Antioch University New EnglandCenter for Climate Preparedness
and Community Resilience

The Work within the Work: Expanding Environmental Justice and Civil Society through Climate Adaptation, Mitigation and Community Resilience

Resources shared by presenters and participants

This keynote presentation is part of the 2021 Virtual Local Solutions: Climate Preparedness and Communities of Practice Conference sponsored by The Island Institute and NOAA. The presentation will open the discussion about the deeper aspects of our work in addressing climate adaptation, mitigation and community resilience planning through the lens of justice and equity.  

In order to strengthen civil society, our climate work must embrace differences and empower communities.  It must be emphasized that environmental justice is more than a set of indicators or a list to check off. We must aspire for a substantial recalibration in the distribution of risks, exposures, impacts, who participates in decision making and how best to protect the most vulnerable. In order to create just and equitable institutional responses to a changing climate, we must undergo a cultural transformation. 

This virtual keynote presentation is open to the public and available at no-charge. Pre-registration is required.

About the Presenters

Running-Grass is an educational and cultural theorist and environmental activist. His expertise spans several fields including multicultural education, critical pedagogy, and environmental and wilderness education. He is widely published and nationally recognized for his formative contribution to the field of multicultural environmental education and environmental justice.

Views that Matter: Race and Opinions on Climate Change of Boston Area Residents

Report: https://www.umb.edu/editor_uploads/images/centers_institutes/sustainable_solutions_lab/SSL_Views_That_Matter_9-2020.pdf

Presentation Slide Deck

The webinar focuses on results from a first of its kind survey of 200 Boston area residents from each of these groups: Blacks, Latinos, Asian Americans, and whites. Beyond the presentation and discussion of key findings, the webinar will encourage a broader consideration of challenges and opportunities in designing, funding, and administering studies aimed at elevating the voices of racial groups in climate related work.

Presenters:

Paul Watanabe is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institute for Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His current research focuses on political behavior, race and ethnic studies, and public policy. He is the author of Ethnic Groups, Congress, and American Foreign Policy and principal author of A Dream Deferred: Changing Demographics, New Opportunities, and Challenges for Boston. Paul received his B.S. in Political Science from the University of Utah and Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University.

Dr. Lorena Estrada-Martínez’ research utilizes an ecological approach to understanding racial/ethnic disparities in behavioral and mental health outcomes. Most of her work has centered on how neighborhood- and family based dynamics during adolescence impact the short- and long-term risk for violent behaviors and depression among minority adolescents, with special emphasis on Latinx populations. Dr. Estrada-Martínez is the principal investigator (PI) with Dr. Paul Watanabe of a mixed-methods study funded by the Barr Foundation that examines the sociodemographic distribution of opinions and attitudes on climate change. We are especially interested in understanding how communities of color in different parts of the greater Boston-area understand and experience climate change. She is also the PI of an EPA funded transdisciplinary team that will study the health impacts of the US Navy’s operations in Vieques, an island municipality of Puerto Rico, and to develop novel ways to reduce contamination levels; and the co-PI (PI: Dr. Rosalyn Negrón) of a NSF-funded study that examines the political, moral discourse, and mental health implications of relocation decisions among Puerto Ricans in the wake of Hurricane María.

Climate Migration: Research, Analyze, Implement–What can We Learn from Other Places?

Webinar Slide Deck

Climate change is a human rights issue. 13 million U.S. coastal residents are projected to be displaced by 2100 due to sea level rise alone, while many thousands are already being forced out of their homes due to hurricanes, flooding and wildfires. Uncoordinated and piecemeal efforts at the federal level leave the burden on local governments to prepare for the short and long-term impacts of these population movements in both receiving and shrinking communities. Adequate planning and preparation to reduce risk and avoid catastrophic outcomes must prioritize frontline communities and ensure that local residents are active participants in these efforts. Climate migration may also present opportunities for “climate haven” communities to grow safely, sustainably, and equitably if planning is coordinated and thoughtful.

