HAQAST Ambassadors represent the broad range of interests of our stakeholders. Ambassadors are provided a venue for feedback, discussion, and regular communication for deeper, more sustained involvement with HAQAST activities. Members are liaisons between NASA and the user community, who engage in activities to promote the use of NASA Earth observations, and share stakeholder needs and questions with HAQAST applied researchers.
Interested in joining? Apply now!
Meet the HAQAST Ambassadors
Zac Adelman
Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium (LADCO)
Executive Director
“LADCO uses NASA data to build knowledge on the sources of air pollution in the Great Lakes region, to enhance our capabilities to model air pollution, and to supplement our decision support information for developing pollution mitigation strategies.”
Temilayo Adeyeye
New York State Department of Health
Research Scientist
“We have applied NLDAS and NASA MODIS data to develop extreme heat metrices in New York State. These data provide spatially contiguous estimates of ambient exposures that affect human health and have been used to inform epidemiologic research that estimated excess risk temperatures for select heat-related health outcomes in New York State.”
Doug Boyer
Texas Commission on Environmental Air Quality
Senior Air Quality Scientist
“TCEQ uses satellite and remote sensing data to support many of our air quality analyses, including photochemical model development and evaluation, trend patterns, high concentration days, exceptional events, and transport studies.”
Eric Choi
GHGSat
Director of Business Development
“GHGSat operates a constellation of 12 satellites that measure and quantify point source greenhouse gas emissions from anthropogenic and naturogenic
sources around the world.”
Kelly Crawford
U.S. Department of Energy
Senior Advisor for Energy Equity and Environmental Justice
“We use NASA data and tools for screening, to inform emissions modeling and development of a DC specific Environmental Justice mapping tool.”
Michael Geigert
Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
Air Quality Meteorologist
“The NASA visible, fire and aerosol products have been a valuable tool for our air quality forecasters, and we make almost daily use of these products.”
Barron H. Henderson
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Physical Scientist
“I use NASA and NOAA satellite data to routinely evaluate and improve atmospheric models that are used in the regulatory process.”
Tabassum Z Insaf
New York State Department of Health
Director, Bureau of Cancer Epidemiology
“We are currently part of a HAQAST project that will use air quality ensemble products developed using satellite data to look at health effects of combined effects of air quality and extreme heat in the context of climate policy initiatives in the state.”
Alex Karambelas
NESCAUM
Environmental Analyst
“NESCAUM and our member states use NASA data to better understand air pollution trends, transport, and chemistry in the northeastern U.S. This includes direct analysis with NASA outputs as well as photochemical model comparison and evaluation.”
Byeong-Uk Kim
Georgia Environmental Protection Division
Program Manager 1
“The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA EPD), uses satellite data and tools to perform technical analysis projects to improve ozone and PM2.5 air quality in the state.”
Maeve MacMurdo
Cleveland Clinic
Pulmonologist
“We use NASA satellite data to better understand how exposure to air pollution impacts the risk and severity of lung disease, with a focus on the health of communities and workers impacted by environmental injustice.”
Magdalene McCarty Sanders
Earth Stewards
President
“NASA satellite data and training has allowed for collaboration and partnerships that has allowed Environmental Justice (EJ) to build a community of practice using satellite data for EJ applications.”
Libby Mohr
Environmental Defense Fund
Senior Data Analyst
“EDF uses NASA data to identify locations and times of elevated air pollution, assess health impacts, and characterize environmental injustices..”
Steve Moran
Senior Strategic Partnerships Development Manager – Public Sector
“BreezoMeter’s products leverage NASA data to provide global, real-time, and hyper-local information on air quality, pollen, and wildfire smoke.”
Amirhosein Mousavi
Google / University of Southern California
Sustainability Data Scientist
“We leverage satellite data in conjunction with other available data sources to accurately quantify landfill emissions.”
Leticia Nogueira, PhD MPH
American Cancer Society
Researcher
“We use satellite data to evaluate how exposure to climate change-fueled extreme weather events and pollution from fossil fuel infrastructure impacts access to cancer care and outcomes.”
Pallavi Pant
Health Effects Institute
Senior Scientist
“I’ve used NASA data/tools for work at the Health Effects Institute as well as for training and public outreach engagements outside of my formal duties.”
Allison Patton
Health Effects Institute
Senior Scientist
“I work on air pollution exposure and health effects using air pollutant concentrations derived from NASA air quality products and other datasets.”
Eric Stevens
National Park Service
Alaska Fire Weather Program Manager
“NASA’s MODIS imagery is fundamental in both the analysis and forecasts processes [for wildfires across Alaska].”
Mary Tran
Department of State
Project Manager
“The Greening Diplomacy Initiative (GDI) greatly values NASA and their data and research contributions to the Department of State’s air quality program, DOSAir….[and] aims to leverage and integrate satellite data in Department products to provide accurate forecasting capabilities for our personnel overseas.”
Mary Uhl
WESTAR
Executive Director
“Satellite data and tools from NASA are key to analyzing air quality issues, improving western inventories, improving forecasting, analyzing air pollution events and providing visual data for communicating with the public.”
About HAQAST Ambassadors
Ambassadors will help connect stakeholders with NASA data and tools. Ambassadors will discuss upcoming HAQAST opportunities, obtain a deeper understanding of new developments, propose additions to meeting agendas, and influence future directions of HAQAST. This is an opportunity to regularly share information two to three times a year and increase the effectiveness of collaborations. Meet our current ambassadors here!
Opportunities for Ambassadors
By being a HAQAST Ambassador, stakeholders can be formally recognized as engaged “super-users” who have devoted time and effort to employing satellite data for health and air quality societal benefit. Ambassadors will also be given opportunities to speak at HAQAST meetings, input to and review of Tiger Team topics and plans, and have their work and contributions highlighted on our website, in our newsletters, and on social media.
Joining the HAQAST Ambassadors
We welcome all interested stakeholders to apply and get involved. We will evaluate applications on a rolling basis, prioritizing stakeholders from non-academic institutions and those representing a range of applications. We ask you commit for one year, with an option to renew. We hope to continue growing this community throughout the HAQAST grant cycle (through 2025).
To become an ambassador, we ask that stakeholders participate in three components:
- Articulate the value of NASA data (which can be included in the application statement and which we would share on our public website).
- Lead initiatives with peers or their organizations to share information on NASA data (this includes giving talks at association meetings, providing features on organization websites or in newsletters, etc.).
- Provide annual updates on activities and initiatives. Ambassadors are also invited to participate in HAQAST meetings.