Tomas Ocampo

Tomas Ocampo

Tomas Ocampo is a PhD student in the Politics Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and in Public Policy, and a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of California, Riverside. His primary research interests include social and environmental movements in the US and Latin America, with a particular focus on environmental justice. He has examined how environmental justice activists and non-governmental organizations engage with the state of California and local governments, part of an assessment of the impact of 10 years of environmental justice legislation in California. He is currently examining environmental and climate justice movements across Latin America and their strategies of engagement with the state and subnational governments. These issues are connected to his broader interests in how groups affected by natural resource extraction & pollution develop political consciousness and the mechanisms they utilize to enact social change across the world. Tomas has previously worked on environment, sustainability, and transportation issues in local government agencies. He is a recipient of the Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship of the University of California, and was selected for the American Political Science Association’s Diversity Fellowship Program for Spring 2022.