
Marjahn “MJ” Finlayson
📍Nassau and Eleuthera, Bahamas
🏷️ #Education, #Development, #ClimateScience, #Weather, #TropicalClimateChange, #ClimateAdaptation, #SIDS
Fellowship Focus
ClimateEdu Bahamas and DAPS (Development, Advancement, Preservation, and Sustainability) were established to provide education and reintroduce sustainability to the Bahamas, especially in rural areas. In this fellowship, Marjahn will combine these projects to create a collective “green city mindset” in small communities all over the country. With the aim of influencing rural community development, increasing climate education and introducing more sustainability, activities will include: creating equitable and accessible open educational resources, introducing DAPS as a club for high school students as a means of community service and virtually supervising inventory through a DAPS technological application. This project will also develop community sustainability by introducing climate education on climate change and adaptation to locals, thereby encouraging more community adaptive work to better prepare for impending climate disasters.
Bio
Marjahn is a climate change scientist, educator, and activist. She got her start in science as a tropical cyclone (hurricane) watcher, trying to figure out how climate change will affect these phenomena since she is a native of a hurricane-prone nation, The Bahamas. She studies severe weather in our changing climate, especially for island nations and communities. She began her earth science career at Wesleyan University, learning about tropical cyclones, paleoclimatology, and climate modeling. In 2020, she earned a Master’s in Research from the University of Leeds in Climate and Atmospheric Science. There she studied storm track movement and statistical analysis under different climate scenarios. Between her undergraduate and graduate studies, she discovered her love for teaching and working with students of all ages. As a former physical scientist at the Cape Eleuthera Institute, Marjahn has introduced atmospheric science and meteorology to South Eleuthera. She has collaborated with local Bahamian and international institutions and scientists to provide accessible documentation and studies on climate change, hurricanes, and weather, as well as mentored many young people in STEM. Based on her work in education and community engagement for climate science and weather, she founded ClimateEdu Bahamas and Fin Forecasts in 2022 and co-founded DAPS ( DAPS (Development. Advancement. Preservation. Sustainability) as conduits to extend her reach in this work. As an activist, Marjahn’s mission is to bring concerns of Small Island Developing States and underserved communities to the center stage of the international climate change talks and to work more toward radical climate justice.