Yukyan Lam

Yukyan Lam works with the Environmental Justice (EJ) and Health & Food divisions within the Healthy People and Thriving Communities program. Her research focuses on investigating cumulative impacts experienced by marginalized, urban-based populations, which derive from the concurrence of multiple environmental exposures, social vulnerability, and other factors. Her work draws on spatial analysis, epidemiology, biostatistics, and qualitative research methods, as well as extensive collaboration with EJ partners. Her portfolio at NRDC also involves spatial analysis to advance safe drinking water in the United States. Lam’s prior work experience includes five years as a human rights lawyer based in Latin America, where she litigated cases and conducted research on extrajudicial violence, the impacts of large-scale development projects, and the rights of indigenous and Afro-descendent communities. She holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a law degree from Harvard Law School, and a PhD in international health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where her dissertation focused on the food and water security impacts of salinity intrusion in southwest coastal Bangladesh. She is proficient in Spanish and Portuguese, and works out of NRDC’s New York office.