Carlo Andre Chunga Pizarro

 

Degree: Ph.D in Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy

Graduation Date: 2026

 

Hometown: Born in Piura, Peru and raised in College Station, Texas

 

Can you tell us a bit about your background and path to your graduate program?

 

Graduate school, let alone Ph.D. programs, were hardly a topic of discussion in my household. 

 

During my time at Texas A&M, I worked at a planning program, Texas Target Communities, where I assisted rural towns in their planning staff, created geodatabases by putting together spatial data, and developed maps related to transportation, housing, and hazards vulnerability. Later into my job, I became more involved in the engagement team by preparing engagement workshops to collaborate with community members to understand the town’s strengths and opportunities, and the weaknesses of the town through their perspective. In these spaces, I began to ask questions about why immigrant populations didn’t attend planning workshops, specially the workshops hazards vulnerability. 

 

As I continued to ask myself questions on the intersection of immigrant populations in disasters and planning, I continued to wonder more about how our current immigration system is not referred to as an environmental injustice. As I attended a conference in the fall, a faculty member asked me if these questions kept me up at night. Realizing that I could partake in a job where I don’t collaborate with undocumented populations and disasters, I applied to PhD programs in hope that I can work in projects related to my interested. 

 

I lived in Texas for the majority of my life, and I only wanted to apply to programs in Texas, but my advisors encouraged me to apply to outside schools. I never saw myself in California, because I didn’t want to be away from home, but UCI was the first school that accepted me and gave me a sense that they cared about my research. 

 

I made my decision to attend UCI during the Texas winter storm. During the storm, I had no power for 7 days. Yet, my current advisor, Michael Mendez, and staff members from the UCI Dream Center reached out to ask if I was safe during the storm, which gave me reassurance that UCI was a place with people that cared. Then, after getting my parents’ blessing to move far from home, I accepted. 

 

Why did you choose your field of study and your program specifically?

During the summer before my sophomore year, I was accepted into a National Science Foundation (NSF) undergraduate research program which was a critical experience in my development. 

 

With mentorship from faculty at the Hazards Reduction and Recovery Center, I researched how County-level disaster plans on the coast of Texas evaluated social vulnerability. Social vulnerability refers to the social characteristics, such as undocumented status and the ability to speak English, that have negative effects on communities caused by external stressors, like environmental disasters. With the program’s training, I learned creative problem-solving skills, which led to creating a protocol that measures the level to which disaster plans acknowledge and work towards reducing social vulnerability. 

 

My results found that the Coastal County disaster plans failed to meet the needs of vulnerable populations in the selected coastal plans. At the culmination of the program, I presented at my first professional conference, The 42nd Annual Natural Hazards Research and Application Workshop. This experience would lay the foundations for my future research in the upcoming years: understanding the inclusion of underrepresented communities in the disaster planning process.

 

Have you conducted any research? If yes, can you tell us a bit about it?

For three years, I worked at Target Communities (TTC), to obtain experience on how to conduct city and disaster plans for two Texas towns, the cities of Hitchcock and Rockport, that were heavily affected by Hurricane Harvey. This experience provided me with training on how to conduct community engagement workshops and collect qualitative data to create policy. This research and professional experience allowed me to become more familiar with the disaster planning process, environmental policy, and its effect on the local community. I created maps using Geographic Informational System (GIS) software to identify and analyze potentially vulnerable areas at high risk of destruction from a hurricane. At the time, these cities did not have a spatial database for population, physical structures, businesses, and community resources. The maps and databases I created will assist with disaster preparedness and identifying potentially vulnerable communities that will need further assistance pre-and-post disaster.

 

How do you envision your degree from UCI opening doors for you and benefitting your career? 

Getting a degree from UCI opens up new networks, but it has also given me intellectual awakenings. My past education has focused more on professional practices in planning, and here, I’ve gained theoretical awakenings. I’m thankful for the scholars and organizers from the west coast because they have always influenced me, and now I’m able to share spaces with them.

 

How did your experience at UCI shape your career path?

UCI is connected to many projects that focus on environmental justice. There is a lot of work to do in Southern California, and UCI has equipped me with mentors and friends that are training me in theory, methods, and collaboration. 

 

Do you have a job lined up or are you currently working?

Yes, I am hired as a graduate student researcher.

 

What is your job title and role?

Currently, I am a graduate research assistant for a National Science Foundation-funded project that focuses on the disproportionate impacts of wildfires on undocumented immigrants led my Dr. Michael Mendez. More importantly, this research will reveal the importance of the social dimension of disasters, and how undocumented communities are seen as invisible to policymakers and disaster relief organizations.

 

What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone enrolling in the program?

Ask questions, lots of them, and give yourself a break. As researchers, we are training to question structures that are unjust. By questioning systems, you are placing yourself in a space that is going to ask ongoing questions, putting yourself in circles, reading for hours, and staring at your screen for double. You should ask questions and input your life experience as a way to navigate these questions. Yet, you need to give yourself breaks outside of academia. Go out, explore the terrain, or dance. Life is too short to focus it all on academia. You shouldn’t have to lose yourself in PhD programs.

 

Where will you go from here?

Upon completing my doctoral degree, I hope to work as a university professor or researcher and develop a program that focuses on community-engaged and disaster planning research. I aspire to become a professor with a research agenda that partners with marginalized communities and advocates for justice. As a first-generation student, I have a personal connection to research that aims to influence public policy that improves the lives of marginalized communities in this country. Most importantly, I aim to inspire the next generation of social scientists by serving as a role model. I will use my life experience to motivate students to seek higher education and demonstrate that it’s possible to advocate for justice in academia.