Summer 2025 Environmental Health Fellow (Stanford Students Only) - Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.

Overview

NRDC is a non-profit environmental advocacy organization. We use law, science, and the support of 3.1 million members and online activists to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure the rights of all people to clean air, clean water, and healthy communities. NRDC was founded in 1970 and our people helped write some of America's bedrock environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act and many of the implementing regulations. Today, our team of more than 600 lawyers, scientists, economists, policy advocates, communications experts, and others work across the United States and the globe from our offices in Beijing; Chicago; New Delhi; New York; San Francisco; Santa Monica; and Washington, D.C. 

NRDC is seeking a Schneider Fellow to work with the Environmental Health Team in either our New York, Santa Monica, or Chicago offices.

Position summary:

The Environmental Health Program at NRDC is seeking a fellow to support the Place-Based and Equity & Community Partnerships teams in addressing the health impacts of sustainable energy projects in frontline communities. The fellow will work with community partners and NRDC staff to develop strategies to mitigate the cumulative health impacts of energy infrastructure and ensure that sustainable energy projects promote environmental health.

The fellow will focus on supporting NRDC’s work in helping communities most affected by the transition to sustainable energy. The goal is to ensure that these projects do not exacerbate existing health disparities in overburdened communities and to develop actionable solutions to address local health impacts from pollution.

The fellow will have the opportunity to work on multiple projects, including the development of community health impact analysis (HIAs) for sustainable energy projects such as hydrogen hubs, and engaging community partners to ensure that their voices are included projects. Additionally, the fellow will help develop cumulative burden frameworks with frontline partners engaged in EH’s existing advocacy on hydrogen hubs and other sustainable energy projects, bringing together scientific and community-based experts to inform NRDC’s advocacy with frontline partners.

Responsibilities

Support Health Impact Analysis (HIA):

• Assist with developing HIAs focused on the cumulative health impacts of energy projects, such as hydrogen hubs.
• Work with frontline partners to ensure HIAs are used as advocacy tools to inform local decision-makers and protect community health.

Cumulative Impacts Strategy:

• Analyze existing cumulative impacts applications in regulatory and legislative frameworks at the state and local levels.
• Analyze existing regulatory frameworks and identify opportunities for policy changes that reduce cumulative health impacts in sustainable energy projects.
• Develop strategic frameworks to integrate cumulative impacts framing into existing state and local advocacy on sustainable energy infrastructure.

Project Deliverables:

The fellow will produce reports, policy briefs, and community education materials that support NRDC’s advocacy efforts. Key deliverables will include a cumulative impacts framework for Environmental Health’s Place Based and Equity and community partnership teams, and recommendations for regulatory improvements.

Supervision and Mentorship:

The fellow will be supervised by Place -Based or Equity and Community Partnership staff (Michele Hasson if the candidate in in CA, Kimberly Ong if the candidate is in NY and Gina Ramirez if the candidate is located in Chicago), who will provide guidance on partner engagement and strategy development. The fellow will also have support from Jenn Sass for scientific analysis. Supervision will be tailored to the fellow’s needs, ensuring they have the support to lead their work.

Qualifications

Must be a Stanford student to apply.

NRDC is committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, both in our work and in our workplace. We believe that celebrating and actively welcoming diverse voices and perspectives is essential to solving the planet's most pressing environmental problems, and we encourage applications from candidates whose identities have been historically underrepresented in the environmental movement. 

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, marital status, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.  

Our offices are open and we are operating in a hybrid model. We offer NRDCers flexibility, and we ask them to come into the office and spend meaningful time there in collaboration with their colleagues. We call this purposeful presence. 

As a science-based organization, NRDC aims to do our part to help contain the COVID-19 public health crisis. For the sake of health, safety, and equity, we ask that people be vaccinated unless they have an approved medical or religious accommodation or other exemption in accordance with state and local law. We consider a person to be vaccinated two weeks after receiving one full course of a CDC-approved vaccine. In accordance with state or local law, new hires will be asked to attest to vaccination, those wishing to do so may request medical or religious accommodations or other exemptions via NRDC Employee Relations. NRDC treats all vaccine-related data confidentially, in keeping with local, state, and federal laws. 

If you experience technical problems while applying or if you are a person with a disability and need assistance applying online, please reach out to iCIMS Customer Care at 1-800-889-4422. 

For more about NRDC, visit www.nrdc.org.