August 2026

Stephanie Pincetl is a Professor and founding Director of the Center for Sustainable Communities at the UCLA Institute of the Environment. Dr. Pincetl conducts research on environmental policies and governance and is expert in bringing together interdisciplinary teams of researchers across the biophysical and engineering sciences with the social sciences to address problems of complex urban systems and environmental management. Her commitment is to science in the public interest and to conducting science that advances social and environmental justice. She conducts research on cities, how they impact resources far and near such as energy sources and energy distribution systems, and how such resources are used in cities, where, by whom, and to do what. She focuses on quantifying those flows, including urban generated wastes like greenhouse gases, and how institutions, regulations and rules shape the ways the flows are appropriated, and how cities are built (including infrastructures) and organized.  She has created the first ever interactive energy web atlas that describes building energy use in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area (www.energyatlas.ucla.edu).  She has conducted extensive California Energy Commission, Strategic Growth Council and County research on energy and sustainability, and has written extensively about California land use, including her book Transforming California, the Political History of Land Use in the State. Her most recent book: The Myth of Sustainable Cities, How We Lost the Holocene, is coming out in September, published by Routledge.

Jonathan Blake is Director of the Planetary Program at the Berggruen Institute. Blake is the co-author, with Nils Gilman, of Children of a Modest Star: Planetary Thinking for an Age of Crises (2024) and author of Contentious Rituals: Parading the Nation in Northern Ireland (2019). He previously held research positions at the RAND Corporation, Columbia Global Policy Initiative, and the Chumir Foundation. His writing on planetary politics, governance, ethnic conflict, migration, and more have appeared in Noema, where he’s Associate Editor, Aeon, The Atlantic, Boston Review, The Nation, Los Angeles Review of Books, and scholarly journals. He holds a B.A. in political science from UC Berkeley and a M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University.

Erin Bromaghim serves as Chief of Staff to Los Angeles City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who represents West L.A. in the Fifth District. Erin most recently served as Deputy Mayor of International Affairs for Los Angeles Mayors Karen Bass and Eric Garcetti, where she led a team focused on preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as international trade and investment, consular affairs, educational and cultural exchange, and city diplomacy. As the Hilton Foundation Fellow, she also led the City’s innovative work to implement the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, and concurrently held a non-resident Senior Fellow position with the Truman Center focused on City & State Diplomacy. Prior to her time at City Hall, Erin spent 13 years as a senior civilian in the U.S. Department of Defense and NATO, managing complex budget, defense, intelligence, and security reform efforts.