Tessa is a fourth year PhD candidate in Energy-Water-Environment-Sustainability track of Civil and Environmental Engineering, researching atmospheric chemistry and air quality modeling. She received her Bachelors in Environmental Engineering with a Minor in Energy Studies from the University of Notre Dame in 2017, and a Masters in Water, Waste and Environmental Engineering from University College Dublin in 2018. She enjoys traveling, baking, knitting, and hanging out with her cats.

︎ westemfunding@gmail.com

Abby is a PhD candidate in Civil Engineering working to incorporate equity into infrastructure decision-making for improved community resilience to natural hazards. She received her Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2019 and her Master’s in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2020.  Outside of work, she loves to cook, bake, throw pottery, knit, read, and enjoy the outdoors.

︎ westemfunding@gmail.com

Archana is a third year PhD student in Chemical Engineering. She received her Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University in 2021. She is fiercely passionate about supporting women in STEM, advocating for accessible mental health care, and combating climate change. In her free time, you can find her spending time with friends, dancing, cooking, playing badminton, reading, or drawing.

︎ westemspeakers@gmail.com

Emily Lawson-Bulten is a third year PhD student in the Agricultural & Biological Engineering Department. Her research grows out of Contextual Engineering and aims to provide engineers with guides to understanding and addressing unjust power dynamics when working with communities, especially in non-industrialized areas. She has worked on water systems in seven countries, promoting humility in engineering understanding to emphasize community decision-making. She graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering and International Development Studies from Calvin University in 2017. She then worked in industry and government as a Natural Resource Engineer before coming to UIUC for her PhD. She loves the outdoors, refurbishing old things, ceramics, and – of course - her pup.

︎ westemspeakers@gmail.com

Jiachun is a fifth-year PhD student in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Washington in 2017 and her Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2019. In her free time, she loves baking, watching thriller movies, and playing with her dog Sony.