Leehi Yona

Leehi Yona is pursuing interdisciplinary doctoral studies in Environment and Resources at Stanford University. Leehi's graduate research focuses on ways to integrate climate change science and policy, and she is studying the ways in which governments and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change develop ways of reporting greenhouse gas emissions.

After completing CÉGEP studies in Arts and Sciences at Marianopolis College, Leehi pursued undergraduate studies at Dartmouth, in Hanover, New Hampshire. Leehi completed a Bachelor of Arts with High Honours in Environmental Studies and Biology, minored in Public Policy, and completed a Senior Fellowship, an opportunity awarded to students in their final year to pursue full-time independent studies in lieu of classes.

Leehi's Senior Fellowship focused on academics, policymakers, and community organizers at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. She developed "leverage points" that youth participants to the UN could use to bring about change, and wrote two books for young people as part of her research.

Leehi received a Master of Environmental Science degree from Yale University in 2018. Her Master's research focused on the same greenhouse gas inventory study that she is building on for her PhD.

Leehi is passionate about climate change justice and has written over 100 news articles and opinion pieces related to climate justice in the United States and Canada. As a community organizer, she has worked on campaigns to transition society away from fossil fuels to renewable energy, from local campaigns to the United Nations climate negotiations. At Dartmouth, she founded the Divest Dartmouth campaign to disinvest the university's endowment from fossil fuel companies. In Leehi's final undergraduate year, Divest Dartmouth organized a rally on campus that was the most co-sponsored event in the university's history, and the largest climate rally in New Hampshire history.

A recipient of the Lieutenant-Governor of Québec's Youth Medal, Leehi was named Canada's Top Environmentalist Under 25 in recognition of her commitment to climate justice.