Aya Shata — an assistant professor in digital media at the Hank Greenspun School of Journalism and Media Studies — brings more than 14 years of strategic communication teaching experience, and serves as the faculty advisor for UNLV's chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA).

Shata is passionate about purpose-driven research that serves communities and pursues social change across a range of critical issues, including sustainable development, climate change, cyberbullying, HIV, women empowerment, and sexual harassment.

Her current research focuses on the ways Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the media landscape, with a particular emphasis on the role and impact of AI in public relations, advertising, and higher education. Shata's overarching goal is to promote a more responsible use of AI, striving to bridge the gap between theory and practice across various industries. 

Her previous research explored attitudinal and behavioral changes brought about by interactive digital media, examining narrative persuasion and the messaging embedded in entertainment education, and investigating the effectiveness of persuasive communication campaigns and media advocacy efforts. During her doctoral studies, she also looked at transmedia narrative to promote sustainable development and identify the narrative persuasion mechanism for transmedia edutainment.

Shata's work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Creative Communication, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Games for Health Journal, Journal of African Media Studies, and Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication.

Ben Leffel, an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy and Leadership, is an expert sustainability governance by cities, states and corporations globally.

Prior to joining UNLV, Leffel served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise and a lecturer at the University of California, Merced. His published work focuses on world cities fighting climate change, including the role of private climate consulting and city membership in transnational environmental networks, global urban pollution abatement, and climate finance allocation to local governments.

Leffel has published op-eds in the Harvard Business Review, The Hill and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and has served as a climate action advisor to the City of Irvine, California. 

H. Jeremy Cho is a UNLV mechanical engineer whose research specializes in converting water vapor into a drinkable form. Since moving to Nevada, he has focused on solutions to the Southwest water crisis through atmospheric water harvesting.

Cho has expertise in soft matter physics and phase-change heat transfer, and constantly looks for ways to convert energy more efficiently (fossil fuels, solar, geothermal, steam energies, etc.). His lab explores the use of soft materials, such as hydrogels, finding new technologies to slow the threats of climate change.

He received a CAREER Award from th National Science Foundation for his work on atmospheric water harvesting in 2022. Before joining UNLV in 2019, he was a postdoc at Princeton working with soft matter physics and did research at MIT on phase-change heat transfer.

Marie-Odile Fortier, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction, is an expert on sustainability in arid lands. Her research focuses on climate change, energy infrastructure, and analyzing how much the carbon footprint of different renewable energy, fossil energy, and bioenergy systems varies by location.

Prior to joining UNLV in fall 2022, Fortier taught courses on sustainable energy at the University of California, Merced and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. 

In 2021, Fortier received a National Science Foundation CAREER award that supported her research in developing new geospatial methodology for energy life cycle assessments, to guide long-term planning of sustainable energy installations to lower climate change impacts.

Hans Rawhouser is an associate professor in the Management, Entrepreneurship and Technology department at UNLV’s Lee Business School. He investigates blockchain technology, entrepreneurial ecosystems, how entrepreneurs gain resources, and how entrepreneurs achieve social impact (for example, greenhouse gas emission reductions, poverty alleviation, job creation, and creation of supportive social networks).

Rawhouser's body of research has explored topics such as carbon offset projects in developing countries, entrepreneurial training in Central America, measurement of social impact, and benefit corporations. His scholarship is forthcoming or published in academic publications including Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Small Business Economics, Academy of Management Discoveries, California Management Review, and Organization & Environment. 

David K. Kreamer is a hydrologist within UNLV's Department of Geoscience who has expertise in topics surrounding water resources, climate change, and pollution.

Kreamer's research includes environmental contamination, spring sustainability in national parks and on public lands, clean water supply in developing nations, radioactive waste disposal, water quality and quantity improvement, groundwater hydrology, landfills, water and international security, and monitoring well design.

His work has been published in more than three dozen journals. Additionally, Kreamer has delivered over 150 invited lectures and keynote speeches around the world. They include testimony before the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on water quality issues associated with uranium mining; lectures for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Bureau of Land Management; and a March 2021 address before the United Nations General Assembly on world water challenges.

Kreamer is currently president of the International Association of Hydrogeologists. He is a former president of the Universities Council on Water Resources and past member of the National Ground Water Association's board of directors.