Faculty Profile: Hayley Martinez
Hayley Martinez is the executive director of the Columbia Climate Institute, where she serves as chief of staff to the senior associate dean for finance and administration. In this role, Martinez works cross-functionally between the core management team to facilitate operations.She joined the Earth Institute in 2013 and has been working in Master of Sustainability Management at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies. Her extensive experience includes project management, event planning and outreach, and the development of data-driven analytics to support operations and management. Before joining Columbia, she worked for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Climate Change Adaptation Program and the nonprofit Pure Earth. Martinez holds a master’s degree in environmental health policy from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Columbia Climate Institute staff and Earth Institute alumni make up a large portion of the faculty in the Master of Sustainable Management program, so it’s no wonder that Martinez will co-teach an Earth Institute internship this fall.
What initially motivated you to pursue the field of sustainability?
I have always been passionate about environmental issues and have a particular interest in looking at them from a health perspective, which is what drew me to studying environmental health policy at the Mailman School of Public Health. Like the fields of sustainable development and climate, public health is inherently interdisciplinary, dealing with complex topics that affect society in critical ways. The MPH program was critical in giving me a better understanding of the links between health, environment and sustainability and how policy can address these interdisciplinary challenges.
What drew you to the Columbia School of Climate and Professional Studies?
My first contact with the Earth Institute was when I was a graduate student at Mailman. At that time (before the Climate School), the institute had a student committee with representatives from different schools in Colombia, and I was the public health representative. That was my first exposure to Earth Institute research and how I learned about the amazing scientific activity happening at places like the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Shortly after graduation, I started working at the Earth Institute, where I held many operational and programmatic hats over the years. Now, at Climate School, I am excited to have the opportunity to be involved in teaching.
What courses will you be teaching this fall, and what excites you the most?
I’m co-teaching the Earth Institute Internship, an investigative course that invites faculty and scientists from the Earth Institute at the Columbia Climate Institute to talk about their research and how their work addresses real-world problems. These lectures emphasize key concepts in earth and environmental sciences and social sciences relevant to sustainable development practices, including an introduction to data sources, analytical methods, and decision-making tools. I like this course because it showcases the wide range of expertise we have within the school and provides a great overview of the key problems our scientists are addressing. Students also wrote their own research papers on sustainability topics of their choice, and I’m excited to see which creative problems students choose to tackle.
What changes do you hope to see in the future of sustainability?
I would like to see environmental justice themes embedded more deeply in the field and include more diverse voices in addressing these challenging issues.Our first guest speaker for this year’s internship is Lamont Studies Professor Ajit Subramanian, who will be at Co-production of knowledge In a project in Kotzebue, Alaska. Here’s a great project overview:
The project brought in Aboriginal voices through the Elders Advisory Council to inform scientists on how to study the region’s changing sea ice. The Advisory Board is an important partner from the beginning of the project, with teams working together to develop research questions, see how results are reported, and more. I’m still learning a lot on this topic, but I think we need more of these approaches.
What advice do you have for students pursuing sustainable careers?
Any experience – even without sustainability in name – can be geared towards sustainability (or climate, environmental policy, etc.). A job, internship or any experience is ultimately your achievement.
