Karla Salazar is the Communications Intern at the Energy Futures Initiative.
Karla is working towards her Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Texas at Austin where she is studying Environmental Science, Geography, and Smart Cities Policy. She has worked as an undergraduate researcher with the City of Austin Transportation Department. In this role, she used micro-mobility ridership data, social equity metrics, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) visualizations to identify communities in the Austin metro area in need of better transportation infrastructure.
Currently, she is part of a policy committee for the Negative Emissions Technology Project team at the University of Texas (UT), a student-led organization focusing on research on carbon sequestration methods and policies to be applied in the Austin region. She is involved in creating a collaborative techno-economic analysis to present to UT’s Utilities Department aiming to retrofit a solvent-based carbon capture model onto the university’s existing boiler system.
Outside of school, Karla works weekly at a student-run farm where she helps lead volunteer groups of 40+ people. There, she guides individuals on planting and harvesting produce that is then donated to the university’s pantry. Presently, she volunteers as a graphic designer and science communicator for the farm’s social media where she is in charge of outreach, creating educational sustainability content to attract more students toward urban agriculture.
