Having grown up in California, Karishma Goswami observed from a young age how climatic events like wildfires were having increasingly devastating impacts on her home state, the health of her community and the wellbeing of young and future generations. She was raised by strong, trailblazing women—including her mother, a female entrepreneur; her aunt, the first South Asian female judge in Southern California; and her grandmother, who defied norms to advocate for her daughter to immigrate alone to the U.S. in pursuit of higher education. Their strength inspired her to become an advocate pursuing policy and law to drive climate reform.
She majored in Society and Environment with a concentration in U.S. Environmental Policy and Management and minored in Public Policy. Her Senior Honors Thesis analyzes Development Policy for the Solar Industry in the U.S. and China, exploring how the U.S. can adopt elements of China’s governmental support model to accelerate solar deployment and enhance energy independence in a post-fossil fuel economy.
At UC Berkeley, she served as a Legislative Affairs Associate in the ASUC Eco-Office, Legal Clinic Caseworker, researcher in the ESPM department, and Networking Director and External Vice President (EVP) of Phi Alpha Delta (PAD) pre-law society. As a Legislative Affairs Associate, she co-authored the Pour Out Pepsi Bill, advocating for discontinuing the university’s Pepsi contract due to environmental concerns, and the Reject Rausser Bill, demanding greater student input in college renaming in exchange for donations As a caseworker, she provided legal aid and filed taxes for students and community members. Through URAP, she contributed to research protecting Indigenous sites through legal site records and utilized archival and archaeological research to identify Indigenous land stewardship methods. As PAD EVP, she expanded professional development resources, engineered a Networking Mixer, led resume workshops, increased mock LSAT sessions, and wrote and got passed an amendment implementing a Risk Chair and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Chair to foster inclusivity.
Beyond Berkeley, she interned as a Student Legal Clerk at Greenfire Law P.C. (GFL), a DHS summer intern in the Office of Compliance, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties (CRCL), and an EPA intern in the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA). At GFL, she conducted legal research, drafted legal documents, and contributed to litigation targeting mercury-containing skin-lightening products, a cause personally resonant given colorism she experienced as a child and the prevalent use of these harmful products in her Tamil-Bengali extended family. At DHS, she processed civil rights complaints against agencies like CBP and TSA, drafted policy memos addressing FEMA disaster response in Indigenous communities with language access and technological barriers, and recommended changes to CBP policies on mealtimes during Ramadan and streamlining pat-down procedures to avoid Prison Rape Elimination Act violations. At the EPA, she conducted data analysis on the State Review Framework program to the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, identifying systemic barriers to timely reporting and developing a tool to streamline compliance reporting.
Across these roles, she has been a dedicated advocate—whether through legislative reform for Berkeley students, policy memorandum for migrants at the border, or ensuring state and facility accountability for climate laws. She is incredibly honored and grateful to have been named a John Gardner Public Service Fellow, and hopes to utilize this experience to intern at an environmental non-profit or state agency, contributing to climate policy, research, and legislation that drive critical environmental protections.
Major(s): Society and Environment
Minor(s): Public Policy