Impactful Tree Planting Strategies to Mitigate Heat Inequalities in Connecticut

Shijuan Chen is a postdoctoral associate at Yale University. She received her PhD in Earth and Environment from Boston University. Her research focuses on using remote sensing technology to monitor terrestrial ecosystems. Her research interests include land cover and land use change, remote sensing, deforestation and forest degradation, carbon cycle, urban ecology, urban heat island, and environmental justice.

Dr. Chen has been involved in research projects funded by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), USGS (United States Geological Survey), Boston University, and NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada), SilvaCarbon and NASA SERVIR.

Colleen Murphy-Dunning is Director of both the Hixon Center for Urban Sustainability and the Urban Resources Initiative (URI) at the Yale School of Environment (YSE). URI carries out community-driven urban forestry to improve both the social and physical environment of the City of New Haven.  Colleen manages the Hixon Center Fellowship program to support graduate students conducting a wide range of research projects in cities across the globe. She also co-leads a field-based urban ecology training module for all incoming YSE graduate students. Colleen received her B.S. in Public and Environmental Affairs from Indiana University, and M.S. in Forestry from Humboldt State University.