Rebecca Carter focuses on governance issues related to climate resilience, including the transparency, equity and inclusivity of adaptation planning and implementation processes. Her work encompasses mainstreaming adaptation across sectors and at multiple scales from national to local, climate finance, as well as transformative adaptation. Rebecca has worked on climate change issues for much of her career, in academic, non-profit and federal government roles. Dr. Carter has conducted research on why agricultural adaptation will need to be more transformative and how to make it so; the climate change implications of water policies on demand and supply; how to make climate information more useful for diverse user groups; and intersections of land use planning and climate change. Prior to joining WRI, she was a Foreign Service Environment Officer with USAID. She was posted in Indonesia, Uganda and the Philippines, and worked on clean energy, biodiversity conservation, water and sanitation, and forestry issues, in addition to climate resilience. Dr. Carter earned a Master’s and Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
J. Mijin Cha is an assistant professor of urban and environmental policy at Occidental College. She is also a fellow at the Worker Institute, Cornell University and a senior fellow at Data for Progress. Dr. Cha’s research explores the intersection of inequality and climate change, particularly labor/climate coalitions. Her current research focus is on just transition- how to transition fossil fuel communities and workers equitably into a low-carbon future. Dr. Cha received her B.S. from Cornell University, J.D. from Univ. of California, Hastings, and LLM and PhD degrees from the Univ. of London, SOAS.
Kristie L. Ebi has been conducting research and practice on the health risks of climate variability and change for nearly twenty-five years, including on extreme events, thermal stress, food-borne safety and security, vector-borne diseases, and undernutrition. Dr. Ebi focuses on understanding sources of vulnerability, estimating current and projecting future health risks of climate change, and designing adaptation policies and measures to reduce these risks in multi-stressor environments. She has supported multiple countries worldwide in assessing their vulnerability and implementing adaptation measures. Dr. Ebi was a lead author for the IPCC special report on warming of 1.5°C, and the 4th US National Climate Assessment.
Jonathan Foley is a renowned climate scientist, sustainability expert, educator, and public speaker. He is also executive director of Project Drawdown — the world’s leading resource for climate solutions. His work focuses on finding solutions to sustain the climate, ecosystems, and natural resources we all depend on. Dr. Foley’s work has led him to become a trusted advisor to governments, foundations, non-profits, and business leaders around the world. He and his colleagues have made major contributions to our understanding of climate change, ecosystems, and the sustainability of the world’s resources. He has published over 130 peer-reviewed scientific articles, including many highly cited works in Nature and Science. He is among the top 1 percent most-cited scientists in the world. A noted science communicator, his presentations have been featured at hundreds of venues, including the Aspen Institute, the World Bank, the National Geographic Society, the Chautauqua Institution, the Commonwealth Club, the National Science March, and TED.com. He has also written many popular pieces in National Geographic, the New York Times, the Guardian, and Scientific American. He has appeared on National Public Radio, the PBS NewsHour, the BBC, CNN, and in the New York Times, the Guardian, the Washington Post, WIRED, the HBO documentary “Too Hot Not to Handle”, and the film series “Let Science Speak.” Dr. Foley has won numerous awards and honors, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, awarded by President Clinton; the J.S. McDonnell Foundation’s 21st Century Science Award; an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship; the Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological Society of America; and the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Award. In 2014, he was named as the winner of the prestigious Heinz Award for the Environment. Before joining Project Drawdown, Foley led a number of environmental science and sustainability organizations. At the University of Wisconsin, he launched the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE) and served as the first Gaylord Nelson Professor of Environmental Studies. Dr. Foley was also the founding director of the Institute on the Environment (IonE) at the University of Minnesota, where he was the McKnight Presidential Chair of Sustainability. More recently, he served as the Executive Director of the California Academy of Sciences, the greenest science museum on the planet.
Samantha Montano has a Ph.D. in Emergency Management from North Dakota State University. She first became involved in emergency management in New Orleans, Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina & the Levee Failure and the BP Oil Disaster. Dr. Montano’s research explores the role of nonprofit organizations, grassroots efforts, and volunteerism in disaster. She speaks regularly on various emergency management issues including emergency management policy and climate change. Currently, Dr. Montano is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Management & Homeland Security at Massachusetts Maritime Academy and has a forthcoming book about disasters and climate change to be published by Park Row Books in Summer 2021.
Kendra Pierre-Louis is a climate change reporter whose reporting focuses on the intersection of climate science and its impact on people. She has worked for The New York Times, Popular Science and InsideClimate News where her reporting has chronicled how warming oceans has led to the collapse of critical fisheries in Northern California, how pollution associated with climate change is making people sick, and on the links between wildfires and a warming world. Ms. Pierre-Louis has spoken about her reporting on panels, television shows and radio including in All In With Chris Hayes, Cheddar, and WNYC’s The Takeaway.
Melissa Roberts is the founder and executive director of the American Flood Coalition, where she supports coalition membership, leads policy development, and guides strategy for the coalition’s mission of advocating for national solutions to flooding and sea level rise. Under Ms. Roberts’ leadership, AFC experienced 400% growth during its inaugural year. The coalition’s diverse membership includes Members of Congress, elected officials, military leaders, cities, towns and counties, businesses, and civic and educational organizations from across the country. Prior to her current role, Ms. Roberts was the Director of Strategy at First Street Foundation, a tech nonprofit that quantifies and communicates America’s changing flood risk. Previously, she was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company where she specialized in infrastructure finance and planning, working with national governments, cities, major foundations, private sector investors, and developers. She was a lead author on the publication Financing Change: How to Mobilize Private Sector Financing for Sustainable Infrastructure. Ms. Roberts holds a B.A., Summa Cum Laude, in History from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a Benjamin Franklin Honors Scholar.
Donald Sampson is the climate change project coordinator for the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians. Sampson, former Board member of First Nations Development Institute, is President of Seventh Generation LLC, a tribal advisory and consultation company that works to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of tribal government and business operations. He formerly was the Director of Native Programs at Ecotrust, a nonprofit organization founded in 1991 and based in Portland, Oregon. Sampson also served as the Executive Director of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) located in northeastern Oregon, a position he held from 2003 to 2010. He was responsible for more than 1,500 employees and a $194 million operating budget to oversee all business and government operations. The CTUIR is the government of the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla Tribes – a confederation formed by treaty in 1855. Previously, Sampson served as the Executive Director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission for five years. The commission was established by the Yakama, Warm Springs, Umatilla and Nez Perce Indian tribes in 1977 and assists these tribes with management of the Columbia Basin’s salmon resources. He was also Chairman of the Umatilla Tribe’s Board of Trustees, an elected position he held from 1993 to 1997.
Leah Stokes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and affiliated with the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and the Environmental Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). She works on energy, climate and environmental politics. Within American Politics, my work focuses on representation and public opinion; voting behavior; and public policy, particularly at the state level. Within environmental politics, Dr. Stokes researches climate change, renewable energy, water and chemicals policy. Her research has been published in top journals including the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Nature Energy, Energy Policy, and Environmental Science & Technology. She has also published articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, CNN and elsewhere. I am frequently quoted in national media. She holds a PhD in Public Policy in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning’s Environmental Policy & Planning group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a master’s from MIT’s Political Science Department, MPA in Environmental Science & Policy at the School of International & Public Affairs and the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and a BSc in Psychology and East Asian Studies from the University of Toronto. Prior to academia, Dr. Stokes worked at the Parliament of Canada and Resources for the Future.
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