New Climate Justice Lab announced at Mount Holyoke College

Mount Holyoke College is moving to the front lines of environmentalism with the launch of the Climate Justice Lab. Housed within the Miller Worley Center for the Environment (MWCE), the lab serves as a high-impact hub that integrates climate justice across the College’s curriculum, working to ensure students have the tools they need to tackle one of the defining crises of our era.

Leading the charge is Olivia Aguilar, director of the MWCE and Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) fellow, alongside newly appointed faculty director Vanessa Rosa, associate professor of Latinx Studies and Critical Race and Political Economy. Given Mount Holyoke College’s record of creating bold leaders with global perspectives and a faculty that emphasizes interdisciplinarity and real-world practice, the College is uniquely positioned to be at the helm of climate justice work.

“The timing is ripe to integrate climate justice across the curriculum,” said Aguilar. “This is a great example of how Mount Holyoke College challenges conventions and makes connections across campus. Mount Holyoke College students will be able to engage directly with issues that support sustainable development goals and climate justice, from livable cities and affordable energy to clean air, labor conditions and gender equity.”

The hope is to make sure Mount Holyoke students graduate ready to navigate the ways climate change reshapes neighborhoods, economies and global rights.

“The Climate Justice Lab is vital because climate justice is central to challenging inequality — it is not a separate issue. By explicitly centering the ways that climate change has uneven impacts on socially and economically vulnerable and marginalized populations around the world, we are ensuring that this work is about achieving justice, recognizing that one cannot be disentangled from the other,” said Rosa.

The Lab now serves as the nerve center for Mount Holyoke’s most influential environmental work, including the nationally recognized Community Commitment to Climate Justice, the AASHE affiliated Sustainability Across the Curriculum workshop and the high-profile Summit on Feminist Leadership in Climate Justice, returning in April 2027.

The Miller Worley Center for the Environment continues its mission through the ongoing support of The Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and a community of dedicated donors.