Leona Davis manages the Earth Grant program, which pairs University of Arizona students interested in the environment with on- and off-campus mentors. Prior to joining AIR, Leona’s professional journey includes teaching in K-12 schools, designing and building water harvesting systems, managing community food system programs at the Community Food Bank, and working with participants and promotoras with the UArizona environmental health citizen science program Project Harvest. She also currently serves as a teaching team member with the Sonoran Permaculture Guild.

Leona’s areas of interest include environmental learning, ecological communities, social identity, community organizing, and participatory processes of all kinds. Her master’s thesis research developed recommendations for designing citizen science projects specifically to recruit and support underrepresented participants. Her research has been published in Environmental Health Perspectives, Citizen Science Theory and Practice, and International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.