This webinar will showcase recent research and work compiled by Conservation Law Foundation, Vermont Natural Resources Council, and Antioch University on the potential impacts of climate induced migration on receiving communities. Discussion will also center on how cities and towns across the country can start to plan and engage their community members on preparing for these impacts. Strategies to address climate-induced migration must prioritize the most impacted and least resourced communities.

Presenters:

Anna Marandi, National League of Cities

As Senior Specialist of Climate and Sustainability at the National League of Cities, Anna oversees the Leadership in Community Resilience program, a cohort of eight U.S. cities advancing their climate preparedness efforts. Anna is also an expert resource in climate-induced migration, regional climate action, and climate equity and inclusion.

Prior to joining NLC, Anna supported the Puget Sound Climate Change Preparedness Collaborative, a consortium of local and tribal governments, private sector entities, regional public agencies and non-profits focused on enhancing regional resilience and climate preparedness efforts. She has a background in film, media and foreign languages, and graduated with a Masters in Environmental Policy from The New School for Public Engagement.

Elena Mihaly, Conservation Law Foundation

Elena Mihaly is a Senior Attorney working in Conservation Law Foundation’s Clean Air and Water Program and Community Resilience Program. Elena’s work focuses on developing and implementing law and policy solutions to protect public health, enhance community climate preparedness, and ensure all communities have equal access to a clean and healthy environment.

Graduate Student Researchers, Antioch University New England

Raleigh Tacy

Shameika Hanson

Jessica Poulin

Raleigh Tacy is a recent graduate of Antioch University New England. He holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies and a Bachelor’s in Sociology. He has presented at conferences including Closing the Hunger Gap 2019 and Community Solutions 2018, an event he helped to coordinate and run with local activists. Previous research and work of his includes homelessness and outreach, climate change, sustainable development, population and migration change, food systems, and community building.

Shameika Hanson works at The Nature Conservancy as a Community Protection Specialist.  She connects with community leaders, residents, and coalitions in areas dealing with chronic flooding to help build local knowledge and capacity, so residents can better adapt to the changing coastline. She is currently finishing her Professional Science Masters (PSM) in Environmental Studies at Antioch University New England (AUNE) with a professional certificate in Climate Change Resilience. Her concentration is in sustainable development and climate change.

Jessica Poulin is a graduate student at Antioch University New England. She will be graduating in December 2020 with an MS in Environmental Science with a concentration in Sustainable Development and Climate Change. It was while teaching English in South Korea, that Jessica first began cultivating an environmental ethic that also had social and economic justice at its core. Fukushima was a devastating blow to the livelihoods of local fishers who depended on safe and healthy stocks of fish to earn a living. This experience was the first real exposure that Jessica witnessed to the harm that human actions do to both environment and people, and stoked her interest in both.

After returning to Vermont, Jessica worked with students in public schools who were on the autism spectrum. Here, she sought to engage students with the natural world and to cultivate a sense of place and stewardship tied to place. In this work, she also advocated for students’ self-autonomy over their own learning.

In her studies at Antioch, Jessica has become further interested in the intersections of environmental work with community building and empowerment. Much of this stems from her time spent as an educator. She is interested in how climate change will affect the environment, communities, land use, and sustainable transportation. Of particular interest are the intersections that all of these issues have with affordable housing, poverty, social and racial justice, and access to clean water, air, and recreation. She’s interested in implementing policy change, especially at the local level, which will result in systemic change and community empowerment.

Jessica also holds a BA in Creative Writing from Knox College. She has had experience as a Water Quality and Outreach Intern for the Winooski Natural Resources Conservation District, working with volunteers to sample impaired streams, and as a volunteer and then an Education and Outreach Intern for the Lake Champlain Basin Program. Currently, she works at the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain as a Guest Services Representative. In her free time, she enjoys hiking the hills and mountains of Vermont, various crafts, and reading speculative science fiction.

