In August 2026, Jadda Miller (she/her) began her position as a Bellwether Postdoctoral Scholar, working alongside School of Information Professor Kimiko Ryokai. We spoke to Miller about her interests outside of their work and what she was working on before joining the I School.
Before joining the School of Information, what were you working on? What drew you to the I School and UC Berkeley?
Prior to joining the School of Information (I School), I was a Ph.D. candidate at UC Davis, where I was pursuing a degree in science education (specifically environmental education) with a designated emphasis in Native American and Indigenous Studies. At UC Davis, I was also a graduate student researcher at the Center for Community and Citizen Science, where I was primarily working with Marine Protected Area (MPA) Watch, a statewide collaboration of volunteers and nonprofits conducting surveys within and outside California’s network of 124 marine protected areas to inform policy and conservation at the state level. Before graduate school, I was an agriculture and food security Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal and an educator with the Hawaiʻi Department of Education.
What drew me to the I School was its wonderful, broad interdisciplinary focus on research and education. More specifically, Dr. Kimiko Ryokai’s co-design work with her Ohlone collaborators (elders, youth, and community leaders) and the Lawrence Hall of Science. This collaborative project is the kind of ethical, community-driven work that drives and defines the kind of research and partnerships that I want to be a part of now and in the future.
What are you most looking forward to about being here?
I am looking forward to being a collaborative, supportive, and productive member of the I School community and the broader UC Berkeley campus community. I look forward to working with Dr. Ryokai, her lab members, and community partners. I also look forward to creating bridges and building connections with other departments and centers on campus, including but not limited to the Berkeley Center for New Media, the Lawrence Hall of Science, the School of Education, the School of Public Health, the Berkeley Climate Change Network, and the Public Service Center. Beyond the Berkeley campus, I am volunteering with nonprofit organizations focused on environmental and social justice initiatives in the community, and I’m looking forward to deepening these relations and creating lasting partnerships.
Tell us about your current research. What problems are you most excited to tackle in this role?
My current research explores the ways in which science education, broadly, can enhance its relevance by connecting classroom learning with the complex social-ecological challenges that students experience in their communities. I am currently involved with a community-based participatory research project that includes a high school ecology teacher and an Indigenous-led watershed nonprofit. Together, we co-created a novel project called Hoʻomalu ʻĀina Maui (protecting the land of Maui, a name given to the project by the first cohort of students in 2024), which combines culturally relevant pedagogy, critical place-based learning, and Kānaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) Biocultural Knowledge. Through the Hoʻomalu ʻĀina Maui program, high school students in Maui, Hawaiʻi, engage in hands-on land stewardship work for wildfire mitigation and riparian restoration. This project was created after the devastating 2023 Lahaina wildfire and represents hope-in-action — a proactive response to trauma that fosters landscape and community healing.
This academic year (2026-2027) represents the third year of the Hoʻomalu ʻĀina Maui program. Each year, we iterate on the design and implementation, evolving with the changing cohort of students and circumstances. With my new position in the I School, I am excited to connect the Maui community with the Berkeley campus. I anticipate rich knowledge exchanges from both sides taking place.
More information about our work.
What’s a fun fact people may not know about you?
I am a first-generation college student and was raised on a horse and cattle ranch in Northern California (close to Redding). My family and I would gather our 400 cows on horseback every spring and fall, moving them between southern Oregon and California as seasonal pastures responded to cyclical patterns of rain/snow and drought. Our livelihood, operating a small family ranch, was entirely dependent on winter rains. This connection to the land shaped my understanding from a young age that caring for the environment is inseparable from caring for communities, particularly those most vulnerable to environmental change.
What are you reading or watching right now?
Being at UC Berkeley provides amazing access to so many incredible libraries; as a result, I have been taking full advantage of my access to these materials, especially from Doe and the Environmental Design Libraries. At the moment, I have on my desk Design by Fire by Emily Schlickman and Brett Milligan (Profs. at UC Davis), Speculative Everything by Dunne and Raby, and Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet by Tsing Swanson and Gan Bubandt (to name a few). In terms of what I am watching, I’ve been slow to catch on to the popularity of The Pitt, but I watched season one, and now I’m hooked!
