Paulina Vaca

Paulina joined CNT in 2021 as a Project Associate for the Urban Resilience team. She now serves CNT as a Manager and has largely advanced the organization's current work portfolio in sustainable freight transportation. Paulina is a published researcher, social scientist, non-traditional urban planner, and environmental / climate justice advocate. For over half a decade, Paulina has worked closely with several organizations in the Chicago Environmental Justice Network as a technical partner and has been consulted by many local, regional, and state governments. She enjoys conducting community-based research and analyzing qualitative data, curating digital resources using Adobe InDesign, and wielding her grit and insatiable curiosity. She is a seasoned interviewer-- going so far as interviewing pioneer chef Alice Waters six months into CNT. Prior to CNT, Paulina collaborated with the Chicago Food Policy Action Council on research to illuminate connectivity and racial equity in responding to COVID-19 impacts in Chicago's regional food system. She was once an international sustainability intern in Vietnam studying the circular economy goals of the country's rice economy. Paulina holds a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Loyola University Chicago and a certificate on 'Sustainable Urban Freight Transport: A Global Perspective' from Delft University of Technology.