Malinda (Mal) Labriola has worked in the climate sector since 2013, beginning as a researcher for the documentary film series, Years of Living Dangerously, and soon after collaborating with Columbia University’s Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast (CCRUN) to assess mitigation and adaptation efforts in vulnerable and densely-populated regions of the United States. After graduating from Amherst College in 2017 with a degree in Geology (concentration: Paleoclimatology), English (concentration: Native American Literature), and a certificate in Native American and Indigenous Studies, Malinda completed a Fulbright fellowship in Artic Norway, working alongside Nord University, the Nordland Research Institute (NRI), and the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research Oslo (CICERO).
In Norway, Malinda studied the impacts of climate-sensitive infections on Indigenous and traditional livelihoods and conducted community outreach on the Lofoten Islands in response to emergent ocean acidification data from the Western Norway Research Institute. During this time, Malinda also co-developed InOurHands, a nonprofit that brought free renewable energy resources to low-income and marginalized communities, including Indigenous nations. In this capacity, Malinda also co-founded the Museum Renewable Energy Project, a global program designed to aid cultural heritage institutions in their transition to renewable energy.
Through the onset and development of the COVID-19 pandemic, Malinda continued working with Norwegian colleagues as the country published climate and adaptation data for the Arctic region. Malinda has also had the opportunity to design and teach a Summer class for the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development centered around social movements, Indigenous land rights, and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). This curriculum would have been inaccessible without the foundational guidance of Pete Westover at Hampshire College, whose class on Indigenous land rights and TEK Malinda took in 2016. Malinda has discussed various land use and rematriation projects with Pete over the years and is excited by the possibility of plugging into conservation and adaptation efforts however possible with Conservation Works.