Jessica Leigh

Jessica is originally from the New York area but moved around quite a bit as a child, and now feels  that San Francisco is her home more than any other place. When she was younger she was very involved in the arts, first as a ballet dancer and then later moving into theatre. Eventually she co-founded her own theatre company that was dedicated to performances that dealt with social issues facing the contemporary world

While retaining a strong appreciation for the arts, she went on to study Peace and Conflict Studies at Berkeley because she was troubled by so much conflict in our world and wanted to have a greater impact on solving societal problems. Looking at different types of contemporary conflict, she became passionate about resolving environmental problems and felt this was the specific area she wanted to focus on.

Since graduating, Jessica has worked for a few different NGOs. At one she focused on environmental public policy affecting the Latino community in California, at another on elephant conservation in Sri Lanka, and with the last she worked on bringing energy efficiency upgrades to the multifamily affordable housing sector in the US. She has also written about the nascent environmental movement in Buenos Aires, Argentina and worked as an editor while traveling in South America.

The MSc in Environmental Change and Management is an interdiscplinary course focused on tackling current environmental problems on local, national, international, and global levels. The course is centered around three main areas: energy, ecosystems, and climate change.