Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management (MS)
Yusra Bitar (she/her) completed her MS in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management in 2021 after completing her BA in Political Studies at the American University of Beirut in 2015.
Before enrolling at The New School, Yusra occupied various research
roles in policy institutes, development firms, and political campaigns
in her home city, Beirut.
While studying in the Environmental Policy and Sustainability
Management (EPSM) program, Yusra also served as a research assistant in
the Food Studies program at The New School and freelanced
as an environmental consultant for the Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights, a rapid-response feminist fund that supports activists on the frontlines of feminist movements and organizing. She was also
a fellow with the Post-Growth Institute,
an international organization that promotes a global shift to a society
that thrives within ecological limits. For the fellowship, she wrote a
piece on
Lebanon’s economic crisis and alternatives arising out of
material necessity that could be generalized for systemic change.
For her master's capstone, Expanding Green Neoliberalism in West
Asia, Yusra examined the failure of neoliberal environmental frameworks,
including the sustainable development and green growth models,
to address the climate catastrophe, focusing on a comparison of
policies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel. She concludes her
capstone by writing that while “the governments of ‘Israel’ [and] the
‘UAE’ are … referred to as environmental innovators and pioneers … the
two governments’
framing of the climate catastrophe and the solutions they are
striving for are radically inaccurate, harmful, and reiterate more of
the same approach that has led to the climate catastrophe to begin
with.”
Following her graduation from the EPSM program, Yusra started working full-time at the Public Accountability Initiative. In her capacity as a research analyst with the project LittleSis,
she engages in power research analysis—investigation of the networks
of the wealthy and powerful—on behalf of the global climate, energy,
and environmental justice movements. One of her recent projects was the Insure Our Future campaign, focusing on conflicts of interest involving insurance companies
with connections to the fossil fuel industry.
Read Yusra’s Post-Growth Fellowship piece, Prosperous Transitions and Global Warnings: Lebanon’s Economic Collapse.