To honor the West's past and sustain its future, Bill Lane Center students produce 15 new research projects
Stanford undergraduates who conduct research with the Bill Lane Center are drawn to the American West for a variety of reasons. Inheritors of a depleted and warming planet, some are eager to redress harms from climate change by exploring solutions to high-stakes environmental challenges related to water, power, wildfire, and more. Others seek to deepen their understanding of evolving stories about the West’s communities and cultures, approaching their scholarship from a more humanistic or sociological lens. No matter their point of entry, every summer Lane Center student research assistants (RAs) pursue meaningful inquiry that builds on a growing body of knowledge centered on Western land and life. And every fall, they present their findings to the Center’s American West Working Group, a weekly gathering of students, scholars and practitioners interested in the past, present and future of this region.
As the student researchers begin to share insights from their summer work, the Center is taking stock of 15 impressive projects spanning multiple disciplines. Eight RAs joined pre-organized Lane Center projects mentored by Bruce Cain, the Center’s former faculty director, and Esther Conrad, its research manager. With a variety of external partners, these students worked on issues like zero-emissions transportation, water and climate resilience, and the impact of climate change on housing. Seven additional students designed their own lines of investigation into the complex interplay between Western communities and their environment. Stanford faculty with domain expertise served as mentors for these self-designed projects.
Taken together, this research reflects the Lane Center’s interdisciplinary approach to tackling problems facing the West today, as well as the students’ passions for creatively mining the different identities, cultures, and communities that enliven the region. Under the expert guidance of Conrad who supports the Center’s entire research program, this next generation of Western decision-makers and thought leaders produced research that carries the promise of a brighter future for the American West.
The Projects
The Bill Lane Center's 2025 research assistants. Top row (from left to right): Yared Avalos, Samuel Cousins, Jaden Southern, Michael Dolan; Row 2: Sofia Lanza-Perez, Isaac Nehring, Sophie Molins, Will Kousser; Row 3: Victor Meza, Miriam Awan, Eva Jones, Sydney Lowell; Bottom row: Sosi Day, Andrew Nevárez, Andrew Wang, Louie Loveland
The Bill Lane Center’s 2025 summer research projects fall into five broad categories: energy and transportation; water and climate resilience; housing and climate change; history and change in communities; and arts and the West. Again, projects in the first three categories were designed by the Bill Lane Center, undertaken with one or more government or nongovernmental organizations working in these spaces. The projects in the final two categories were designed by students, with guidance from faculty mentors across campus. Supported in large part by VPUE’s Undergraduate Research Program, the work is also made possible by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and an ArtsWest grant from the Lawrence T. & Janet T. Dee Foundation.
Energy and transportation
With California’s ambitious green energy goals, the state’s transportation sector is undergoing a massive transition to zero-emissions vehicles. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) established “Advanced Clean Fleets" regulations (ACF) in 2023, designing specific timetables for municipal fleet electrification. For many public entities, 100% of new purchases of medium and heavy-duty vehicles must be emissions-free by December 2027.
Since the spring of 2024, Bill Lane Center researchers have been investigating local government efforts to comply with these new regulations. Students and faculty, in collaboration with the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), are engaged in ongoing research to better understand the barriers that cities and counties have encountered in complying with the ACF, and assessing how the state can best support the transition. The Bill Lane Center recently published a report summarizing these research efforts to date: City and County Fleet Electrification under California’s Advanced Clean Fleet Regulations: Preliminary Findings on Progress and Key Challenges.
RAs Sofia Lanza-Perez (Civil & Environmental Engineering, ’27) and Louie Loveland (Urban Studies, ‘27) joined this ongoing Lane Center project over the summer, with a focus on assessing current approaches to offering technical assistance and exploring the potential to expand these efforts at a regional scale.
The many benefits of moving to electric vehicles (EVs) are well-documented, with impacts like improved air quality, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, better public health, and even long-term cost cuts for local governments. But as past and present student researchers on this project have learned, solutions are needed for the obstacles that still stand in the way. Lanza-Perez explained how her team analyzed current efforts to support cities and counties with fleet electrification, and interviewed regional entities offering this assistance to discover more about the impediments they face.“We learned that the lack of funding and technical assistance to help entities transition their fleets is a problem around the state,” she explained. In rural areas, which often struggle with more economic challenges, these problems are only amplified.
One avenue the team pursued in response to these difficulties was the creation of regional technical assistance hubs that provide guidance and funding for participants who need support with either charging infrastructure or EVs themselves. The students determined that a regional approach offered more benefit than something state-wide, because it builds on existing relationships and can be tailored to regional needs. “We…discovered best-case models of what good technical assistance looks like, and the specific advantages regional-level assistance has over statewide programming,” Loveland shared.
In highlighting the benefits of regional assistance, the RAs have made valuable contributions to the scaling of climate-friendly transportation infrastructure in California. Their research has great potential for expediting local government progress on fleet electrification, and it also adds to the Bill Lane Center’s growing body of work on how regional engagement shapes the growth of communities.
Water and Climate Resilience
Another set of projects organized by the Bill Lane Center focused on water and climate resilience. Communities in the American West face persistent challenges related to drought and water management, particularly in California. Managing water effectively as climate extremes increase requires new approaches to thinking about both water supply and water demand. Two students – Michael Dolan and Sydney Lowell – pursued supply-oriented projects this summer, and two more – Andrew Wang and Sophie Molins – worked on demand-oriented projects.
The first of the projects focused on reducing groundwater demand was executed in partnership with the Groundwater Demand Management Network and analyzed California’s various strategies for combatting the effects of groundwater overdraft. Andrew Wang (Earth Systems ‘27) studied how regions across the state are implementing the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), established in 2014 to curb over-pumping and bring groundwater use into balance. While SGMA created a framework, local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) were tasked with taking action to restore aquifers. Many early efforts focused on supply-side solutions, Wang learned, increasing available water through recharge projects, recycling, and reclamation. But as costs rose and water supply dwindled, some regions began turning to demand-side approaches, which reduce pumping rather than expand supply.
How successfully has California implemented these demand-oriented strategies? Wang looked at data from the Department of Water Resources and found that regions with more complicated management structures — more GSAs — were less likely to adopt strategies that reduce groundwater use. Overall, projects focused on cutting demand made up only about 10% of all groundwater management actions reported to the state. The research also suggests that successful demand-reduction efforts depend on three key factors: open communication with local water users, clear and fair rules about historic and future water rights, and “a cohesive regional vision to shift the perspective of stakeholders to a new future under SGMA, where decreases in pumping may be necessary to avoid state sanction and oversight,” Wang explained.
The second demand-side project focused on programs to support a specific strategy to reduce groundwater demand: the repurposing of agricultural land. Sophie Molins (Economics, ‘25, MA in Public Policy, ‘26) conducted this research in partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund, comparing two state groundwater conservation programs: The California Department of Water Resources’ LandFlex program, and the California Department of Conservation’s Multibenefit Land Repurposing Program (MLRP). By reviewing documents and interviewing groundwater managers, Molins examined how the programs differ in their goals, payment structures, and oversight. Her findings show that while both aim to save water, LandFlex faced challenges with timing, communication, and incentive design — lessons that have informed the rollout of MLRP. Overall, her work underscores that no single program can solve California’s groundwater crisis, and that future efforts should build on past experiences, enhance communication, and offer better support for local partners.
Two other water-related projects focused on building resilience for water supplies. RA Michael Dolan (Earth Systems, ‘28) worked on scaling up groundwater recharge in the San Joaquin Valley, part of a Stanford Sustainability Accelerator project launched by the late Dick Luthy, a water quality expert and professor of environmental engineering. Dolan documented how Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) monitor water quality and engage local communities, uncovering gaps that have prevented some disadvantaged residents from contributing to important groundwater decisions: “I found wide variability in what groundwater contaminants agencies monitor, and discovered that disadvantaged communities often feel excluded from decision-making about water management,” shared Dolan, who partnered with the Madera Irrigation District in addition to the Sustainability Accelerator team.
The need for finding more sustainable resource management practices in a region dependent on groundwater for agriculture and municipal use cannot be overstated. In working toward the expansion of groundwater recharge in California’s Central Valley, this project moves the dial on sustaining the West’s most productive agricultural lands while also improving access to clean drinking water.
Also looking at the need for resilient water supply in California, Sydney Lowell (Bioengineering, ‘28) worked with OneShoreline to address San Mateo County’s dependence on the Hetch Hetchy system. The central question this project explored was how the county might secure long-term water reliability amid drought and population growth. “Through this work, I have found that the majority of cities in San Mateo County are 100% reliant on the Hetch Hetchy system for potable water and face substantial shortfalls between supply and demand in drought years,” the researcher wrote. Lowell found inconsistencies in city water supply planning and explored the benefits of decentralized water recycling facilities. This approach – treating and reusing wastewater close to where it’s generated, rather than sending it to a large, centralized treatment plant – could “reduce stress on the Hetch Hetchy system and conserve potable water,” Lowell wrote, all at an economical and small-scale level.
Housing and Climate Change
Another set of projects – some Center-organized, others self-designed – grappled with how housing and climate risk interact. Whether under fire or under water (to borrow from the title of Bruce Cain’s latest book on climate resilience) the American West faces no shortage of crises when it comes to living sustainably in a warming world. Questions related to housing, in particular, demand increasingly adaptive policies that take equity, safety, affordability and sustainability into account.
William Kousser (Political Science, ‘27) was part of a Center-organized project that examined how Californians—especially policymakers and property owners — are responding to the growing threat of sea level rise. “Sea level rise will be an existential threat to California,” Kousser conceded. “But — unlike other natural disasters — rising seas are predictable. My project shows that the private real estate market is not capable of adapting to sea level rise, and that government intervention will be required,” he explained.
From sifting through statewide property data, performing econometric analysis, and a case study of Isla Vista in Santa Barbara County, Kousser found that the private real estate market is largely failing to consider threats posed by rising seas. Because of this, the project contends that government action will be essential to protect coastal communities. Building on lessons from past mistakes, the research proposes a new, compromise approach to help California adapt more effectively to its changing coastline. Kousser pursued this research in partnership with Supervisor Laura Capps of Santa Barbara County District 2.
Shifting from sea level rise to wildfire, both Jaden Southern (Earth Systems Coterm, ‘26) and Samuel Cousins (Environmental Systems Engineering/Linguistics, ‘28) worked on research related to housing and fire hazard in Santa Barbara and Marin County. In Southern’s project, “Affordable Housing and Climate Risks in California,” the RA met with stakeholders from both counties to better understand how wildfire risk is considered in affordable housing decision-making. She also helped identify current levels of hazard, which are particularly high for residents of Marin since so much land is in the wildland urban interface. “My findings show that fire hazard information changes significantly over time,” Southern said, emphasizing that a one-and-done approach won’t do. On the contrary, housing plans need to be continually revisited and revised after their creation.
Southern’s research relied heavily on the visualization and interpretation of spatial data: “Using ArcGIS Pro mapping tools, I connected updated data on fire hazard and evacuation to current data on housing development progress to identify key developments and areas of concern in both counties,” she explained, adding that she also looked for potential areas of collaboration between housing planning and fire prevention authorities. From this work, Southern produced interactive web maps for visualizing her fire hazard findings in Marin and Santa Barbara counties.
In terms of key takeaways and next steps, Southern underscored that despite all of the risks, there is still a critical need for housing development in California. She also highlighted the importance of continued evaluation of fire hazard in new housing developments, as well as government support for fire-adapted buildings.
Cousins pursued research in Marin as well, examining the county’s progress in educating its residents about wildfire risk. He analyzed thousands of public messages sent to Fire Safe Marin, a nonprofit that teaches residents how to prepare for and prevent wildfires. By categorizing and studying these messages over time, the RA looked for signs that Marin County residents were becoming more knowledgeable about wildfire risks and prevention. The research showed that public awareness was increasing in some areas, highlighting the success of Fire Safe Marin’s outreach. But it also revealed opportunities to strengthen future education efforts.
“This research is about bridging the gap between wildfire prevention science and wildfire prevention,” Cousins shared. Largely speaking, we know how to prepare for wildfires in communities like Marin, and we know what we need to do now, tomorrow, and yesterday to actuate that preparedness. The key, though, is educating our citizens, across the diverse spectrum of needs and interests, about these methods and the imperative of their implementation.” The Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority also served as an important partner in this work.
While the above projects all represent Lane Center-organized research, a fourth project by Miriam Awan (Earth Systems, ’26) was a self-designed study of barriers to equitable housing decarbonization with Debbie Sivas of the Stanford Law School and Mike Mastrandrea of the Stanford Woods Institute serving as mentors.
Awan contextualized her project against a backdrop of rising greenhouse gas emissions, nearly a third of which come from the built environment, where extensive fossil fuels are burned for heating and cooking. As policymakers look for ways to cut carbon, many are turning their attention to building emissions. In California, where the state has pledged ambitious reductions in greenhouse gases, officials are also grappling with how to make that transition fair for everyone — especially renters facing high housing and energy costs.
To address this challenge, Awan examined California’s building decarbonization policies and how they affect low-income households. “Many Western states are passing policies to electrify buildings,” she noted, “but low-income renters face significant barriers. My project revealed how energy insecurity and landlord-tenant dynamics make the transition to electrified housing especially difficult for vulnerable households,” Awan added.
Working with the nonprofit Climate Resilient Communities, the researcher developed recommendations for making electrification upgrades more accessible for renters. She hopes her findings will help local residents secure the resources they need to transition to cleaner, more efficient homes.
Collectively, this robust body of work provides valuable insight into how policy, risk, and equity intersect in conversations about housing and climate change. When the RAs presented their projects to the Bill Lane Center community, representatives from their partnering agencies were often in attendance, and they unilaterally offered high praise for all the students had accomplished. It was obvious that bringing the RA’s assiduous work to bear on complicated, real-world problems produced win-win collaborations for the students, the partners, and the communities they serve. Seeing the mutual rewards of these partnerships reaffirms the value of placing solutions-focused projects at the heart of the Center’s research agenda.
History and Change in Communities in the American West
In self-designed projects exploring history and change in American Western communities, two students spent the summer immersed in learning about how Western landscapes and people are intertwined. Their findings illuminated unique histories of rural communities, as well as the ways in which people’s stories are preserved, contested, and reinterpreted over time.
Student researcher Isaac Nehring (American Studies, ’25), mentored by David Kennedy, the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History Emeritus, produced “Our Treasure State: Of Fences, Trails, and Stories That Shape Montana's Land”. He used oral history to document perspectives of Montanans “whose voices are often overlooked in broader debates about land use, agriculture, and conservation.” The research traced changing relationships between agriculture and conservation in Montana, drawing on conversations with ranchers, farmers, tribal members, policymakers, and conservation professionals. Through their stories, Nehring explored the tension and overlap between land stewardship and agricultural production in the region.
Eva Jones (Environmental Engineering Coterm, ’26) examined a little-studied chapter in the cultural history of the American West: the network of women’s separatist communes that flourished in Southern Oregon during the twentieth century. Her project was a cartographic exploration titled The Amazon Trail — a nod to the colloquial name for the stretch of highway between Eugene and Oregon’s southern border. It mapped these communes to investigate how they both challenged and reproduced the colonial mythos of the West.
Through her research, mentored by Theresa Iker, a scholar of modern American politics, gender, and culture, Jones traced how feminist separatist communities, though founded in a commitment to independence from patriarchy, often remained entangled in the same logics of westward expansion that defined earlier settlement. “At best, adherents could escape personal subjugation only to be implicated in larger systems of land relations,” she wrote. By uncovering this tension between liberation and colonial inheritance, Jones invited a deeper reckoning with how even radical social movements can remain shackled to the power structures they aim to resist.
Arts and the West
Several student researchers this summer used storytelling, art, and creative expression to illuminate experiences and identities across the American West.
Sosi Day (Learning Design and Technology Masters, ’26) explored the experiences of the Armenian diaspora in California through ethnographic interviews and cultural immersion in the Musa Lersi community — descendants of families from the historic town of Musa Ler. Her project – a short story collection – traces a path from displacement to belonging, and demonstrates how communities nurture a “love of place” across generations and borders.
“Understanding the ways that people connect to land, find belonging, and cultivate community can help us build more robust and nourishing societies. I have learned through my research that the Armenian community from Musa Ler has nurtured a deep love of place in each country they have lived. They have found generational connections to new lands. They have given up what is dear in hopes of something safer and more sustainable. These brave choices led my family to California, and I believe that sharing them can help us discover how to nurture belonging in unfamiliar environments,” the researcher shared.
Andrew Nevárez (Public Policy, ’25) combined ethnography and music in Through the Gateway, a creative research project mentored by Hassan Estakhrian from the Department of Music. Nevárez’s work followed the shifting cultural identity of Southeastern Los Angeles County, drawing inspiration from genres such American folk, country, norteño, balada romántica/grupera, and rockabilly, “each of which carries deep ties to the region’s history of migration, labor, and cultural exchange,” he wrote. A musician himself, the RA composed original songs “rooted in family and community memory,” which “demonstrate how working-class experiences of factories, freeways, and shifting neighborhoods can be heard in melody and lyric.” This work highlights how music acts as both “archive and testimony” for communities often excluded from official histories — and challenges conventional portrayals of suburbia as unchanging or homogenous.
Yared Avalos (Public Policy/Iberian and Latin American Cultures, ’25) also hoped to lift up the voices and hardship experienced by communities whose stories are often superseded by Western myths of endless possibility and prosperity. Mentored by Lisa Surwillo, Professor of Iberian and Latin American Cultures, Avalos created a series of short stories for her project, Ghost Towns: Stories from the New West. Avalos grew up in the Texas Panhandle, and was interested in exploring themes that colored her youth, like migration, labor, family, and belonging. In developing her research creatively, she tried to paint a picture of rural communities that data and quantitative analysis could not capture. “By fictionalizing lived experiences, I’ve found that stories can surface truths that numbers or policy reports cannot: the quiet costs of migration, the resilience of families under strain, and the contradictions of a region celebrated in myth but struggling with modern realities,” Avalos said. “These findings suggest that literature can play a vital role in preserving memory and opening new ways to understand communities.”
Looking Ahead
All of the summer 2025 research projects add fresh dimension to the Center’s ongoing surveillance of what is happening on the lands and in the lives of American Westerners. How is the region transforming? Who calls it home? What barriers are communities up against as they attempt to build and sustain lives in an era of heightened climate consciousness…and climate threat? Whether mapping feminist movements in Southern Oregon, probing groundwater policy in the San Joaquin Valley, or keeping alive the stories of resilient people and places, these students have “inhabited” the West in all its complexity. Their research continues to unearth new understanding of the region’s challenges and contradictions, and it inspires the Lane Center to move ever-forward in its mission of enhancing public understanding of the great American West.
