Prior to graduate studies and research at Harvard, Maricel Braga served as a land use and environmental planner for local and regional government planning agencies specializing in sustainability, green building, environmental policy and program management, stakeholder engagement, and economic development.
At the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, she currently serves as a climate and health research project coordinator. At the Yale School of Public Health, she also serves as a member of the teaching faculty and instructional team where she co-teaches an introductory course on climate change and health to an international cohort of over 90 graduate and professional students each semester. She received her degree in city and regional planning with an emphasis in environmental planning, sustainability, and urban design, with additional training in real property development, from the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Her academic background includes a graduate certificate from the Yale School of Public Health as well as a graduate degree in completion from Harvard.
Her research interests reflect her cross-sector and multidisciplinary background in the private and public sector as well as her 10+ years of business and international experience in the Asia-Pacific region. Research and professional interests include: disaster risk reduction and resilience; climate adaptation and mitigation; healthy buildings; environmental justice; health equity; economic development; international development; human rights; public policy; geopolitics; data-smart cities and governance; strategic and crisis communication; organizational behavior; behavioral economics; and corporate sustainability.