Suleiman Abiodun Abdulsalam is a doctoral student in Planning, Governance, and Globalization at Virginia Tech, where his research examines how public trust in scientific institutions shapes community responses to environmental policy decisions. His current research interest focuses specifically on Virginia’s coastal resilience challenges, including attitudes toward the $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project and flood risk management along a coastline experiencing sea-level rise at more than double the global average. As a graduate research assistant in the Wald Research Lab, Suleiman contributes to a Carnegie Corporation-funded project analyzing how scientific credibility is contested in polarized environmental debates. He holds a Master of Global Affairs (with a major in Sustainable Development) from the University of Notre Dame and a Master’s in Collective Intelligence from Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco. He has worked on international research projects examining public trust in science, climate and environmental attitudes, and policy responses across 68 countries, as well as applied studies on climate adaptation, food security, and environmental justice in coastal and climate-vulnerable contexts. His prior work includes (1) cross-national survey research analyzing how scientific credibility and communication influence climate policy support, (2) applied qualitative research on scaling food-security and climate-resilience interventions in Bangladesh, and (3) community-engaged research documenting environmental health and justice impacts of uranium contamination on Indigenous communities in one of the Four Corners states in the United States. Through the COVES fellowship, Suleiman aims to support Virginia’s efforts to integrate scientific evidence into policy decisions that enhance the Commonwealth’s environmental resilience and community well-being.