IU student helps catalyze Terre Haute’s climate planning efforts

Since high school, Indiana University student Maisie Westerfield has known she wants to pursue a career focused on sustainability and urban planning.

Now in her senior year at IU Bloomington, Westerfield is playing a leading role in guiding Terre Haute, Ind. through an assessment of the community’s vulnerabilities to climate change and helping residents make plans to reduce risk.

As a McKinney Climate Fellow, the northwest Indiana native began working with Terre Haute’s local government in Fall 2023. Earlier in the year, the city joined a year-long climate resilience planning effort led by IU’s Environmental Resilience Institute.

With Westerfield on board, Terre Haute’s planning efforts kicked into high gear. In coordination with Terre Haute’s city planner and sustainability coordinator Maitri Desai, Westerfield helped the city’s sustainability commission host its first climate vulnerability workshop in October. In support of the workshop, Westerfield gathered relevant data, conducted community surveys, recruited workshop attendees, and presented on local climate trends.

The meeting brought together more than 40 community members and local leaders, including the mayor. The attendees—which included residents with expertise in education, business, healthcare, workforce development, social services, and other sectors—brainstormed known vulnerabilities to climate change and the risks they posed.

Together, community members identified more than 20 areas of concern, including local agriculture, nature and green spaces, healthcare, extreme heat, and water shortages.

“It was really encouraging to see how many people were willing to just show up and do the work,” Westerfield said. “We came through that feeling really positive about the future.”

The workshop represented a significant milestone in Terre Haute’s efforts to understand how climate change is affecting residents. A second workshop focused on actions the community can take is scheduled for January 2024.

“We got to share with our community that this is something people are working hard on, which helps us get more residents on board,” said Shikha Bhattacharyya, a member of Terre Haute’s sustainability commission. “Maisie’s efforts have really helped move this project forward.”

Beyond the workshops, Westerfield is also providing technical assistance to the city, creating reports, facilitating meetings, and training the city’s sustainability taskforce. She’s even getting involved with Terre Haute’s five-year economic revitalization plan, called Destination Wabash Avenue project, this spring.

Upon graduation from the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs in May, Westerfield will be taking way more than a degree in environmental management with her as she continues to carve out a public sector sustainability career.

“I’ll be taking the skills I’ve developed as a McKinney Climate Fellow with Terre Haute into the next steps of my career and my education,” she said. “They’re things that I can say I’ve had experience doing and doing well.”

About the Environmental Resilience Institute

Indiana University's Environmental Resilience Institute brings together a broad coalition of government, business, nonprofit, and community leaders to help Indiana and the Midwest better prepare for the challenges of environmental change. By integrating research, education, and community, ERI is working to create a more sustainable, equitable, and prosperous future. Learn more at eri.iu.edu.