Enhancing Opportunities for Socially Vulnerable Populations to have “A Seat at the Table” in Climate Resilience Planning

Presentation Slide Deck

The report:  https://njclimateresourcecenter.rutgers.edu/resources/a-seat-at-the-table/

The training that was developed:  https://www.nj.gov/dep/climatechange/trainings/asat-about.html

Webinar Description: While all people living in the United States are affected by climate change, some communities and some populations are more vulnerable to changing climate conditions than others. Extensive research here in the United States and across the world points to populations of concern including those that are low-income, people of color, immigrant populations, people with limited English proficiency, Indigenous people, older and younger adults, people with disabilities and compromised health and mental health conditions, and others.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) Coastal Management Program received a Project of Special Merit (PSM) grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as part of NOAA’s Resilient and Sustainable Coastal strategy. The Project of Special Merit, A Seat at the Table: Integrating the Needs and Challenges of Underrepresented and Socially Vulnerable Populations into Coastal Hazards Planning in New Jersey, was designed as a collaborative effort among the NJDEP, NOAA and the Rutgers Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, part of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station.

The project objectives were to:

• Update and enhance access to data for practitioners to identify socially vulnerable populations as part of coastal community climate resilience planning;
• Develop a web-based training curriculum to inform and support practitioners’ efforts to engage socially vulnerable populations as part of coastal community climate resilience planning;
• Offer options for changes in coastal management policies that will support engagement of socially vulnerable populations in coastal climate resilience planning.

This webinar is designed to introduce participants to the multiple outcomes of this project, including demonstrating the produced data tools, providing an overview of the publicly available web-based training, and offering insights to public policy options to advance systematic integration of socially vulnerable populations into climate resilience planning.

Speakers:

Jeanne Herb, Executive Director, Environmental Analysis and Communications Group, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Lisa Auermuller, Assistant Manager-Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve

BIOS

Jeanne Herb directs the Environmental Analysis & Communications Group at the Rutgers University Bloustein School. She leads applied research projects related to climate change, environmental health, sustainable development, coastal management, and integration of natural systems in community planning. Ms. Herb Co-Directs the NJ Climate Change Resource Center, a statutorily-established resource center, the mission of which is to carry out collaborative and interdisciplinary research, analysis, and outreach activities to help NJ adapt, mitigate, and prepare for climate change. She co-facilitates the NJ Climate Change Alliance, a statewide cross-sector collaborative of thought leaders that, for 10 years, has advanced science-informed climate policy and practice. She helps lead the Rutgers Coastal Climate Risk & Resilience (C2R2) Graduate Training Program, an NSF supported research traineeship program that is designed to enhance the ability of graduate students in natural sciences and engineering programs to operationalize coastal resilience from a transdisciplinary perspective.  Recently, Ms. Herb co-led a 20-month NOAA Project of Special Merit designed to advance policies and strategies that increase the engagement of socially vulnerable populations as part of climate resilience planning including the development of a web-based training program, data visualization and mapping tools, policy recommendations, and engagement of stakeholders.  Prior to joining Rutgers, Ms. Herb was Assistant Commissioner for Policy, Planning and Science at the NJ Department of Environmental Protection where she oversaw multidisciplinary science-based planning programs associated with coastal zone management, climate change, Environmental Justice, environmental health, and sustainable development.  Ms. Herb is an adjunct instructor at Rutgers, teaching a graduate course titled, Communicating Science with Decision-makers and a graduate coastal resilience community planning studio. She has a Master of Arts degree in Science and Environmental Journalism and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies with K-12 science education certification.  Ms. Herb was in the first cohort of the three-year Robert Wood Johnson Foundation National Culture of Health Leadership Program and the second cohort of the two-year Rutgers Leadership Academy.

