Climate change and communication go hand-in-hand for PNW Climate Ambassadors

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We’re living in a digital age, where the ability to find information (or even at times misinformation) is instant wherever you are in the world. This comes at the same time we’re at a critical juncture for climate research, where studying our changing world is more important now than ever. For Amirah Casey, a graduate student at SAFS, she knows that communication is vital to make impactful changes, and so applying for the Pacific Northwest (PNW) Climate Ambassadors program was a no-brainer.

The PNW Climate Ambassadors program at the University of Washington trains UW graduate students studying climate change, its impacts, or potential responses to effectively engage with various sectors of the public. Comprised of a cohort of 10 graduate students from different colleges across UW, researching topics from chemical oceanography and the impacts of urbanization on salmon, to environmental public policy and the evolution of ancient ecosystems, the program prepares students to develop presentations on a topic related to their climate science interest and expertise.

A group of students part of the PNW Climate Ambassadors program, pose for a photo.
Miriam Bertram, PCC
Participants in the pilot PNW Climate Ambassador Workshop in April 2025.

The PNW Climate Ambassadors program is a collaboration between the Program on Climate Change (PCC), the Washington State Climate Office (WASCO) and the UW College of the Environment Communications Team.

Amirah is a student among the first cohort to be PNW Climate Ambassadors. “It feels really exciting to be a part of this pilot program. I knew it would be a great opportunity to get more involved in the climate community and get necessary training to advance my career,” she said. “When applying, reading that we would be trained to “effectively engage with various sectors of the public” aligned with my goal of practicing this skill as much as possible while in graduate school. Plus, when it comes to climate change, we all know that it can be a sticky subject, so learning to communicate about it effectively is very important.”

The first step towards being a PNW Climate Ambassador was to undertake climate communication training from the WASCO and the Climate Impacts Group (CIG). Students got to practice some of the techniques they learned with an exercise at the end of the training. “Next, we were split into teams give our interests and expertise, and we designed presentations about a give topic that we added to a slide library,” Amirah shared. These presentations can be requested by the public by visiting the PNW Climate Ambassadors website. “Once we get a request through and accept, we use the slide database and other provided materials to tailor a presentation to the specific audience requesting it. Before presenting, we practice our talk with other ambassadors, one of our mentors from CIG, WASCO or PCC, or another expert in the area we are presenting on,” she added. Initial training was completed in May 2025, and although Amirah hasn’t yet had a presentation request, she’s excited for when the opportunity does arise.

A screenshot of a presentation slide.
Amirah Casey
Amirah worked on the presentation titled: Impacts of Climate Change on Water, Droughts, and Flooding in the Pacific Northwest.

Amirah’s focus area for her PNW Climate Ambassador presentation is water, droughts, and flooding. The slides discuss sea level rise, precipitation, and other issues in as much detail as possible while also keeping it concise and to the point. This is an essential skill for those engaged in climate research: how to share the importance of your work to the world, while also ensuring it’s engaging, impactful, and understandable for those with a non-science background. “My group also homed in on making the slides visually appealing and easy to read, while not being text heavy,” Amirah said. “In this presentation, I got to talk about things within my expertise, but also some things outside of it, like flooding. This was a great learning experience, and I got very valuable feedback from my fellow ambassadors and CIG mentor, Guillaume Mauger.”

Amirah Casey (l) and former Gov. Jay Inslee (r) speak at an event.
Amirah Casey had the chance to speak with former Governor Jay Inslee at the Climate Solutions annual dinner.

Among the highlights of the program so far for Amirah has been receiving climate communication training, especially today in a time of uncertainty in climate policy and the spread of misinformation. “As someone who wants a career bridging science and policy, it will be essential for me to continue to develop these skills. There’s a lot of misinformation out there about climate impacts, as well as some distrust in science, and so having people who are trained to communicate about these issues is critical to get across clear and accurate information,” she said. “I am grateful to this program for giving me a chance to build on my climate communicate skills, and to my advisor, Dr. Mark Scheuerell, who has also been helping me with these techniques.”

After joining the PNW Climate Ambassadors program, Amirah felt inspired to get more involved in climate solutions and be present in as many climate spaces as possible. One of the opportunities that arose for her was volunteering at the Climate Solutions annual dinner, held in May 2025. “The organization is focused on, you guessed it, climate solutions! I helped them set up the dinner in downtown Seattle and checked in guests, including former Governor Jay Inslee,” Amirah shared. “I made sure to talk to him about what is going on with NOAA and USGS, which are the organizations that my committee members work for, especially because they are currently under fire for lack of a better term. I also thanked him for his policies while he was in office that were supportive of science, education, and recovering and protecting Washington state wildlife.” While she was volunteering, Amirah was recruited by PNW Climate Week to help out with event planning and logistics, which took place in Seattle from 16-25 July 2025. PNW Climate Week involves community-powered events that shine a spotlight on the Pacific Northwest’s role in climate leadership and innovation.

Building community among students

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Building community among the different student groups at SAFS and Marine Biology—undergraduates, graduates and postdocs—the SAFS Undergrad Community Building Event was held was held for the fourth year running.

Taking place on 13 May, undergraduates were invited to walk around and speak to grads and postdocs about different topics including grad school, what life looks like after graduation, and finding your way in science.

