Faculty

Ana is an Associate Professor of Environmental and Climate Justice at the Parsons School of Design and also serves as the Director of the Tishman Environment & Design Center  (TEDC) at The New School. 

Ana's research and professional practice focuses on environmental justice (EJ) and climate justice. She works collaboratively with movement organizations to support the advancement of environmental justice. Ana works on a range of related issues including environmental justice and cumulative impacts policies, climate justice and renewable energy, land use and zoning tools for environmental justice, zero waste systems, and critical approaches to carbon management and climate mitigation strategies. Ana's professional practice is based primarily in community engaged scholarship and critical participatory action research. 

Ana’s current research and practice focuses on innovations happening on state-level cumulative impacts policies. She helped to pass a landmark EJ and cumulative impacts law in New Jersey, with EJ leaders in the state and recently co-authored papers on these efforts in the EJ Journal's Special Issue on Cumulative Impacts (2025). She recently co-authored two articles on the development of a database of state cumulative impact policies and the implementation of New Jersey's cumulative impact law in the Environmental Justice Journal. 

Ana also served as a co-editor on a special issue of the Journal of Climate Resilience and Climate Justice (CRCJ) focused on critical perspectives and environmental justice implications of industrial carbon management approaches. She co-authored a paper for this issue highlighting the environmental justice implications of federal investments in industrial carbon management projects.

Ana is currently leading the Centering Justice initiative at the Tishman Center which seeks to align the work of academic centers committed to environmental and climate justice, philanthropy, and movement partners to advance environmental justice goals. This initiative includes hosting an annual Centering Justice Symposium and a Community of Practice across Higher Education to advance environmental and climate justice. She served as a co-editor and co-author on a special issue of the Environmental Justice Journal focused on Community-Engaged Research and Practice coming out of the inaugral Centering Justice Symposium hosted January 2024 at The New School.

Ana co-founded the national Environmental Justice Movement Fellowship, EJ Disrupt Design Fellowship, housed at the Tishman Center and led by Angela Mahecha. Ana serves as the principal investigator for the fellowship which builds the capacity of movement leaders to scale and innovate just climate solutions  Ana is also an inaugural member of the Equitable and Just National Climate Platform where she supports EJ organizations in centering climate justice in federal policymaking.

Ana has also contributed several book chapters on issues related to the EJ movement including a chapter about the significance of EJ tours in movement building called, Environmental Justice Tours: Transformative Narratives of Struggle, Solidarity and Activism, in an edited volume on Toxic Heritage sites. She also contributed a chapter on Urban and Regional Planning in an edited volume called GroundTruths on community-engaged research for environmental justice.

In 2025, Ana was appointed to the NYC Environmental Justice Advisory Board serving on the Research & Policy workgroup and was previously appointed to the Fourth New York City Panel on Climate Change by Mayor DeBlasio where she co-chaired the Equity Workgroup and co-authored the chapter, "Advancing Climate Justice in Climate Adaptation Stategies for New York City." The chapter explores the intersecting issues of climate displacement, community-led climate adaptation strategies and best practices for acheiving climate justice. Ana serves on the Executive Advisory Council of the Megalopolitan Coastal Transformation Hub (MACH) and as an external member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council’s Carbon Management Workgroup. She co-authored two reports for the WHEJAC Carbon Management Work Group focused on recommendations for federal agencies to incorporate environmental justice considerations on all aspects of national carbon management deployment. She helped to co-author the "Statement by Environmental Justice Organizations on the National Symposium on Climate Justice and Carbon Management" (2023). The Tishman Center, under Ana's leadership, is currently providing technical support to the National People's Hearing Tour, which is led by former members of the WHEJAC. 

Ana also serves in a variety of supporting roles in the community including as the Co-Chair of the Passaic River Superfund Community Advisory Group, a member of the Coalition for Healthy Ports and the national Moving Forward Network. She serves on the Board of Trustees for the Victoria Foundation, Ironbound Community Corporation, and the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance. She previously served as the co-chair on the Board of Trustees for the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA). Prior to joining The New School Ana served as the Environmental Justice Director for the Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC) in Newark, where she worked for close to a decade in and now serves on the Board of Trustees. Her ongoing work with environmental justice issues in her hometown of Newark, New Jersey was featured in the documentary film, The Sacrifice Zone.

