About Me.
President Donna U. Hope (she/her/hers) had over a decade of work experience in public policy and environmental engineering in New York City before founding UHope Consulting in 2015 to center and uplift diversity, equity, inclusion and justice in the environmental sectors. Since then, UHope Consulting has had clients in the private sector, academia, philanthropy, NGOs, and local/ state/ federal government.
Donna has also served as an advisory community member and a panel reviewer for DEI capacity building and environmental justice grants , the Green 2.0 environmental diversity initiative, and strategic reviewer for national climate planning frameworks. Donna was founding co-Chairs of the Environmental Professionals of Color and Climate Reality Project, NYC Chapters. She is an Urban Design Forum Forefront Fellow, a Senior Fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program, an EcoDistricts AP, and a LEED Green Associate. She has been a Semi-Finalist of the Rachel’s Network Catalyst Award for 2 years.
Education
2000-2003
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
M.S. Environmental Engineering
Thesis "Genetic Algorithms for Calibrating River Contaminant Transport Models". Advisor Dr. J. Russell Manson.
Publication "A Conservative semi-Lagrangian transport model for rivers with transient storage zones". Water Resources Research, Vol. 37, No. 12. Dec 2001. Manson, Wallis, Hope.
NYS Dept of Health air toxics GIS modeler.
NYS Dept of Environmental Conservation water division GIS modeler.
1998 - 2000
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
B.S. Civil Engineering with Environmental concentration.
U. W. Marx Prize in Research.
U.S. EPA / National Science Foundation Fellow.
1995 - 1998
Spelman College
B.S. General Science and Engineering with Math minor.
Ethel Waddell Githi Honors Program.
NASA GISS Institute of Climate and Planets research intern.