Climate and Environmental Issues

Chair: Sedonna Goeman-Shulsky Tonawanda Band of Seneca (University of California, Los Angeles, Environment and Sustainability, American Indian Studies)

• Keshia DeFreece Lawrence Ramapough Lenape Tribe (United Nations Mandated University for Peace, International Relations/International Law)
  The Arctic Circle: Climate Change, International Law and Indigenous Heritage

Sedonna Goeman-Shulsky (Tonawanda Band of Seneca) is a Ph.D. student at UCLA in the Institute of Environment and Sustainability and a Tribal Outreach contractor for the Native American Land Conservancy. She also received the Eugene V. Cota-Robles fellowship, the Graduate Research Mentorship program award at UCLA (2022-2023), and the Barbara Yablon Maida award in Geography and Environment and Sustainability (2022). Her current research interests include the meaning of access to land/water for Indigenous people. Native American studies, digital archiving, environmental justice, and environmental change are broad areas of intrigue. Her proposed dissertation research is to create a collaborative map and digital archive about the processes that lead to increased access to land for Indigenous people across the U.S. Sedonna is active in the Environmental Justice Working Group at UCLA. She plans to pursue a career in academia to support Indigenous students, tribes, and communities in their research goals.

Keshia DeFreece Lawrence is a Ramapough Lenape Indigenous American from Rhode Island, U.S.A. Ms. DeFreece Lawrence holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Global Politics from the American University of Rome, and a Masters degree in International Law and the Settlement of Disputes from the United Nations Mandated University for Peace, Costa Rica, her most recent educational victory. Ms. DeFreece Lawrence’s undergraduate academic work has focused on hard-reconciliation and sovereignty methods for indigenous nations, while her graduate academic work is expanding to include climate policy and action in Indigenous realities. Among Ms. DeFreece Lawrence’s recent achievements is holding awards for Model United Nations Best Delegate (UPMUNC 2019), in addition to being an invited presenter at the University of California Berkeley 10th Annual International Conference on The Constructed Environment (May, 2020). Currently, Ms. DeFreece Lawrence is a Program Coordinator for an international environmental nonprofit Earthwatch Institute, and is working on publishing her Masters Dissertation, “The Arctic Circle: Climate Change, International Law and Indigenous Heritage.”