Ph.D., Urban Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey New Brunwsick, NJ

MA, Environmental Studies, Brown University, Providence, RI

BA, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, and Environmental Studies Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

Book Chapters

• Baptista, Ana I. (2025) "Finding Hope at the Margins: A Journey of Environmental Justice." Ecological and Social Healing: Multicultural Women's Voices. 2nd Ed. Jeanine M. Canty. New York: Routledge

• Baptista, A. (2025) Solidarity: How Can Solidarity Catalyze Energy Democracy. in Power Shift: Keywords for a New Politics of Energy. Eds. Szeman, I., & Wenzel, J., West Virginia University Press

• Baptista, A. (2023), Chapter 16: Environmental Justice Tours: Transformative Narratives of Struggle, Solidarity and Activism. In Toxic Heritage: Legacies, Futures, and Environmental Injustice. Ed. May, S. & Kryder-Reid, E. New York, NY: Routledge.

• Baptista, A., Matsuoka, M., & Raphael, C. (2023), Urban and Regional Planning. In C. Raphael & M. Matsuoka, Community-Engaged Research for Environmental Justice. Berkeley, CA: University of California - Luminos Press

• Baptista, Ana I. (2022) "Global Goods, Local Impact", In Material Health: Design Frontiers, Ed. J. Ruth and A. Mears, Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd, 

• Baptista, Ana I. (2021) “Introduction: Radical Resistance and Future Imaginaries for Environmental Justice”  in The World We Need ,Ed. Audrea Lim, New York: The New Press

• Baptista, Ana I. (2019) "The Evolution of the Environmental Justice Movement: Trans-Local Voices for Systemic Transformations" in Globalism and Localization in the Context of the Ecological and Social Crisis. Ed. Jeanine M. Canty. New York: Routledge

• Ramirez, I., Baptista, A., Lee, J., Traverso-Krejcarek, A. Santos, A. (2019) Fighting for Urban Environmental Health Justice in Southside (Los Sures) Williamsburg, Brooklyn: A Community Engaged Pilot Study. In Handbook of Global Urban Health, New York: Routledge

• Baptista, Ana I. (2018) "Innovations for Sustainability via New York City's Residential Curbside Organic Waste Collection Program: Pathways to Zero Waste" in Smarter New York City: How City Agencies Innovate. Ed. André Corrêa d'Almeida. New York: Columbia University Press

• Baptista, A. (2018), Chapter 20: Environmental Justice. In Complete Guide to Planning in New Jersey, 4th Edition. New Jersey Chapter, American Planning Association.

• Baptista, Ana I. (2017) "Finding Hope at the Margins: A Journey of Environmental Justice." Ecological and Social Healing: Multicultural Women's Voices. Ed. Jeanine M. Canty. New York: Routledge

Articles

• Baptista, A. I., Lam, Y., Yulsman, A., Killough, M., & Bez, C. S. (2025). A Resource Database of Cumulative Impacts Permitting Policies: Emerging Opportunities to Protect Environmental Justice Communities from Additional Burden. Environmental Justice.

• Baptista, A., Lam, Y., Ventrella, J., et al. (2025). Climate Justice Futures: Carbon Management Risks and Alternatives. Journal of Climate Resilience and Justice 2: 1–17. 

• Sheats, N., Baptista, A. I., Lopez-Nunez, M., & Miles, M. (2025). They Said It Couldn’t Be Done: A Case Study of New Jersey’s Landmark Environmental Justice Law (S. 232). Environmental Justice.

• Raphael, C., Matsuoka, M., & Baptista, A. I. (2025). Community-Engaged Research for Environmental Justice.

• Lam, Y., Ventrella, J., Baptista, A., and Rodriguez, J. (2025). Analysis of Proposed Carbon Capture Projects in the US Power Sector and Co-Location with Environmental Justice Communities. PLOS One 20, no. 5: e0323817.

• Baptista, A., Lam, Y., Santos Ramirez, J., Ventrella, J., and Austin, S. (2025). The ‘Centering Justice’ Symposium: A Call to Climate and Environmental Justice Centers Within Higher Education. Environmental Justice. 

• Foster, S., Baptista, A., Nguyen, K., Tchen, J., Tedesco, M, and Leichenko, R. (2024). Advancing Climate Justice in Climate Adaptation Strategies for New York City. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 10.1111/nyas.15148.

• Ji, N., Baptista, A., Yu, C.H., et al. (2024). Traffic-Related Air Pollution, Chronic Stress, and Changes in Exhaled Nitric Oxide and Lung Function among a Panel of Children with Asthma Living in an Underresourced Community. Science of The Total Environment 912: 168984. 

