Creating the Climate Future: Harvard Climate Leadership Summit

Jennifer Sara is the Global Director for the World Bank Group’s Climate Change Global Practice from July 1, 2022. Ms. Sara is responsible for overseeing the key strategic priorities and implementation of the World Bank Group’s Climate Change Action Plan and leads five Practice groups on: Climate Operationalization and Impact, Climate Economics and Finance, Climate Funds Management, Climate Investment Funds Secretariat, and Strategy, Knowledge and Outreach.

Elizabeth Lewis is a Managing Director and Deputy Head of ESG, supporting Blackstone's corporate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) efforts. Prior to joining Blackstone, Ms. Lewis was at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector part of the World Bank Group, leading engagement with investors, NGOs, governments, and other stakeholders on climate change and diversity. Prior to joining IFC, Ms. Lewis was a Partner and Director of Strategy and Business Development for Terra Alpha Investments. Prior to that, she established World Resources Institute’s Sustainable Investing Program and served as WRI’s Head of Sustainable Investing. Earlier in her career, Ms. Lewis was a Principal at Global Environment Fund, a private equity fund focused on clean energy and sustainable forestry. Ms. Lewis started her career at Booz Allen Hamilton, advising clients in their evaluation of alternative energy technologies and solutions.

Jonah Wagner is Chief Strategist at the U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office, where he focuses on BIL and IRA implementation and defining pathways to scale for emerging clean energy technologies. Prior to DOE, he was an associate partner at McKinsey & Company in the public finance practice, and worked for the New Zealand Treasury on infrastructure and environmental policy. He was also regional director of LATAM for Delterra, a social enteprise focused on standing up municipal recycling systems, and led business development for Piramal Water LLC, a distributed infrastructure company in Gujarat, India. He has an A.B. from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, and is based in Washington, D.C.

David Livingston is a senior advisor in the office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry. Prior to joining government, Mr. Livingston previously worked at the Eurasia Group, a consultancy, focusing on energy, climate, trade and technology issues, and as a non-resident senior fellow of the Atlantic Council. He has also served as a Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as well as the inaugural Robert S. Strauss Fellow for Geoeconomics at the Office of the US Trade Representative. Earlier in his career, he worked at the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

Sharon Lavigne (born May 1950) is an environmental justice activist in Louisiana focused on combating petrochemical complexes in Cancer Alley. She is the 2022 recipient of the Laetare Medal, the highest honor for American Catholics, and a 2021 recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize.

Carlos Monje Jr. serves as Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy in the Office of the Secretary, which is Senate-confirmed third-highest ranking official at the U.S. Department of Transportation. Monje managed the agency review process for domestic agencies for the Biden-Harris Transition. Monje previously served as Acting Under Secretary and Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy for the U.S. Department of Transportation where he oversaw implementation of surface transportation programs, the discretionary grant programs, and efforts to promote equity and economic development. Monje is the first in his family born in the United States. His family is from Argentina.

Shari Friedman leads the firm's climate and sustainability coverage, focusing on environmental and social policies and on trends affecting energy companies, industrial production, retail, supply chains, technology companies, agribusiness, and financial institutions. Shari and her team work across regions and sectors to help clients understand evolving policies and how they will affect clients' businesses today and in the future. Shari has been involved with climate and sustainability issues for over 25 years. Immediately prior to joining Eurasia Group, Shari worked at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, where she led climate strategy and managed a team of industry specialists focused on renewable energy, green buildings, battery storage, sustainable waste, electric vehicles, low-carbon cities, and emerging green technologies such as hydrogen and carbon capture storage and utilization.

Claudia Dobles Camargo is an Architect and a Senior Political Advisor, with more than 15 years of experience focusing on urban mobility, affordable and social housing, climate change, and community engagement. She served as First Lady of Costa Rica from 2018 to 2022, working as a political coordinator in the infrastructure, mobility, and transport sector as co-leading, along with President Alvarado the Costa Rican National Decarbonization Plan.

Katherine Koh – Katherine Koh is the Global Climate Lead for the International Finance Corporation Infrastructure practice. Katherine has built her career across the worlds of investment, social impact, and sustainability. Katherine started her career at McKinsey as a strategy consultant advising major social sector organizations as well as Fortune 500 companies. Following concurrent Harvard MBA and MPA programs and an investment banking stint at Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, Katherine joined the IFC in 2010 as an investment officer. Katherine considers the transition to a low-carbon and resilient global economy — and the need for climate-smart infrastructure solutions — among the most urgent and important issues of our time.

