L.A. Sustainability Collaborative bridges gap between academic research and local environmental concerns

I started blogging about environmental issues back when I was in graduate school — in large part to feel more connected to the concrete and pressing real-life issues of the city I live in. Those issued seemed far removed from what I was studying in the ivory tower of academia, though granted, my choice to study obscure modernist poetry probably didn’t help.

But for today’s L.A.-area graduate students who want to intertwine their academic research with pressing real-world problems, the Los Angeles Sustainability Collaborative can help. This nonprofit provides research fellowships to local graduate students interested in studying local environmental issues, ranging from water efficiency, car parking policy, or bicycling opportunities.

“The Collaborative is funding really great projects that benefit the community,” says Alexis Lantz (above), who received a $1000 fellowship to study issues affecting Los Angeles cyclists while a graduate student in Urban Planning at UCLA. Alexis says she’s unlikely to have taken on a study of that scope without the fellowship, which gives students “a real opportunity to do something that’s not purely academic.”

The fellowship let Alex pay for online survey hosting fees, Spanish translation, and printing costs — as well as some living expenses. Completed in June, the findings from Alexis’ study has been presented at a number of events with Southern California Planning Congress to inform future transportation policies. And Alexis herself, now a graduate of UCLA’s program, says the work she did informs her current role as the Planning and Policy Director of Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, a nonprofit that encourages bicycling in the L.A. area.

Alexis’ project is one of the four initial projects funded so far by the L.A. Sustainability Collaborative, which was launched just last year by a group of seven young professionals working for green businesses and environmental nonprofits. With a small initial contribution from Adi Liberman & Associates, an environmental consultancy that’s a friend of the organization, the Collaborative worked with environmental nonprofits, agencies, elected officials, and universities to determine what kind of research was needed for the L.A.-area — then started sending out requests for proposals (RFPs) to local colleges and universities.

Once the fellowship recipients were selected, they were given not just funding, but also support from the Collaborative to pursue their research. “For each student we set up a technical advisory committee, which includes experts in the community working on subjects which they’re researching to guide them along and fact check things,” says Mara Elana Burstein, a board member of the Collaborative and program manager at Environment Now.

With a successful first year under its belt, the Collaborative threw its first fundraiser earlier this month — and plans to send out a new round of RFPs early 2011. The board members — still the original seven members who started the Collaborative — all contribute their time to the Collaborative on an unpaid, volunteer basis.

“I’ve been a graduate student. I can understand the importance of fellowships and resources for research,” says Colleen Callahan, a board member of the Collaborative, on why she decided to be part of the Collaborative on top of her work as deputy director of UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. “There are a lot of great, motivated graduate students out there, and there needs to be more resources to allow their passions and knowledge to make an impact.”

Mara concurs. “Even in high school, I was really frustrated with the disconnect with what I was doing in school — the papers I was writing, and what I learned was going on with people working on these issues outside,” says Mara. That inspired her to use her college research thesis to help found a watershed council. The Collaborative, Mara says, will give other students similar opportunities while providing much-needed research for nonprofits and agencies.

Students hoping to receive future fellowships, professors willing to serve as advisors, and others interested in getting involved are encouraged to contact the Collaborative. You can also simply ask to join the Collaborative’s email list to be kept abreast of events. After all, the studies themselves sound very interesting. In just a few weeks, a study on urban freeway cap parks should go online — a study that should be of interest to anyone who lives, works, plays, or drives on the 101, which some would like to cap with a park.

Photo of Alexis Lantz by Damien Newton/LA Streetsblog