nothing.”

Now, federal government scientists are facing termination. The legal defense fund is helping them understand their rights and connect with employment lawyers. 

“I always thought, as a niche organization, I was a last line of defense,” Kurtz says. “In the current political reality, our work is becoming much more mainstream.”

“Climate change is here. It’s happening. There’s a value in scientists talking to us about what the future holds and how we can mitigate it.”

BRIDGET ACKEIFI ’12

Bridget Ackeifi ’12 credits her time studying urban planning and architecture in Growth and Structure of Cities with shaping her systems-thinking approach to sustainability—an education that remains relevant to the work she does now on net-zero carbon emissions in Greater London. 

“The Cities major helps you understand the systems of the world and how they are related, how you can’t talk about the environment without also looking at economics and social impact policies,” says the head of strategic delivery and net-zero for the Westminster City Council.

Although Westminster is one of the wealthiest boroughs in the United Kingdom, it also has some of the most impoverished areas, says Ackeifi, whose office overlooks Buckingham Palace. In fact, she says, there is a 17-year difference in life expectancy between the poorest and richest wards. “That’s not a fluke,” she says. “That’s something systemic. Air pollution. Poverty. Resources.”

One proposed initiative involves massive upgrades to the heating infrastructure in public housing, much of it old stock, Ackeifi says. The investment would not only reduce emissions but improve health and life expectancies for these communities. Ultimately, she says, a net zero strategy is a way to right historical wrongs—also a priority of the council. 

“None of these things exist in a silo,” she says. “Inequity is a composite of social inequity, economic inequity, environmental inequity.” 

In 2017, Ackeifi got a master’s from the London School of Economics in community and regional planning and two years later, she began consulting on housing and homelessness for the Greater London Authority. In 2023, she joined the council, where she initially worked on regeneration of Oxford Street and waste management for the borough.

“The Cities major helps you understand the systems of the world and how they are related, how you can’t talk about the environment without also looking at economics and social impact policies.” 

In her current role, Ackeifi says, the challenge is garnering support among residents and municipal and national officials for costly but essential infrastructure projects such as the heating upgrades. As she figures out strategies to engage the public and persuade the politicians, she has no doubt about the importance of succeeding.

“You must be thinking about environmental sustainability, social sustainability, health sustainability,” she says. “The world will die if we don’t do anything about it.”

Isabel Montañez ’81

When Isabel Montañez ’81, a paleoclimatologist and geochemist, arrived at Bryn Mawr, she says she had no self-confidence. “I was lost,” says the geology major. “I came in very shy. Don’t stir the pot.” 

One geology professor—the late W. Bruce Saunders—took her under his wing, and that mentorship made all the difference, Montañez says. “He saw a spark in me and completely nurtured it,” she says. By senior year, she was president of the student body. 

Now, Montañez is director of the Institute of the Environment at the University of California, Davis, and the Chancellor’s Leadership and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. 

“Rather than talk about climate in the future, I wanted to actually do something about it,” she says. 

In her research, Montañez reconstructs past climate events, particularly during warming and major transitions, to better understand modern-day climate. 

“The past is a fully played out experiment,” she says. “We look at past times of high CO₂ and what happens to temperature, to ocean circulation, to ecosystems on land and oceans, to ice.” 

In 2021, when she became head of the institute, Montañez broadened her scope to include trials of crushed lava rocks on cropland as a way to capture carbon dioxide from the air. Natural breakdown can take millions of years, she says, but in this process, known as rock weathering. ground-up rock mixed in the soil speeds the process and stores significant amounts of CO₂. 

“Rather than talk about climate in the future, I wanted to actually do something about it.” 

The Biden administration, she says, was interested in scaling rock weathering as one more way to achieve net zero by 2050. “Of course, that’s all gone away,” Montañez says, referring to the current administration’s change in priorities. 

Since January, the institute has lost tens of millions out of $117 million in federal grants, she says. So far, the $30 million from the Department of Energy that funds the rock weathering trial is intact, she says. However, the agency has censored the use of terms such as “climate” and “carbon removal” and is instead directing the project to focus on making the soil healthy—turns out lava rock maximizes the nutrients in the soil—and producing larger crop yields. 

“It’s ridiculous,” she says. “But we’re still at it.” 

No longer that shy undergraduate, Montañez is speaking out. She was one of 1,900 scientists who signed an open letter calling out the Trump administration for its “wholesale assault on U.S. science.” 

Colleagues have told her she’s taking risks, Montañez says. Her response? “You’re rolling over. Why not fight?” 

“Many, many people have given to me,” she adds. “I just feel that it’s time I give back.”