Emily Ontiveros is pursuing her Master’s in Landscape Architecture at the University of New Mexico. She plans to focus her research on river restoration design through equitable, watershed-based approaches to stewardship.
As a 2019-2020 CivicSpark Fellow, Emily served with the California Department of Water Resources in Sacramento. She worked within the Office of the Tribal Policy Advisor to strengthen Tribal engagement in the Integrated Regional Water Management Program. As a Fellow, Emily was a primary organizer for the three-part Tribal Regional Water Management Webinar Series that occurred in May and June 2020.
Prior to being a CivicSpark Fellow, Emily was an AmeriCorps VISTA working with the Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley to fund solar and advance energy sovereignty. Emily holds a B.A. in Sustainable Environmental Design from UC Berkeley. In her free time, she creates art focused on considering our relationship to the land and each other in the face of the climate crisis.
Emily would be more than happy to talk with current Fellows about graduate school, landscape architecture and environmental planning, working with Tribes, state government, and incorporating art and creativity into an environmental career.