Lisa Auermuller is the Assistant Manager of the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (JC NERR) in Tuckerton, NJ. She has been employed there since 2002. Lisa’s role includes assessing the needs of coastal decision makers and assembling training and technical assistance opportunities. These programs are designed to better inform decision makers through the use of science-based applied research, visualization tools and best practices. Most recently, Lisa’s primary areas of interest have coastal community vulnerability and resilience as they relate to current and future coastal hazards. Lisa has worked with a variety of partners and stakeholders to develop tools and protocols to help communities understand their risks, plan for those risks and put resiliency, mitigation and adaptation measures into place. Lisa’s work combines natural and social science aspects of the coastal decision making process

Research as Climate Advocacy: Using Scholarship for Social Change

Copy of presentation slides

A joint presentation from the Weathering Change webinar series and the Environmental Advocacy Webinar series

Research on climate change and societal response to the issue may have started in the academy, but it didn’t stop there. Advocates, whether in collaboration with scholars or on their own, have developed an extensive and varied corpus of research on climate impacts, policy responses, and approaches to build public support and political power on climate change. The Climate Advocacy Lab sits at the nexus of the climate research and advocacy, guiding conversations between sectors and equipping advocates with evidence from scholars – and other practitioners – in order to work more effectively. In this talk, Jack will discuss the value of research in guiding climate advocacy and opportunities for scholars to plug into the wider climate movement.

The first rule of effective communication is to know your audience. The more you know about your audience, the better you can understand their needs, speak to their values, and help them understand the benefits of certain policies or actions.  The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication studies the causes and consequences of public opinion and behavior, and helps governments, media, companies, and advocates communicate more effectively.  In this presentation, Eric will provide an overview of their research on public opinion of climate change and on strategies for effective communication about the issue.

Presenters:

Jack Zhou produces and manages the Climate Advocacy Lab’s social science-informed resources for their webinars, workshops, and other outreach. His research interests include motivated reasoning, framing effects, and political polarization. In other words, how people think about climate change, how they process information on the issue, and what gets in the way. Prior to joining the Lab, he worked as a postdoctoral associate in energy policy and survey methods. He received his B.S. from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. from Duke University.

As the YPCCC’s Project Manager, Eric Fine supports advocacy organizations to optimize and innovate on their campaigns by leveraging public opinion research and data tools. He also collaborates with groups who are studying public perception in Latin America. Prior to YPCCC, Eric was an outdoor educator taking people on expeditions throughout the Americas and Europe. Watching glaciers recede in Patagonia over ten years inspired him to pursue a Masters of Environmental Science at Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Opportunities and Challenges for Addressing Flooding and Stormwater Management: Lessons and Tools from the Great Lakes

Presentation Slides

Join Antioch University New England, NOAA, and the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit for an exploration of some of the opportunities and challenges for addressing flooding and stormwater management in communities surrounding the Great Lakes. Brandon Krumwiede (NOAA OCM) will present NOAA’s Lake Level Viewer, which combines near-shore bathymetry and real-time observations of water levels throughout the Great Lakes. Adam Bechle (Wisconsin Sea Grant) will describe vulnerability of Wisconsin coastal communities to variability of Lake Michigan water elevation. Joe Chapman (AECOM) will describe watershed modeling studies in two basins that are tributary to Toledo, Ohio and Duluth, Minnesota, shedding light on heavy precipitation and flood potential there.

Presenters: 

Brandon Krumwiede, NOAA OCM, Great Lakes Water Levels and Coastal Impacts

Adam Bechle, Wisconsin Sea Grant, Vulnerability to Heightened Lake Levels in Green Bay

Adam Bechle is a coastal engineering outreach specialist at Wisconsin Sea Grant. Adam helps Wisconsin’s Great Lakes communities build resilience to coastal hazards by communicating the latest hazard data, developing outreach products on best management practices, and providing local governments guidance to identify opportunities to better plan and prepare for coastal hazards. Adam has degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Joe Chapman, PE, CFM Vice President, AECOM, Modeling Extreme Precipitation in Urban Watersheds of the Great Lakes Region

Joe is a Vice President with AECOM and has over 32 years of experience in water resources and flood and disaster risk management. He is a registered professional engineer and has worked on a range of projects with Federal, State and local and private sector clients in a range of markets across North America and Australia. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Clemson University.

Impacts of a Changing Climate on Wetland Ecosystems

Presenter Slides

This webinar will review the potential impacts of a changing climate on wetland ecosystems, with a focus on the glaciated northeast. The presentation will review three types of wetlands: vernal pools, peatlands and tidal marshes with an eye to the vulnerability and potential resilience of such systems to the current and projected changes is temperature, precipitation and atmospheric carbon dioxide content. Response of these ecosystems to such disturbances will be considered through different spatial scales.

Presenter: Prof. Michael Simpson has graduate degrees from both Dartmouth College and Antioch New England Graduate School where his focus of studies was wetlands ecology and economics.

He has been a senior environmental scientist, and partner, for two environmental consultant firms in the Northeast. He has also worked for both the NH Dept. of Environmental Services and the MA Dept. of Environmental Protection.

He is a licensed wetlands scientist with over thirty-years of experience in wetland and riparian corridor assessments. He has also designed created-wetlands to mitigate both wastewater and non-point source pollution. These projects have been accompanied by economic cost/avoided cost analyses related to decisions regarding resource utilization and conservation.

Currently, he is the Director of the graduate Resource Management and Administration program, within the Environmental Studies Dept at Antioch University New England, and Co-Director of the Center for Climate Preparedness and Community Resilience. Within the department, he has taught graduate level courses in wetlands ecology, watershed management, environmental site assessment and principles of sustainable systems.

His research has ranged from impacts to springs, seeps and wetlands from large groundwater withdrawal to multi faceted analyses of the vulnerability of stream-road crossings for both peak flow conveyance and aquatic organism passage. Research, funded by NOAA and the US EPA, focused on assessing the vulnerability of riparian corridors from a changing climate within the context of a changing landscape.

Small Town Resilience: Lessons From Maine

Presentation note from presenter Brian Ambrette: During my talk I said that towns in Maine with populations below 4,000 were exempt from doing comprehensive planning and zoning. While that is true, the way I presented the topic made it sound as if the population size of a municipality was the planning trigger; that is not accurate. No municipality in Maine is required to have a comprehensive plan. That mandate was removed from the enabling statute years ago. Zoning is not linked to population size either. If a town creates a comprehensive plan, there is a presumption that zoning will follow and a town without a comprehensive plan cannot enact most types of zoning (but will still have to enact mandatory Shoreland Zoning). I mistakenly conflated zoning with building codes, which are linked to the size of the municipality. Municipalities with population over 4,000 must adopt and enforce the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Codes or another code at least as stringent while municipalities below that threshold are not required to do so. 

Presentation Slides

Session Description: From ocean acidification and warming, to broadband internet, renewable energy and sea level rise, small communities in Maine are making great strides in their future resilience. Join members of the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation & the Future and the Island Institute, a community development organization that has worked to sustain Maine’s island and coastal communities for more than 37 years. They will share an update on the work of the Maine Climate Council and stories of resilience from along Maine’s rural coast.

Presenters:

Brian Ambrette is a Senior Climate Resilience Coordinator with the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future. Brian has a decade and a half of community, conservation, and nonprofit experience in New England and the Mid-Atlantic. From 2014-2019, Brian was the Director of Strategic Initiatives and Coastal Resilience Program Manager at the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy in Maryland. He provided rural communities with adaptation and resilience planning assistance through a groundbreaking regional climate collaborative. He also served as a member of the Maryland Climate Change Commission’s Adaptation & Response Working Group. He holds a Master of Environmental Management degree from Yale University’s School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and bachelors degree from Middlebury College in Vermont.

