Déna, alongside fellow trainee researchers, performs a support function across all three of Just Share’s focus areas: Climate, Inequality and Governance.
Déna holds a BSc Honours in Environmental and Geographical Science from the University of Cape Town. Their thesis was an interrogation of urban environmental management policy through a ‘novel ecosystem’ lens. This was the background upon which Déna was hired for their SANBI Groen Sebenza internship with the Western Cape Government’s Climate Change Directorate from 2022 to 2024. While there, Déna performed an integral role in stakeholder engagement, local government support and the development of provincial climate adaptation policy.
Their areas of research interests include slow growth, ecosocialism, political ecology and intersectionality. When not trying to save the world, Déna enjoys creative retellings of childhood media (read: fanfiction), cooking things their family never made and getting their toes in the sand.
