Karla (she/her) holds a B.A. in Urban Studies and a B.A. in Social Policy & Public Service from the University of California, Irvine (UCI). During her undergrad, Karla conducted research on housing in the Latinx/e community where she utilized her first-language to give back to her community. Currently, Karla is a graduate student at UCI pursuing her Masters in Urban & Regional Planning where she focuses her studies on affordable housing and spatial analysis using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Karla is passionate about empowering marginalized communities and leads her projects as a NASA intern to support communities in need and solutions to climate change. She plans to continue her research after completing her Masters degree and hopes to one day pursue a Phd.