| Charisma is conducting research on urban environmental governance and household access to water in rapidly growing cities in Nigeria. Her research interests center on poverty alleviation and policies on basic services provision and environmental sustainability in developing countries. While completing her doctoral studies, she has carried out fieldwork in Lagos and Benin City, Nigeria and served as a teaching fellow with the UCLA Institute of the Environment, working with UP Professor Randall Crane in the Global Environment cluster program. She also sits on the Advisory Board of the Amagezi Gemaanyi (Knowledge is Power) Youth Association, an organization devoted to creating a safe, supportive, sustainable learning environment where Ugandan youth can develop leadership skills and express themselves creatively.
"To truly measure effectiveness, we have to incorporate community-centered, locally relevant measures of access into policies designed to expand delivery of basic services such as safe water and sanitation to the billions worldwide who lack these fundamental services."
Voice for Water blog
Recent accomplishments:
2008
UCLA Graduate Division Dissertation Year Fellowship.
Article: "Neighborhood Effects and Household Responses to Water Supply Problems in Nigerian Cities" in the Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, Vol 4, Issue 1 (July)
Presentation: "Planning for Poverty Alleviation: Preliminary Findings from Field Research in Lagos and Benin City, Nigeria," at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP)/AESOP Joint Congress, July 6-11, Chicago, Il.
Presentation: "Voice and Access to Water in Nigerian Cities," at the International Transdisciplinary Conference on Water, Society and the Environment in Africa, April 20-24, Drakensberg, South Africa.
Selected to 2008-09 Collegium of University Teaching Fellows (CUTF), sponsored by the UCLA Office of Instructional Development. The CUTF is an innovative program that creates unique learning opportunities for both graduate teaching fellows and undergraduate students on campus. Through the program, some of UCLA's very best advanced graduate students have the opportunity to develop and teach a lower division seminar in their field of specialization on a one-time only basis. This experience serves as a “capstone” to the teaching apprenticeship, preparing them for the academic job market and their role as future faculty.
2007
Graduate Research Mentorship from UCLA Graduate Division to support dissertation fieldwork in Nigeria.
2006
Julie Roque Environmental Justice Award.
Presentation: "Globalization and Urban Inequality in African Cities." at the African Studies Association Annual Conference, November 16-19, San Francisco.
2005
NSF-UC DIGSSS Summer Graduate Research Mentorship from the UCLA Graduate Division.
2004
Presentation: "Can Export Processing Zones Facilitate Technology Transfer in Malawi?" at the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management Annual Conference, October 28-30, Atlanta.
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