Summer-Solstice Thomas

About Summer-Solstice

Summer-Solstice Thomas is a researcher who uses her intellectual curiosity and propensity towards quantitative analysis to affect social change. After graduating with honors from Williams College in June 2020 with a degree in Environmental Studies, Summer-Solstice spent a year as a visiting researcher at a local public policy think tank in Phnom Penh Cambodia as a Luce Scholar, studying the environmental and social impacts of large-scale foreign-funded development projects. Currently, Summer-Solstice is a research assistant at Silent Spring Institute, where she contributes to community-based environmental health research projects, leads policy translation and advocacy, and serves as a coordinator for the Cancer Free Economy Network. Summer-Solstice plans to continue a career studying how toxic industrial chemicals enter and interact with the environment to affect public health disproportionately across axes of race, socio-economic status, and geography. She desires to understand how power manifests across landscape to perpetuate inequality and illuminate how systems of privilege can be shifted to provide for a more healthy, just, and equitable world. Summer-Solstice enjoys running, surfing, river-rafting and anything involving lots of sunshine, dogs, or smiles.