Team - SDG Policy Initiative, UCSD

Director

Gordon McCord is Associate Dean and Associate Teaching Professor of Economics at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego. He is also Senior Advisor to the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations. He has an extensive background in sustainable development and works at the intersection of development economics, public health and the environment.

Faculty Affiliates

Dr. Lerner is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. She was an assistant research professor in the National Laboratory for Sustainability Science in the Ecology Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM, Mexico City from 2015 to 2020. In Mexico City she led several research projects related to city-university partnerships, the persistence of peri-urban agriculture, and capacity-building in the local city government for risk management and resilience. Dr. Lerner’s research focuses on processes of landscape change and especially on the rural-urban frontier, sustainable aspects of city planning, including resilience, green infrastructure, and urban and peri-urban agriculture, and the science-policy interface.

Teevrat Garg (he/him) is an associate professor of economics in the School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS) at UC San Diego. His research focuses on environmental policy and energy transitions in low- and middle-income countries. His current portfolio of research involves working directly with regional governments and utilities in understanding climate adaptation and decarbonization. In recent years, he has conducted research in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mexico, Uganda and Vietnam.

David Victor is a professor of innovation and public policy at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego. He is the Peter F Cowhey Center for Global Transformation Endowed Chair in Innovation and Public Policy. Victor is also the co-director of the campus-wide Deep Decarbonization Initiative, which focuses on real world strategies for bringing the world to nearly zero emissions of warming gases. Victor is also an adjunct professor in climate, atmospheric science, and physical oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

SDGPI Team

Erick is a PhD student in Economics at the University of California, San Diego. His interests lie at the intersection of climate change and development economics, with an emphasis on distributional effects. Originally from Mexico City, he earned his bachelor’s degree in Economics at ITESM. He previously worked for three years at Mexico’s National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change, where he contributed to research and technical assistance on environmental and climate policy. Erick also worked at a start-up focused on integrating climate risk into the insurance industry.

Jeff Myers is a research associate with the Deep Decarbonization Initiative at UC San Diego. He focuses on climate policy and decarbonization, with current projects on the interconnections between electric vehicle charging and driver behavior, commuter demand for workplace chargers, and mitigating grid impacts. He earned his Master’s in Public Policy from the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego, specializing in quantitative methods as well as environmental and energy policy.

Jeisson is pursuing a Master of Public Policy with a specialization in Inequality and Social Policy and Program Design and Evaluation. Originally from Bogotá, Colombia, he holds a B.A. and an M.Sc. in Economics from Universidad del Rosario. Jeisson has experience in applied research for public policy design and evaluation, econometric analysis, and data processing. Before joining UC San Diego, he collaborated with the Inter-American Development Bank, Universidad del Rosario, the NHH School of Economics, and government agencies in Colombia, including the National Planning Department.

Mexico Vergara is a PhD student in Economics at the University of California, San Diego. His research focuses on the behavioral and policy mechanisms that generate and sustain unequal life outcomes among vulnerable populations. He is particularly interested in how labor market frictions, access to human capital, and exposure to adverse shocks—such as environmental, violent, or discriminatory events—shape poverty and inequality from childhood through early adulthood. Previously, he worked as a Research Professional at the Becker Friedman Institute and in the World Bank’s Poverty Global Practice. Earlier in his career, he served as an Economist at the Central Bank of Mexico. Mexico holds a B.S. in Economics, a B.A. in Political Science, and an M.A. in Applied Economics from ITAM, as well as an M.A. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.

Charlotte Gonzalez-Abraham is a science consultant associated with ISLA, AC in Baja California Sur. She is working on projects on land use and food systems with a focus on sustainability and conservation of biodiversity.

McKenna Maxwell is a Master’s candidate in Public Policy at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy, specializing in Environmental Policy. She serves as the Project Manager for the Economics Topical Synthesis Report for California’s Fifth Climate Change Assessment. Last year she interned at the UNFCCC, contributing to the Loss and Damage unit. Her research interests include leveraging data to inform evidence-based policies that enhance public health, manage natural resources, and address climate hazards, with particular emphasis on addressing wildfire risks and integrating climate resiliency into sustainable agriculture.

Gabriel is an assistant professor in epidemiology at the School of Public Health and titular researcher at the Institute of Tropical Medicine “Alexander von Humboldt”, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH). He earned his MS in Epidemiology at UPCH and his PhD in Public Health at UCSD. His research lies at the interface of infectious diseases epidemiology, human mobility, environmental determinants, climate change, and urban development. He uses a wide range of methods such as causal inference, spatio-temporal analysis, and remote sensing to forward our understanding of infectious disease dynamics in complex environmental settings.