Suzanne Arnold, Ph.D., is the Marine Scientist at the Island Institute. She joined the Institute in 2012 and works on the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on marine resources and fisheries-dependent communities. Susie earned a master’s degree in Marine Policy and a doctoral degree in Marine Biology from the University of Maine. Her current areas of focus include working with fishermen to diversify their businesses to include shellfish and seaweed aquaculture, researching the environmental benefits of farming edible seaweed, and helping coastal communities better understand the implications of sea level rise so they can make informed adaptation decisions. Susie has extensive experience and expertise in directing projects that have successfully extended scientific literacy and supported communities in increasing their resiliency.

Climate Impacts: Public Health Webinar

Presentation Slides

Resources from the presentation:

National Climate Assessment – https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/chapter/18/

CDC Climate Ready States and Cities Initiative https://www.cdc.gov/climateandhealth/climate_ready.htm

CDC Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) https://www.cdc.gov/climateandhealth/BRACE.htm

CDC Climate and Health publications page https://www.cdc.gov/climateandhealth/publications.htm

CDC ‘Impact of Climate Change on Health’ https://www.cdc.gov/climateandhealth/effects/default.htm

NH DHHS Climate and Health Program https://www.dhhs.nh.gov/dphs/climate/index.htm

NH DHHS Environmental Health Tracking Program https://www.dhhs.nh.gov/dphs/hsdm/epht.htm

https://www.dhhs.nh.gov/dphs/hsdm/wisdom/index.htm

Monadnock Climate & Health Adaptation Plan – http://www.swrpc.org/chap

Seacoast Climate & Health Adaptation Plan – http://www.seacoastphn.org/uploads/8/4/0/0/84005490/seacoast_plan_of_action_03.4.19_b.pdf

Wellenius, G.A., Heat-related morbidity and mortality in New England: Evidence for local policy. Environmental Research (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2017.02.005

Webinar Description:

In the face of severe weather events and rapidly changing climate, who is at risk and what can be done? This webinar will discuss how to use a national framework to pursue ‘resilience’ from a health perspective, assess information on hazards, health effects, and vulnerability, and support the development of climate adaptation plans. We will present viable examples of how to engage with local partners, build public health ‘infrastructure’, pursue behaviour change, and work with ‘front-line’ communities at risk for climate impacts.

Presenters:

Dr. Kathleen Bush is the Program Manager for the Environmental Public Health Tracking Program at the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health Services. She also supports the Climate and Health Program. Her work focuses on human-environment interactions. With a background in environmental epidemiology, she draws on a variety of statistical and geospatial methods to evaluate trends in health outcomes across space and time. She is committed to building environmental health capacity at the State and Local level. Kathleen completed her Ph.D. in 2011 in Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where she was also a Graham Environmental Sustainability Doctoral Fellow.

Matt Cahillane is a public health program manager with a background in adult education and environmental health. His current projects include building community resilience against climate change and helping town health officers to solve environmental problems in housing, pest control, and sanitation. He administers a CDC grant on climate change called Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE). His educational background includes training as a Wilderness EMT, a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Preventive Health Studies from UMass Amherst, and a Masters of Public Health (MPH) with a focus in Behavioral Science and Health Education from UCLA. As of November 2019, his health intervention projects include measuring community resilience, emergency preparedness for severe weather and teaching tick-safe practices.

Janine Marr is a Ph.D. student in Antioch University New England’s Environmental Studies department. She began working with the Center for Climate Preparedness & Community Resilience in 2018 as a graduate research assistant for the Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) project with the Greater Monadnock Public Health Network in Cheshire County.  Janine conducted research and facilitated stakeholder sessions to produce a literature review and theoretical framework that assisted community partners in the creation of a pilot intervention.  Initiated in Spring 2019, the BRACE project used the Transtheoretical Model of behavior change and combined educational sessions with emergency kits and support networks to build resilience against extreme precipitation events within the over-65 population.  The results of the pilot intervention will inform a similar project throughout the region in 2020.

