about us
The Pacific Northwest Atlas of Essential Work is the product of a dynamic team of storytellers–researchers, writers and designers. We came together in the wake of the first wave of Covid-19, in the hopes of placing the contributions and quality of life of essential workers at the heart of our understanding of sustainability and racial and climate justice. Our team includes graduate students, staff, and faculty at the University of Oregon that collaborate within the Pacific Northwest Just Futures Institute for Racial and Climate Justice (JFI). Our digital design team members are affiliated with the University of Oregon’s InfoGraphics Lab.
The collaborative work of this Atlas begins and ends in its design focus. The creativity, conceptual and visual sophistication of our designers supports our transdisciplinary storytelling, across geography, history, public policy, and literary and cultural studies.
Our writers and storytellers include: Ashia Ajani, John Arroyo, Stephanie LeMenager, Sarah Stoeckl. Designers include Janice Chen, James Meacham, Joanna Merson, Erik Steiner, and Alethea Steingisser. This work would not be possible without the painstaking academic research of John Arroyo, Troy Brundidge, Bob Busell, Charlotte Klein, Leigh Johnson, and Dan Tichenor. Thanks also to the University of Oregon’s Labor Education and Research Center (LERC) for its State of Immigrants reports, which inform this work, to the UO Office of Sustainability for hosting this project, and to Rachael Lee, our resident cartoonist and portraitist.
This work would not be possible without the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Atlas team
John Arroyo
Director
John C. Arroyo, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in Engaging Diverse Communities and Director of the PNW Just Futures Institute for Racial and Climate Justice at the University of Oregon. Arroyo’s research focuses on the political and cultural dimensions of immigrant-centered built environments in emerging gateways.
John C. Arroyo
Stephanie LeMenager
Co-Pl
Stephanie LeMenager, Ph.D., is Barbara and Carlisle Moore Professor of English and Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon, where she co-directs the Center for Environmental Futures and is the Co-PI for the PNW Just Futures Institute for Racial and Climate Justice.
Stephanie LeMenager
Sarah Stoeckl
Assistant Director
Sarah Stoeckl, PhD is the assistant director in the UO Office of Sustainability with over a decade of experience in program and project management for non-profits, tech companies, and universities. She is committed to environmental concerns and issues, particularly those focused on the intersection of environmentalism with social justice and food ethics, as well as reversing climate change with a particular interest in its affective consequences.
Sarah Stoeckl
Alethea Steingisser
Cartographic Production Manager
Alethea Steingisser is the cartographic production manager in the InfoGraphics Lab at the University of Oregon where she has worked since 2005. She works with InfoGraphics staff and students on the conceptualization and design for a wide variety of cartographic projects in the Lab.
Alethea Steingisser
Joanna Merson
Cartographic Developer
Joanna Merson is a Cartographic Developer in the University of Oregon Department of Geography InfoGraphics Lab. Her primary duties are to design visualizations and web mapping products to support academic research activities and to teach Web Mapping courses. With a B.Sc. in Geomatics (Combined Geography and Computer Science) and an M.A. in Geography, her skills include a foundation in geographic principles, data modeling, and user-driven visualization techniques.
Joanna Merson
Erik Steiner
Co-Director, CESTA
Erik Steiner is a geographer-cartographer working at the intersection of technology, creative arts, and academic scholarship in the humanities, social, and environmental sciences. He is the Co-Director of the Spatial History Project at the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA) at Stanford University.
Erik Steiner
McClean Gonzalez
Master's Student
McClean Gonzalez (he/him) is a Master’s Student in Landscape Architecture at the University of Oregon. He received his Bachelor of Science in Environmental Design from Auburn University. His research interests focus on expanding the ways that the public can be involved in the planning and design of public infrastructure.
McClean Gonzalez
Janice Chen
Master’s Student
Janice Chen is a writer and cartographer specializing in interactive, multimedia stories that explore the history of landscapes.
Janice Chen
James Meacham
UO InfoGraphics Lab Director
James Meacham is co-founder and retired director of the University of Oregon’s InfoGraphics Lab and is a senior research associate emeritus in the Department of Geography. He is a former president of the North American Cartographic Information Society. His interests include map and atlas design and data visualization. Jim taught map design in the UO Geography Department for over 20 years.
James Meacham
Researchers
Bob Bussel
Professor I Emeritus
Bob Bussel is professor emeritus of history and the former director of the Labor Education and Research Center (LERC) at the University of Oregon.
