Interdisciplinary work is at the heart of the University of California, Santa Cruz, Center for Coastal Climate Resilience’s (CCCR) mission. In part two of our series highlighting CCCR fellows, we spoke with fellows who are using their unique backgrounds to advance climate resilience. From statistics to art, these fellows are examining the consequences of climate change and contributing to a broader conversation about how we can invest in our environments to build a more resilient future. While their interests and expertise diverge, they’re united in their desire to shape more resilient communities in the face of climate change.
Investing in climate adaptation across industries
The origin of Rae Taylor-Burns’ interest in climate change research can be traced to when she was in elementary school. As part of a curriculum assignment, she had to choose a subject for an independent study project.
Rae Taylor-BurnsTaylor-Burns, who now holds a Ph.D. in Ocean Sciences from UC Santa Cruz, chose climate change, then more commonly referred to as global warming. This was in the 1990s, a time when climate change was still on the outskirts of public discourse.
“How did I even know [climate change] was a thing?” Taylor-Burns said. “I’m doing this research project on global warming and it was so disturbing to me. I felt like I was learning this secret that everyone had known. The end of the world was coming and I couldn’t understand why everyone was acting normal, like this wasn’t a human crisis.”
That early realization sparked what would become a lifelong focus on climate adaptation. Now, with the support of CCCR, Taylor-Burns’ research focuses on climate adaptability. She has researched how we can restore and invest in marshes to reduce flood risks by using the San Francisco Bay as a case study. Now, she is examining how the risk reduction benefits of nature can be incorporated into insurance markets. The throughline of her research attempts to quantify the value of habitat restoration.
She breaks this down in her research in the San Francisco Bay, where she explored how marsh habitat restoration can reduce flood risk in urban estuaries.
“If you just think about these habitats as for birds and the fish, you’re probably less likely to invest in protecting them and ensuring their survival,” Taylor-Burns said. “If you can think about marshes as green infrastructure, that opens it up for all different types of funding and consideration in different types of plans. It’s no longer just a conservation need, it’s a critical piece of public infrastructure in an urban environment.”
For Taylor-Burns, working in climate adaptation offers something vital: hope.
“It feels like I’m contributing in some way, and then also, more specifically, in the field of climate adaptation, because it’s more solution focused, and so it feels a bit more hopeful,” Taylor-Burns said.
Using statistical models to predict extreme climate change events
Benjamin Ticknor is getting a Ph.D. in statistics at UC Santa Cruz. When we called, he was at an extreme model statistics conference in North Carolina.
Benjamin TicknorExtreme is the key word here. It’s what Ticknor was initially drawn to in his current research project, which focuses on extreme ocean water events in an effort to predict the extent of big coastal floods and where they might occur. His team’s research spans coastlines around the world and will create a public database for engineers, insurance companies, and more to use when planning for and responding to coastal risk.
Their research aims to define what a once-in-a-century wave actually looks like—its size, its power, and where it’s most likely to hit.
Predicting ocean events, the severity, and the scale interests Ticknor for its real-world stakes and also for the unique statistical challenges they present.
Most statistical models are used to study averages, Ticknor said. The theory for determining extremes is fundamentally different.
“With extreme events, you’re extrapolating outside of what you’ve seen before,” Ticknor said. “At first it seems like almost an impossible problem, because you’re very unlikely to have seen, for instance, that kind of wave before. I think that’s the core of why extreme statistics is very cool. At first, it seems like an impossible problem, but there’s a neat theory that allows you to do that. It’s a fun statistical challenge to extrapolate so far beyond what we’ve actually observed in the past.”
Ticknor’s interest in these challenges is now driving him toward the more difficult challenge of predicting when extreme wave events will happen and what conditions are associated with them. That’s an even harder statistical question, he said—and one which is still a very active area of research. Contributing to predictive tools for answering this question is the focus of his next project.
Using art to bring scientific research to life
Interdisciplinary artist Saul Villegas is CCCR’s inaugural artist in residence. A graduate from UC Santa Cruz’s Digital Arts and New Media master’s program, he is exploring the relationship between art and science, collaborating with CCCR fellows to create an immersive virtual space that visually represents their research. Ultimately, he will produce a single virtual exhibition that showcases their work alongside a mixed-media physical art show hosted at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center, slated for Spring 2026.
Saul VillegasAs an undergrad at UC Santa Cruz, Villegas worked on a project that reimagined archives as digital exhibitions. That experience sparked a deeper interest in working with researchers across departments doing meaningful work. He wanted to visually represent their findings in a way that was authentic to the science and visually engaging, and accessible to all audiences.
“What does it mean to document complex research? How do I do it in ways that doesn’t just illustrate the work, but makes people pick those archives up and then follow through and continue the research?” Villegas asked. “It’s a two-part thing for me. One, the function is for it to be accessible and understood. But also, I’m really interested in, are we inspiring new researchers?”
Villegas is particularly drawn to digital galleries as a way to transcend typical barriers of cost, location, and time. Anyone with a device can access these galleries, from any part of the world. He also enjoys the collaboration with scientists, helping reimagine the presentation of their research, one that may prioritize a different audience than they typically engage with. At the heart of his work is Villegas’ commitment to find creative ways to communicate important research to the public.
“My main goal is to bring some humanistic side to these researchers that gets lost with all these abstracts and important papers,” Villegas said. “How can I help you come together as a community to say, this is what’s happening? These are your fellow people.”
How everyday people shape coastal restoration
Gillian Bogart is fascinated by the relationships between people, place, and ecological change. With a Ph.D. in anthropology, and as a founding member and fellow of the UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Southeast Asian Coastal Interactions, Bogart has followed this fascination around the world—from Benoa Bay and Kupang Bay in Indonesia to O‘ahu in Hawai’i, and now, with support from CCCR, the Bay Area.
Gillian BogartBogart is currently focused on the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, one of the largest wetland restoration efforts on the West Coast. “I’ve been participating in volunteer workdays, birdwatching, and counting species to see how people show up and why they’re interested,” she said. “As an anthropologist, that’s part of our approach …participating in these projects to understand them.”
Her research focus is two-fold: studying scientific frameworks and implementation strategies, as well as how people engage with and build community amid evolving coastal landscapes. She’s especially interested in the role of volunteers, and she’s noticing that all projects, regardless of scale, rely heavily on local community members who care about the environment.
Bogart is also documenting foraging practices, especially ones within Asian diaspora communities, to understand how people share knowledge about safely gathering coastal resources. “Even as people are noticing the effects of climate change, or when landscapes are contaminated, people are forming community around responding to that or sharing knowledge to keep one another safe.”
Still in the early stages of her California work, Bogart is developing a comparative understanding across sites and documenting foraging and restoration practices. She is also exploring how her findings could inform local policy, especially regarding land and chemical use in areas where communities gather food. Bogart will also incorporate this work into her forthcoming manuscript exploring how people relate to and impact coastal environments.
“It’s a constant learning and shifting process,” she said of the Bay Area’s restoration efforts. “And it’s impressive, because it’s such a huge scale and has so many stakeholders.”
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