Stories

Civic Science Fellow Cathy Richards is helping communities define and visualize their own experiences  

Just days after the United States presidential transition, Cathy Richards and her team at the Open Environmental Data Project started receiving a wave of urgent messages through email and social media.

Certain critical environmental datasets had begun disappearing from government websites, leaving communities and researchers scrambling to recover information essential to their work. Data on pollution, climate patterns, and environmental health risks was vanishing. 

“Graduate students and researchers were frantically searching for lost datasets needed for their theses or advocacy,” Cathy says. “People online were spiraling.”  

Then she saw links appearing on social media to archival backups she and her colleagues had prepared in advance, just in case. “Seeing people’s relief was validating and meaningful,” she says. “It felt like all those hours of work really mattered.” 

In her role as a Civic Science Fellow and data inclusion specialist at the Open Environmental Data Project, Cathy tackles challenges of data governance, environmental justice, and responsible technology use. With a passion for translating complicated technical concepts into plain language that people can understand and act on, Cathy helps communities claim their right to meaningful and inclusive data on what is happening in our world. 

Cathy’s personal journey from a childhood in the rainforests of Costa Rica to suburban New Jersey fostered her lifelong passion for connecting communities with the environments they inhabit. 

“As a kid growing up surrounded by lush wildlife, I dreamed about flying—floating in space and seeing Earth from above,” she says. Initially aspiring to be an aerospace engineer to achieve that bird’s-eye view, Cathy remembers pivoting in college when realities, including the unexpected diagnosis of epilepsy in her teens, reshaped her ambitions. “I realized my interest wasn’t really Mars or spaceships,” she says. “It was seeing our planet from a different perspective.” 

This reframing led her toward international relations, then eventually into technology and data roles, where she embraced her strength as a knowledge translator. This skill was partly born of necessity: as a child, she had often served as her family’s interpreter after they moved to the United States. 

“Translating between languages was my life early on,” says Cathy. “Over time, I realized translating complex tech and data concepts was just another powerful way of helping people communicate across boundaries.” 

Working previously with social-justice tech nonprofit The Engine Room, and as a Green Web Fellow exploring ethical use of geographic information systems (GIS), Cathy mediated critical dialogues between tech developers and grassroots activists advocating for social and environmental justice. 

“One thing I’ve learned is that maps aren’t neutral,” Cathy says. “Historically, they’ve reinforced colonial assumptions. Who defines and owns the data matters deeply.” 

When communities are excluded from crafting their own maps and datasets, their stories go untold or are distorted. “Maps carry authority. They can empower communities, or erase them,” she says. “That’s why community-led mapping isn’t just about geography, it’s fundamentally about justice.” 

Building inclusive technology and narratives 

At the Open Environmental Data Project, Cathy’s Fellowship centers on developing practical resources that guide a wide range of groups—including community advocates, researchers, and tech developers—in responsibly navigating the complexities of open environmental data. 

Her team is developing a digital toolkit, which she likens to modular recipes that communities can mix-and-match based on specific needs. “If you think of pizza-making, you’re not just handing someone a finished pie,” Cathy says. “You’re giving them recipes for sauce, toppings, dough—modular fragments to creatively assemble.” Communities can adapt the “recipes” in the toolkit to their needs, making sure solutions are not one-size-fits-all, but truly responsive. “That’s how meaningful, inclusive tech practices should work,” Cathy says. 

The toolkit aims to provide a framework for collaborative environmental research based on open-source technology. It will address critical insights gained through extensive conversations with communities and researchers. For example, the team has heard a lot about challenges created by mismatched working styles between developers, researchers, and people in grassroots groups. 

“Recognizing different expectations and rhythms is essential,” Cathy says. “Developers are used to quick, iterative changes. Researchers operate on phased timelines, often lasting months or years, while grassroots groups typically have immediate community needs. Our toolkit hopes to address these types of inconsistencies, bridging these different timelines.” 

Another crucial insight is the need to navigate the nuanced realities of “open” technology. “Happy buzzwords like ‘open’ sometimes mask how complicated things truly are,” she says. “Tools or software promoted as open-source might still involve proprietary elements,” such as a specific sensor or the software that runs a sensor. “Real openness isn’t just code on GitHub, it’s transparent decision-making, accessibility, and centering community needs from the outset.” 

Cathy sees tremendous potential for community-driven mapping and data governance to empower advocacy efforts around environmental injustices, such as air quality crises or flooding that disproportionately impacts vulnerable neighborhoods. 

“Grassroots groups are often collecting environmental data themselves, using DIY sensors and mapping local issues that authorities might overlook or dismiss,” Cathy says. “But to make that data influential, it has to be clearly documented, validated, and usable in advocacy.” 

Incorporating local knowledge, the lived experience behind data points, is what makes these unofficial datasets uniquely powerful, she says. “Community maps come with narratives. They challenge dominant institutional perspectives and empower neighborhoods to share their own truths.” 

Cathy sees her work as not just technical guidance but also ethical advocacy, steering tech toward genuine social good. “I deeply believe technology, including AI and GIS, is valuable, but it’s just one tool among many,” she says. “Like a hammer, tech can build or break. What fundamentally matters is connecting knowledge and capabilities deeply into each community’s real needs.” 

Home among the boundary spanners 

Reflecting on her experience within the Civic Science Fellowship cohort, Cathy is both grateful and inspired. “We’re all boundary-spanners,” she says. “I love that phrase. It finally explains why, whenever people asked me ‘What kind of job are you looking for?’ it felt so tricky to answer. None of us fit neatly into any boxes.” 

The Fellowship turned out to be one of the best professional decisions she’s made, Cathy says. “You get this rare and special chance to deeply explore ideas and issues you truly care about, without being forced into a predetermined direction. We can safely nerd out around our shared passions. That’s priceless.” 

For Cathy, thriving in the Civic Science community isn’t just about finding like-minded thinkers. It’s about collectively embracing uncertainty, exploring new connections, and asking tough questions together. “This Fellowship reminds us that not fitting neatly into any one category isn’t a flaw. It’s our greatest strength,” she says. “And it might be exactly what our world needs most right now.” 

And she’s optimistic about the people who will make our future. “Gen Z is profoundly conscious of where technology intersects social justice,” she says. “This generation has the critical thinking we need to reimagine how tech can truly serve communities rather than communities serving tech.” 

Cathy now has a better grasp on the meaning of her childhood vision of seeing Earth from space. “My original dream wasn’t really about flight after all,” she says. “It was about perspective—who controls the narrative, whose story gets included. Empowering communities to define and visualize their own experiences—that’s true empowerment and justice.” 

Cathy is a member of the 2024-25 Civic Science Fellows cohort. Her Fellowship is supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.