Biography

Dr. Bavisha Kalyan (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on building equitable community-academic partnerships to understand contaminant exposure in vulnerable communities. Her previous work measured holistic lead exposure (water, paint, soil, dust) through a community science campaign empowered and uplifted community voices, built workforce development programs, and supported youth. Dr. Kalyan aims to co-create engineering research with students, community members, community-based organizations, and other stakeholders, centered on water, food, energy, and transportation infrastructure to support and advance social and environmental justice.

Dr. Kalyan earned an MS and PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

Research Interests

Environmental Justice, Community-Based Participatory Action Research, Environmental Health and Engineering, Urban and Industrial water and soil contamination

Courses

TBA

Student Research Opportunities

Please fill out this form you are interested in working with me: https://forms.gle/pkJ1pzECixwgM8Qi6

Publications

• Kalyan, Bavisha & Juan Rubio, et. al, From the Ground Up: Community-based Participatory Research Reclaiming the Science of Lead Environmental Justice Special Issue: Community Science, Accepted (forthcoming, 2024).

• Kalyan, Bavisha, Anthony Dwayne Diaz, Jaila Adams, Romir Anand, Kevin Alexander Cenac, Cristian Cerrato, Porsche Cooper, Walter Diaz, Daniel Feliciano, Nadia Fradkin, Earl Godfrey, Jermaine Hargrove, Sabrina Hunte, Aoi Uchima Morel, Ravin Ramsaran, Saeed Idrees Rayman, Jessica Roberson, Delon Smith, Jada Wakefield, Nia Wakefield, Saneitta Wicks, Ammar Zayn Williams, and Maya Carrasquillo. “Community Scientists of the Newark Water Coalition Are a New Dawn for Community-Owned and Managed Research Projects: Mobile Lead Initiative.”  Environmental Justice Special Issue: Liberation Science: Using Liberation Pedagogies and Knowledge Systems to Build Communities of Resistance to Address Environmental and Climate Injustices.  https://doi.org/10.1089/env.2022.0121

For a full list of my publications, visit my profile on: