Natalie Bump Vena is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Studies.She received her J.D. and Ph.D. from Northwestern University’s School of Law and Department of Anthropology. Her research and teaching interests concernenvironmental policymaking in U.S. cities. She is admitted to the New York State Bar.
Vena has an active research agenda in New York City. She is studying theimplementation of New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act(2019), particularly the process of identifying the “disadvantaged communities” whoare slated to receive 35% to 40% of benefits derived from the state’s green transition. She has also undertaken fieldwork and advocacy concerning a South Ozone Park community’s protracted recovery from a sewage backup that occurred in 2019. With funding from the Mellon Foundation and her union PSC-CUNY, this research has grown into a broader project on environmental (in)justice in Southeast Queens, from pervasive groundwater flooding to the local impacts of John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Vena’s long-term research examines the history of natural resources preservationin the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, which protects 69,000 acres of land encompassing Chicago. In her work on the Cook County Forest Preserves, she has explored the role of volunteerism, statutory language, and urban development in creating this metropolitan wilderness over the past one hundred years. Vena is currently examining how settler colonialism has structured the forest preserves since its founding. She is also analyzing the evolution of nature education in the forest preserves and the district’s underlying goal of transforming metropolitan residents into responsible stewards.
Before joining the faculty of Queens College, Vena taught at Williams College, where she served as the Gaius Charles Bolin Fellow in Anthropology and Environmental Studies. She is a member of the New York City Bar Association’s Environmental Law Committee.