Edith de Guzman (she/her) is an interdisciplinary researcher, practitioner, educator, curator, and consultant working with diverse audiences to understand and address the impacts of climate change in under-represented communities. She is a Cooperative Extension specialist with the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation and the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, where her work investigates best practices for the sustainable transformation of the Los Angeles region and beyond. Her work has included research, demonstration projects, public policy and planning in the areas of water management, climate adaptation, heat mitigation, and urban forestry. She tackles these topics through the lenses of urban planning, public health, behavioral sciences, biophysical sciences, and public policy.
From 2014 to 2020, Edith served as Director of Research at Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization TreePeople, where her projects included: the City of Los Angeles Stormwater Capture Master Plan; facilitating the creation of a Greening Plan with the communities of Inglewood and Lennox; bringing to fruition multiple urban water management demonstration projects; leading an extensive study tour of Australia’s response to its historic Millennium Drought and gleaning lessons for California; and producing the first interactive, high-resolution public map and spatial analysis of Los Angeles County’s urban forest.
Edith co-founded multisectoral partnerships including the Los Angeles Urban Cooling Collaborative and the Los Angeles Urban Forest Equity Collective, aimed at alleviating the public health risks of extreme heat and removing the policy barriers to cooler, greener neighborhoods. Their research has found that one in four lives currently lost to extreme heat could be saved if L.A.’s land cover had additional trees and its built surfaces were more reflective, particularly where low-income communities and communities of color live and work.
More recently, she co-launched ShadeLA with her colleagues at USC Dornsife Public Exchange – a people-powered campaign to make it easier for Angelenos countywide to bring more shade to their neighborhoods and businesses, leveraging the attention and investment that mega-events are bringing to LA.
Edith earned her PhD at the UCLA Institute of the Environment & Sustainability, where she conducted applied, interdisciplinary research on climate adaptation and climate health equity using community-based methods. Edith earned a master’s in urban planning from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and a bachelor’s degree in history and art history, also from UCLA. When not working or studying, she can be found hiking, playing guitar, or creating art exhibitions that explore the human connection to the environment.
