Dr. Jennifer Richter is an assistant professor in the School of Social Transformation and the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University (ASU). She is also a senior sustainability scholar in the Global Futures Laboratory. Her research is at the intersection of science and society, especially how public values and concerns over environmental and political concerns are expressed at a local or community level, and then taken up and addressed by governmental bodies on a state or national level of governance. Her work questions how new innovations in environmental planning and energy systems can perpetuate inequity, but can also be potential sites for addressing structural inequalities, especially in relation to energy production, distribution, and waste management. More specifically, her research has been focused on informing an equitable process for siting interim nuclear waste repositories (funded by DOE). In Dr. Richter’s current project, her team has been visiting rural and tribal communities around Arizona to get their perspectives on how to create more sustainable futures for their communities, and what kinds of energy projects would aid them in creating those desirable futures. She is also working on a team project exploring the potential for advancing solar energy for urban cooling in Arizona (funded by NSF). These projects focus on creating energy infrastructure that allows for growth in the present, but also for future generations to thrive under rapidly changing environmental and political conditions. In addition to her research, Dr. Richter also teaches several courses for undergraduate and graduate students at ASU, including Energy Justice; Science, Technology and Inequality; and Justice Theory. In addition to formal teaching, she also facilitates community conversations at Arizona libraries on energy and water policy, and volunteers with The College Program, tutoring incarcerated women in Phoenix. She also co-directs the student activist organization Local to Global Justice, which was founded at ASU in 2001.