Strategies for 21st Century Risk Management and Climate Change Communication

Slides:

Full Presentation

Abby Sullivan’s slides

Alison Adams’ slides

Handout

Join us for our October webinar where we discuss how to effectively engage stakeholders both outside and within your organization in conversations about climate change and how to mainstream that information using an Enterprise Risk Management framework.

Abby Sullivan, from the Climate Change Adaptation Program at the Philadelphia Water Department, will discuss communication and engagement best practices using evidence-based strategies. She will look at specific barriers to communicating and mainstreaming climate change information and provide resources and case studies with tested tools and solutions.

Alison Adams, a Principal Engineer with INTERA Incorporated, is a water resources engineer focused on water supply planning and resiliency projects. She will discuss her work as a consultant to the Southern Nevada Water Authority to help them to incorporate climate change information into existing programs and processes to reduce enterprise-wide risks. The Enterprise Risk Management Framework (ERM) looks holistically at risks across the utility, including new and emerging risks from climate change and the ways climate change could exacerbate existing risks. The Enterprise Risk Management framework creates a governance structure that ensures risks like climate change are mainstreamed and addressed throughout the entire organization.

Water Utility Climate Alliance:
Abby and Alison both have experience with the Water Utility Climate Alliance, a group comprised of 12 of the nation’s largest water utilities with a mission to collaboratively advance water utility climate change adaptation. Alison, in her previous role working for Tampa Bay Water, was the Chair of WUCA from 2014 to 2016. The Philadelphia Water Department joined WUCA in 2016, making Abby one of the newest members of the WUCA family. You can learn more about WUCA here: https://www.wucaonline.org/

Presenters:

Abby Sullivan is an Environmental Scientist at the Philadelphia Water Department where she works on the Climate Change Adaptation Program (CCAP). The program was formed to better understand the impacts that climate change will have on PWD’s drinking water, wastewater and stormwater systems and to develop cost-effective adaptation strategies to build resiliency to higher temperatures, more intense precipitation and higher sea levels. Abby leads all analyses and risk assessments related to sea level rise and storm surge. Results are informing resiliency planning and design guidelines and decision-making tools for the Department. Abby also leads external and internal climate communication efforts and she previously worked on public outreach and green stormwater infrastructure planning for the Green City, Clean Waters program. Abby has a Master’s degree in water resource management from the University of Akureyri in Iceland. She enjoys strong coffee, bad puns, rainy days, soccer and renovating her 100+ year-old house.

Alison Adams, Ph.D., P.E. is formerly the Chief Technical Officer at Tampa Bay Water, the largest wholesale public water supplier in the state of Florida. Dr. Adams, a water resources engineer, has worked in Florida on large-scale water supply and management problems for over 35 years. As Tampa Bay Water’s Chief Technical officer, she was responsible for permitting and regulatory compliance, water supply planning and demand forecasting at multiple time scales, and decision support for risk, reliability and source allocation and the Agency’s Information Technology group. Dr. Adams also directed research into climate variability and climate change and the effects on supply reliability for the Tampa Bay region and management strategies to mitigate these effects. Dr. Adams represented Tampa Bay Water as the chair of the Water Utility Climate Alliance.  She co-founded the Florida Water and Climate Alliance with the University of Florida and co-managed a project with the University of Florida and the Southeast Climate Consortium on downscaling global climate model output for use in the agency’s integrated hydrologic model. She directed the agency’s efforts on defining supply reliability under climate uncertainty. Dr. Adams was responsible for implementing programs which project long-term water demand for the agency’s service area, optimize Tampa Bay Water’s water supply, and maximize environmental protection across the region. Dr. Adams was also the Agency’s Asset Management Program Manager, she provided oversight on the development of Tampa Bay Water’s Asset Management Plan and implementation of the program. Currently Dr. Adams is a Principal Engineer with INTERA Incorporated, focusing on water supply planning and resiliency projects for utility and water manager clients.