Bio:
Selena Melgoza (she/her/hers) is the Climate Solutions Manager at Climate Resolve, working to build adaptive capacity for under-resourced communities to be resilient in an increasingly hot climate. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she is motivated by her lived experiences as a first-generation, low-income, and system-impacted Latina to advance environmental justice and create sustainable policy solutions for all.
Selena has worked across the non-profit, government, and academic sectors to support data-driven policy recommendations to advance environmental justice. This includes working with Water Education for Latino Leaders to advise local elected officials in advocating for water resources to the California State Legislature; One Fair Wage to mobilize 2,000 new worker leaders and 50,000 low-wage workers who were previously unlikely to vote in Michigan; UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute to build an environmental portfolio and analyze environmental policy impacts on Latinos; and LA City’s Climate Emergency Mobilization Office to conduct community-engaged research with those most impacted by extreme heat in Los Angeles to inform LA’s Heat Action Plan.
At Climate Resolve, Selena manages the Shine On initiative, which brings together over 250 global experts across 12 countries to accelerate the development of cooling surfaces and cooling solutions. Within this work, she established the Albedo Projects Working Group to identify large-scale cool-surface projects in Los Angeles and established a Research Advisory Committee to co-produce an impact evaluation framework. Relatedly, Selena supports community engagement efforts across 40 city blocks and 15 lane miles for the South LA Eco-Lab. Lastly, Selena is part of Climate Resolve’s Ready For Tomorrow team, which provides no-cost grant-writing assistance. Pulling from her experience at Climate Resolve, Selena is on the Cool Roof Raiting Councils Board of Directors.
Selena graduated from UC Berkeley with honors with a B.S. in Society & Environment and a minor in Public Policy. She also holds a Master of Public Policy from UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, where she concentrated on environmental and public health policy.
In addition to being passionate about creating policy pathways to shape thriving communities, Selena enjoys spending time with her pets, Max and Willow, making soup (even when it’s hot!), and sharing laughs with her family and friends.