Helping
As is evident from my research and teaching pedagogy, I believe strongly that people can work together to create a better environment for all of us. To that end, I have been working with several Pittsburgh-area groups to advocate for better air & water quality, public transit, and solutions to systems of injustice. This work encompasses both my research and personal passion.
As evidenced by my research, I am passionate about participatory/citizen science; PittSensing (PS) is a culmination of this into regional organizing. At PS, I worked with community members, researchers, and workers at Upstream Pittsburgh to bridge the gap between the abundant data on air pollution and the changes we’d like to see in our communities. The goal was to develop a network of low-cost sensors operated and maintained by citizen scientists to measure and understand environmental metrics in the Nine Mile Run Watershed in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. In 2021 we launched a ‘pilot program’, distributing low-cost environmental monitors (Smart Citizen Kits) to ‘citizen scientists’ in the Nine Mile Run Watershed to make sense of the environmental conditions. In 2022, we held several Data Storytelling Workshops, which used data from the pilot program to begin telling the story of environmental justice in the Nine Mile Run watershed. In 2023, I secured funds and collaborated with artist Petra Floyd for her exhibition, Embedded.
Pittsburghers for Public Transit (PPT) is a grassroots union of transit riders, workers and neighbors. Together we organize for an expanded, affordable and accessible public transit system that meets all needs, with no communities left behind. Since joining, I have contributed my skills in data science to this group. I have created interactive maps, held trainings, contributed to a report to advocate for a better bus system, among other actions.
Some wins were:
- Winning major funding for bus shelters
- Stopping the Mon-Oakland Connector
- Making Mayor Gainey adopt (nearly all of) our 100 Days Transit Platform
- and more!
Continuing my public health advocacy, I have been working with the Get the Lead Out campaign since 2023. I have contributed my data science and writing skills to the campaign to remove lead from Wilkinsburg’s water system.
Against Carceral Tech (ACT) is a campus and community group aimed at disrupting the pipeline between college campuses and the weapons/surveillance industrial complex. We began in 2020 with disrupting and disseminating info at military/weapons contractor recruitment events, before leaning more into community organizing. We joined community groups in the 2021 March Against Carceral Tech, in response to a draft agenda from Carnegie Mellon about letting CMUPD use facial recognition in investigations. Before long, we joined humanitarian groups locally and worldwide in calling for a permanent ceasefire + end to the genocide of Palestinian peeople.
We continue today, with advocating for better solutions for gun violence as part of the #StopShotspotter campaign.
Website designed by Darya Noor Kharabi.