Josepha Nestele joined the Environmental Vulnerability & Ecosystem Services division (EVES) at EHS in 2023. With her background in Sociology and Natural Resources Management, she is passionate about finding innovative solutions to combat climate change through interdisciplinary research with a strong interest in Disaster Risk Management.
With a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from the Ruprecht-Karls-University of Heidelberg and currently pursuing a Master's program in Natural Resources Management and Development at the University of Applied Science of Cologne, Germany, Josepha became specifically interested in disaster risk management, ecosystem-based resilience and solutions as well as climate change adaptation of socio-ecological systems through Nature-Based-Solutions.
Building on her academic expertise, Josepha gained practical experience in several research institutions, holding a Student Assistant position at GESIS - Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences in Mannheim, where she supported the German Microdata Lab (GML) as well as during an Internship at the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) in Heidelberg, where she was involved in the development of a survey around package waste in Germany.
Before joining UNU-EHS, Josepha participated in an internship where she developed and implemented a Geomedia and Remote Sensing course for UNESCO Biosphere Reserve stakeholders in San José, Costa Rica. This project stemmed from a collaboration between the Heidelberg University of Education and the University of International Cooperation in San José, Costa Rica.
Now, as a student assistant at the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), Josepha is actively contributing to the "RRR-Coast" project, which focuses on fostering a green and inclusive post-pandemic recovery of the Blue Economy and coastal communities.