Sitashma Thapa

  • Ph.D. Student
  • ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
Sitashma's Headshot

Bio

Sitashma Thapa is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research centers on climate change communication, climate finance and philanthropy, and environmental justice. With a background in environmental science, advocacy, policy, and philanthropy, she is particularly interested in comparative analysis, participatory research methods, and qualitative approaches. Through her doctoral studies, Sitashma hopes to gain expertise in mixed-methods research.

Sitashma’s motivation is rooted in her upbringing in Nepal, a Global South country disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis. Her research aims to apply communication models to strengthen communities’ understanding of and access to climate finance and grantmaking. She hopes to conduct fieldwork in Nepal and is exploring a second country/community for comparative analysis.

Prior to joining CU Boulder, Sitashma was a Research Associate at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, where she led projects on climate philanthropy and social justice philanthropy. She also served as Development Coordinator at the Hoosier Environmental Council, an Indianapolis-based environmental policy and education organization, and as a Climate and Energy Program Fellow at the National Wildlife Federation during the post-Inflation Reduction Act era. At NWF, she contributed to shaping the team’s engagement with Loss and Damage discussions. As an undergraduate, she studied abroad in Greece, where she developed her interests in ethnography and sociology-anthropology—interests she hopes to integrate into her research.

Research Interests

Climate communication, Environmental and Climate Justice, Climate Philanthropy 

Education

  • M.A. Philanthropic Studies [Concentration: Environmental Philanthropy], Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, 2022
  • B.A. Environmental Sustainability [Concentration: Environmental Education] and Sociology-Anthropology, Earlham College, 2020
  • Semester Abroad Program, Arcadia University, Greece, 2019

Faculty Advisors

  • Max Boykoff
  • Phaedra Carmen Pezzullo 

Labs

  • Media and Climate Change Observatory
  • Sustainability and Storytelling Lab