Bob has spent over four decades in the union movement, including work with the United Farm Workers, ten years as an organizer with the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. and twenty-five years as a university-based labor educator.
Bob Bussel
Dan Tichenor
Chair of Social Science
Daniel J. Tichenor is the Philip H. Knight Chair of Social Science and Program Director at the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics at the University of Oregon. A scholar of immigration policy, social movements, and political history, he has published nine books, including Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control (Princeton), Rivalry and Reform: Presidents, Social Movements and the Transformation of American Politics (Chicago), and Democracy’s Child: Young People and the Politics of Control, Leverage, and Agency (Oxford).
Dan Tichenor
Ashia Ajani
Educator
Ashia Ajani is a Black environmental educator and storyteller hailing from Denver, CO, Queen City of the Plains and the unceded territory of the Cheyenne, Ute, Arapahoe and Comanche peoples. Ajani is a Digital Humanities Assistant with JFI and environmental justice educator with Mycelium Youth Network. Their words have been featured in Sierra Magazine, Atmos, World Literature Today and Them., among others.
Ashia Ajani
Leigh Johnson
Assistant Professor
Leigh Johnson is a human geographer focusing on the intersection of disaster and climate risk, vulnerability, labor, and finance. My research investigates how configurations of public and private sector actors and financial arrangements shape disaster vulnerability and influence people’s everyday socioecological reproduction. My work spans multiple regions – Africa, North America, and Europe – and scales from individuals, to nation states, to globally circulating policy networks.
Leigh Johnson
Troy Brundidge
PhD Student
Troy Brundidge is a PhD Candidate in the University of Oregon Department of Geography. His work explores topics in economic geography and political economy, with special interests in emerging insurance markets, public finance and planning, race, and labor. He earned an MA in Geography and Environmental Studies from Northeastern Illinois University, and a B.S in Journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Troy Brundidge
Charlotte Klein
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Charlotte Klein (She/Her) is a recent graduate from the University of Oregon’s Robert D. Clark Honors College where she double majored in Spatial Data Science & Technology and Environmental Science. During undergrad, Charlotte discovered her passion for exploring socioecological systems across spatiotemporal scales using geographic data science.
Charlotte Klein
Jenna Witzleben
Master's Student
Jenna Witzleben (she/they) is a Master of Landscape Architecture student and an InfoGraphics Lab member. Jenna is honored to contribute design and research skills to the Atlas of Essential Work leveraging their prior work as a design strategist and degrees in design and engineering. Jenna’s MLA work focuses on biocultural diversity and public health sovereignty. They also are an organizer with local grassroots food and climate justice groups.
Jenna Witzleben
Erin Moore
Professor
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Erin Moore
Nadya Barba Ramirez
JD Student
Nadya Barba Ramirez dictumst quisque sagittis purus sit amet volutpat consequat mauris nunc congue nisi vitae suscipit tellus mauris a diam maecenas sed enim ut sem viverra aliquet eget sit amet tellus cras adipiscing enim eu turpis egestas pretium aenean pharetra magna ac placerat vestibulum lectus mauris ultrices eros in cursus turpis massa tincidunt dui ut ornare lectus sit amet est placerat in egestas erat imperdiet sed
Nadya Barba Ramirez
Eden McCall
Undergraduate Student
Eden McCall dictumst quisque sagittis purus sit amet volutpat consequat mauris nunc congue nisi vitae suscipit tellus mauris a diam maecenas sed enim ut sem viverra aliquet eget sit amet tellus cras adipiscing enim eu turpis egestas pretium aenean pharetra magna ac placerat vestibulum lectus mauris ultrices eros in cursus turpis massa tincidunt dui ut ornare lectus sit amet est placerat in egestas erat imperdiet sed
Eden McCall
Ellie Wood
Master's Student
Ellie Wood dictumst quisque sagittis purus sit amet volutpat consequat mauris nunc congue nisi vitae suscipit tellus mauris a diam maecenas sed enim ut sem viverra aliquet eget sit amet tellus cras adipiscing enim eu turpis egestas pretium aenean pharetra magna ac placerat vestibulum lectus mauris ultrices eros in cursus turpis massa tincidunt dui ut ornare lectus sit amet est placerat in egestas erat imperdiet sed
Ellie Wood
Additional contributors
Team
Lucero Cortez
Nadya Barba-Ramirez
Jackelyn Cortez-Fregoso
Caty Jimenez
Esmeralda Flores
Kennedy Barrera-Cruz