Christy Miller Hesed supports rural and Tribal communities in Kansas as the regional climate adaptation scientist for the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (NC CASC). She is passionate about using social science to learn how climate change impacts communities and identify ways to address climate injustice. When Miller Hesed was a kid, she wanted to grow up to be a professional ice cream taster. She loves to plan gardens and spends a long time picking out seeds and planning where she will plant them. "My actual garden never looks as good as it does on paper," Miller Hesed confesses, "but I'm still pretty great at tasting ice cream."

Humans of CIRES Q&A

Q: What do you work on at CIRES?

[I am] the regional climate adaptation scientist for the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, a collaboration between CU Boulder and the U.S. Geological Survey to help natural and cultural resource managers adapt to a changing climate. [I investigate] how the work of the Center can best support rural and Tribal communities in Kansas.

Q: What are you most passionate about professionally?

Applying social science to gain a deep understanding of how climate change is impacting communities and ways to address climate injustice.

Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

An ice cream taster.

Q: Tell us about a hobby of yours.

I love to plan gardens. Flower gardens, vegetable gardens, herb gardens, really anything. I will spend hours looking through seed catalogs and planning exact spacing of seeds on graph paper. Seldom do I actually enjoy the actual gardening as much as the dreaming, though I have huge success growing bearded and siberian irises.