• Tedesco, M., Foster, S., Baptista, A., & Zuzak, C. (2023). A multi-hazard climate, displacement and socio-vulnerability score for New York City. Sustainability, 16(1), 42.

• Baptista, A., Jesudason, S., Greenberg, M., and Perovich, A. (2023). Landscape Assessment of the US Environmental Justice Movement: Transformative Strategies for Climate Justice. Environmental Justice.

• Santos-Ramirez, J., Baptista, A., Perovich, A., Greenberg, M, Lopez, A., and Rosenberg, A. (2022). Environmental Justice and Philanthropy: Challenges and Opportunities for Alignment. Foundation Review, 14(1), 7.

• Baptista, A. (March 2021). Zoning, Land Use, and Local Policies for Environmental Justice, Zoning Practice, American Planning Association.

• Ji, N., Fang, M., Baptista, A., Cepeda, C., Greenberg, M., Mincey, I. C., & Laumbach, R. J. (2021). Exposure  To Traffic-related Air Pollution and Changes In Exhaled Nitric Oxide and DNA Methylation in Arginase and Nitric Oxide Synthase in Children With Asthma. Environmental Health, 20(1), 1-11.

• Baptista, A.I. and Amarnath, K., (2016). Garbage, Power, and Environmental Justice: The Clean Power Plan  Rule, Wm. & Mary Envtl. L. & Pol’y Rev, 41, 403

• Ho Yu, C., Zhi-Hua (Tina) Fan, Lioy, P., Baptista, A., Greenberg, M., Laumbach, R. (September 2016). A Mobile Monitoring Approach to Characterize Spatial and Temporal Variation in Traffic-Related Air Pollutants in an Urban Community. Atmospheric Environment.

• Laumbach, R., Baptista, A., Fiedler, N., Cepeda, C., Fan, Z., Pavilonis, B., Ohman-Strickland, P., and Kipen, H., (2013). Cumulative Impacts Of Traffic Pollutants And Psychosocial Stress On Childhood Asthma Exacerbation In An Urban Community. In C105. Pollution Effects, pp. A5098-A5098. American Thoracic Society.

Reports & White Papers

Environmental Justice Concerns with Carbon Capture and Hydrogen Co-Firing in the Power Sector. Lam, Y., Ventrella, J., Baptista, A., and Rodriguez Castellanos, J.D., Tishman Environment & Design Center. (2024) 

Mandatory Emissions Reductions for Climate Mitigation in the Power Sector. Sheats, N., Perovich, A., Yulsman, A., Ventrella, J., Lam, Y., and  Baptista, A.  Tishman Environment & Design Center. (2023) 

False Solutions for Just Climate Mitigation and Clean Energy Policies. Baptista, A. and Ventrella, J. Tishman Environment & Design Center. (2022) 

Understanding the Evolution of Cumulative Impacts: Definitions and Policies in the U.S.. Baptista, A., Perovich, A., Pulido-Velosa, M., Valencia, E., Valdez, M. Tishman Environment and Design Center (August 2022)

Defining Environmental Justice Communities: Implications for State and Federal Environmental Justice Policies. Baptista, A., Sheats, N., Perovich, A. and Valdez, M., Tishman Environment and Design Center (January 2022)

EJ and Philanthropy: Challenges and Opportunities for Alignment. Midwest and Gulf South Case Studies. March 2020, Tishman Environment and Design Center

Environmental Justice Movement: Priorities, Strategies and Just Transitions. May 2019, Tishman Environment and Design Center

U.S. Municipal Solid Waste Incinerators: An Industry in Decline, May 21, 2019, Tishman Environment & Design Center 

Local Policies for Environmental Justice: A National Scan, February 2019, Tishman Environment & Design Center 

Public Articles/Commentary

Will a "Cumulative Impacts" Law Lead to Environmental Justice? The Devil is in the Details.  The Center for New York City Affairs, April 1, 2026

As Trump Turns his Back on Environmental Justice, States and Cities Must Step Up. Ana Baptista and Leslie Fields, Common Deams, Opinion, February 11, 2026

It's Time We Put an End to the Carbon Capture Farce, Ana Baptista and Dana Johnson, Common Dreams, Opinion, November 14, 2023 

Reflections on President Biden's signing of  Executive Order 14096 on Environmental Justice, April 28, 2023

Coronavirus Crisis Demands Environmental Justice Response. Op Ed, May 19, 2020, New Jersey Spotlight. 

Is Burning Trash a Good Way to Handle It? Waste Incineration in 5 Charts.The Conversation, June 20, 2019