Mapping inequality and mapping change
PCJ in the Bay Fellowship Stories: Calista Ordas
I think we often take the air we breathe for granted and forget not everyone breathes equally. Nearly half of Americans are still exposed to air pollution, with communities of color and low-income neighborhoods bearing a disproportionate share. This was the throughline of my Partnerships for Climate Justice in the Bay Area Fellowship with Rise South City, a community-based NGO advancing climate resilience and environmental justice (EJ) in South San Francisco (SSF). My work focused on using GIS mapping and data analysis to show, and ultimately help change, the unequal distribution of environmental burden.
My undergraduate major was earth systems, with a focus on agriculture and geology. Along the way, I worked at several internships in a wide range of areas—researching, management consulting, and environmental engineering. These roles gave me valuable technical skills, but they also felt distant from people directly affected by those issues. For too long, the enviro-sciences field has focused narrowly on ecosystems and climate, without equally recognizing the lives of the people in them. And thus as an environmental scientist, there is a responsibility to work alongside communities impacted; lasting change for our planet needs to mean lasting change for people too.
I think that is what drew me to apply for the fellowship. It also allowed me to try something new by working with a nonprofit, where I could see real-time impacts. With Rise, I was able to wear many hats: meeting with community organizers, hosting workshops, planting trees, and building tools that advocate for a cleaner city.
The focal point of my summer was developing an air quality monitor deployment tool, an internal web app to help Rise identify where to place air quality monitors. As they plan to expand beyond SSF, they needed a way to prioritize sites, since resources in the nonprofit world are limited and reliable monitors are expensive.
The tool was an internal ArcGIS-based dashboard designed to evaluate potential sites by bringing together data on six key factors: schools, freeways, contamination sites, existing monitors, tree cover, and CalEnviroScreen scores. With a few clicks, staff can drop a pin on the map and instantly see how potential sites compare.This dashboard is more than an efficiency tool—it makes inequities visible. Zooming into a neighborhood and seeing a school beside a freeway shapes the story of inequality. Data becomes human when someone can point to a map and say, “that’s my block” or “that’s my kid’s school.” After showcasing the team my tool, they were all excited about how much easier monitor deployment will be. As Julio put it, “We can spend less time guessing… allows us to focus on outreach and community.”
Like many U.S. cities, SSF’s landscape was shaped by redlining. Communities of color were pushed near industry, and so those neighborhoods bear the brunt of health risks. As Rise directors Julio Garcia and Francesca Pedraza often underscored, resilience is the foundation of EJ; the work is not only about exposing injustice but also about the possibility of change. GIS plays a key role here. It doesn’t just map problems; it creates a shared language, making data (and education) visibly accessible across a community of many cultures and languages.
Through this fellowship, I came to understand that I value impact I can see and touch, and I’m most fulfilled when my work is directly tied to people’s lives rather than models. I also learned that climate justice is as much about relationships and trust as it is about technical analysis like GIS; space and place can be a powerful tool when it is grounded in community context.
One of my favorite moments was when we introduced residents to the new Aclima air monitoring car for SSF—people took photos, asked lots of questions, and eagerly toured the vehicle. Seeing that level of energy and curiosity made the impact of our work feel real. Most importantly, I adored being part of a team of people who were driven by community, not by prestige or profit—a refreshing step outside of Stanford’s grind culture. As I think about life after pursuing my coterminal masters degree, I can now imagine myself working full-time with a nonprofit!
As I wrap up this summer, I feel deeply grateful by how much this fellowship motivated me. Taking on different parts of the work, alongside incredible people, and seeing the tangible impact of my projects made me realize this is the kind of work I am meant to do. A special thank you to the Rise team—Julio, Amelia, Francesca, and Monica—for making me genuinely excited to show up each day, log into meetings, and share my work. Since I’ll be finishing school next year, this was my last internship ever, and also the most eye-opening. I can’t imagine a better way to close out my time as a student than with work that has shown me the kind of future I want to build.
Calista (Cali) Ordas is a recent Stanford graduate with a BS in earth systems and a minor in data science, currently pursuing her MS in environmental systems with a focus on social-environmental systems and analysis. This summer, she partnered with Rise South City in South San Francisco as a Partnerships for Climate Justice in the Bay Area Fellow to support projects focused on air quality, restoration, and climate resilience.