Organized through the SAFS DEI Committee, the event was inspired by the graduate student peer mentoring program and the desire to build a community within SAFS that includes undergrads.

A group of people sit and stand in a lobby area.
Taylor Triviño
SAFS undergrads were invited to walk around and talk to different graduates and postdocs.

Graduate student, Taylor Triviño, who helped to organize the event, shared her thoughts:

“This is my second year helping to organize the event and I find it very rewarding connecting our undergraduate students and graduate students in the department. I overheard great conversations about life after graduation, what grad school looks like, and stories about finding your path in science. Academia can be a tricky place to navigate especially as a first-generation student, so being able to share my experience can reveal some of the hidden curriculum that no one tells you about but expects you to know. The graduate students in SAFS come from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and disciplines where we each can speak about how we got to Seattle and how different each of our paths have been. I’m hoping to continue to organize this event each spring to strengthen our community, uplift the undergraduates, and share how amazing the work we do here at SAFS is.” – Taylor Triviño

Embracing community, mentorship and interdisciplinary science during Black History Month

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Interdisciplinary. Providing mentorship. Community-focused. These are just some of the terms that come to mind for Chris when she describes what it means to be a Black scientist. “When we think about being a non-majority community in STEM – and in this instance Black in STEM – we are tasked with a three-pronged responsibility because this is a lived experience for so many of us: being inherently interdisciplinary, mentoring others, focusing on your community”. Chris Mantegna is currently a graduate student at SAFS, after earning her bachelor’s degree in UW Marine Biology in 2021.

Chris Mantegna, wearing a yellow rain jacket and holding a blue clipboard, stands on a rocky outcropping with a body of water and another island behind her. A blue sky with white clouds is above.
University of Washington
Chris Mantegna on Yellow Island during her 2024 mentorship program.

She is also a founding board member of BWEEMS (Black Women in Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Science) and created their first foundational mentorship program, has been a part of BIMS (Black in Marine Science) since its beginnings as a tweet in 2020, and collaborates with many other BIPOC-focused organizations such as Sea Potential and NABS (National Association of Black Scuba Divers). “One of the many things I love about the Black community in marine science is we’re all connected. So many organizations and groups work together – be it Sea Potential, BIMS or BWEEMS – because our numbers are so small, and water touches all of it,” Chris said.

The experience of being an excellent scientist while also shouldering the responsibility of enhancing representation and uplifting others in your community can be a challenge, but a rewarding one. “The experience of trying to be the best, while walking into a space which doesn’t always value the experience, knowledge, and lessons you’re bringing, is tough. I love Black excellence, but we also need to give ourselves the space to make excellence whatever we want,” Chris shared.

A key part of Chris’ mentorship programs, such as the Yellow Island NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergrads-Blinks internship, is to highlight that each student brings a different lived experience and view of science to the table. “A lot of us are navigating the different environments in which we grew up in, or currently live and work in, and therefore bring a different understanding to science and research,” she said.

Chris Mantegna
Chris with her 2024 Yellow Island summer interns. L-R: Benjamin Brown, Galen June, Darian Pierre, Chris Mantegna, Kai Miller, Noah Krebs and Luis Hurtado.

Marine and aquatic science has been filled with pioneering contributions from Black scientists – from the first Black marine biologist, Ernest Everett Just, who pioneered understanding of cell physiology, embryonic development and fertilization, to Joan Murrell Owens, who shed light on the evolutionary relationships of corals.

This legacy continues but there is a lot of work to be done to continue the effort to increase representation in STEM and create a space where Black and other minority groups feel welcome, valued, and safe in the spaces where science is conducted: both inside and in the outdoors. “We can’t recruit students to a place that isn’t ready for them, so we should look to retain and support the students who are here,” Chris shared. “Retention starts with representation across all departmental levels and course content coupled with action-oriented allies.”

Learn more about Chris’ Yellow Island mentorship program 

We asked Chris what a more inclusive future would look like? “I would love to see syllabi changed at the university level to include more Black scientists – be they from the US or from the Global South,” Chris said. “We need to change the way we teach to encourage more young Black scientists, and make sure the pipelines are in place from middle-school and even earlier, as that’s one place where we’re losing our future scientists”. Building community partnerships is a crucial aspect of this change that Chris would like the future to hold. “Our communities have a different lived experience, and I would like to see that acknowledged, celebrated, and brought into research and science in ways where students can see knowledge coming from the communities that resemble them”.

A global syllabus, more interrogation of teaching styles to demonstrate it can be done differently, embracing creativity around scientific the process, including community, art, and geography – these are all actionable ways that Chris shared that can make science more inclusive.

This Black History Month, Chris is sharing an important message: “Give yourself time to rest and rejuvenate. Revisit some of our strongest, most creative, or marginalized thinkers, such as Tricia Hersey (Rest is Resistance) and the writings of Octavia Butler, June Jordan and Audrey Lorde to support our imaginations in creating what can be. For more marine related writing – Pauline Alexis Gumbs and Jasmin Graham. And remember: let’s be gentler with ourselves in 2025”.

Want to learn more about some local and national organizations dedicated to celebrating and amplifying the work of Black scientists in marine and freshwater science this Black History Month? Visit: