Julie Maldonado

Julie Maldonado is the co-founder and associate director for the Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, a link-tank nonprofit organization that works in collaborations to create, sustain, and regenerate local livelihoods, community wellbeing, and mutual care by meeting basic life needs through stewardship of local life commons. Maldonado serves primarily as the Disaster Resilience Program Director. She is also an associate professor at Future Generations University, a continuing lecturer in the University of California-Santa Barbara’s Environmental Studies Program, a consultant with the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals' Tribal Well Being for Seven Generations Program, and co-founder and facilitator for the Disaster Justice Network. She previously served as the co-director of the Rising Voices Center for Indigenous and Earth Sciences, which facilitated intercultural, relational-based approaches for understanding and adapting to extreme weather and climate events, variability, and change. As a public anthropologist, she has worked for local, national, and international institutions on disaster and climate change risk reduction, recovery, displacement/resettlement, and adaptation strategies. Maldonado served as an author on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th U.S. National Climate Assessments. Maldonado holds a PhD in anthropology from American University.