Emily Felt serves as an advisor to the U.S. Department of Energy, helping to advise on the implementation of the clean energy and GHG reduction portions of the Inflation Reduction Act, with a focus on large, complex clean energy project finance. Prior to assuming this role, Emily held a variety of roles at Duke Energy, including leadership roles in federal energy policy (including wholesale electricity market reform), environmental policy, renewable strategy, and economic and business development. In 2014, Emily was instrumental in advocacy for passage of Act 236, The South Carolina Distributed Energy Resource Act of 2014. She has testified before the Public Service Commission of South Carolina on numerous occasions and appeared before South Carolina General Assembly committees. Emily grew up in Washington, D.C., Norfolk, Europe, and Asia. She is a graduate of Stanford University (A.B., Japanese) and Harvard University (M.P.A., Public Policy).

Doreen M. Harris was appointed President and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) in April 2021, after serving as Acting President and CEO since June 2020. Under President Harris’s leadership, NYSERDA is making significant progress on nation-leading initiatives including clean energy infrastructure and innovation, large-scale renewables, building decarbonization, energy storage, clean fuels and transmission. President Harris joined NYSERDA in 2010 and served as Vice President of Large-Scale Renewables, where she spearheaded the strategic development of New York’s land-based renewable and offshore wind resources. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rochester and a Master of Business Administration from the University at Albany, State University of New York.

Rajeev is responsible for conceptualizing, developing, scaling and securing AutoGrid’s AI-driven cloud-native SaaS platform and applications. Rajeev brings extensive experience building large-scale, complex enterprise-grade software systems. Prior to AutoGrid, as Principal Architect and later Director of Technology at iMANY (now Model N), Rajeev built their “next-gen” enterprise contract management platform, starting literally in a garage. Prior to iMANY, as System Architect, Rajeev built decision-support and price- and revenue-optimization enterprise systems at Decision Focus Inc. (renamed Talus and later acquired by Manugistics). The systems Rajeev has built have been used by such companies as Ford Motor Co., Continental and Northwest airlines, GE Aviation, Honeywell, TIBCO, Kodak, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Genentech. One of these — a marketing incentive optimization system for Ford Motor Co. — was chronicled in Forbes and Businessweek.

Aruna Miller is an American politician who is serving as the tenth lieutenant governor of Maryland since 2023. Miller, a Democrat, is a former member of the Maryland House of Delegates representing Legislative District 15 in Montgomery County. Miller worked as a transportation engineer for local governments in California, Virginia, and Hawaii. She moved to Maryland in 1990, where she worked for the Montgomery County Department of Transportation. She has overseen programs that advanced access to schools, employment centers, and community facilities that are safe for pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, and people with differing abilities. In 2015, she retired from Montgomery County to devote her full attention to her service in the Maryland legislature. Miller is the first South Asian woman elected lieutenant governor in the United States,[4] as well as the first Asian American lieutenant governor and first immigrant to hold statewide office in Maryland, and the second female lieutenant governor after Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

Barbara Humpton is President and CEO of Siemens Corporation, where she guides the company’s strategy and engagement in serving the company’s largest market. Siemens USA employs approximately 45,000 people serving customers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico and generated $18.6 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2022. She views the true purpose of technology as expanding what’s humanly possible. She’s also passionate about diversity, STEM education and what she calls a worklife blend that honors her priorities both at Siemens and as a grandmother. Most recently, Humpton served as president and CEO of Siemens Government Technologies, Inc. (SGT), a leading integrator of Siemens’ products and services for federal government agencies and departments. In this role, Humpton also served as an officer/director member of the board of directors of SGT.

Tony Chan is the Chief Financial and Operating Officer at the Bezos Earth Fund overseeing finance, information technology, grants management, facilities and other operational initiatives. Prior to joining the Earth Fund, Tony served as the Deputy Chief Operating Officer at the Ford Foundation, where he managed and coordinated Ford Foundation’s operations in New York and across 10 offices worldwide. Previously, Tony was the Senior Director of Strategy and International Operations for Habitat for Humanity International and the Organizational Development Director for Hands On Atlanta. Before joining the nonprofit sector, Tony began his career in strategy and operations consulting including positions with Accenture, Arthur Andersen and Intel Corporation. Tony holds an MBA and a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Greg Degen was most recently at the International Affairs and Strategy office of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he worked on global partnerships. Degen served in a variety of roles in the Obama Administration, including as Chief of Staff of the White House Office of the Staff Secretary. He worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development, both in the Global Climate Change Office and as an assistant to the Administrator, and previously served in the legislative affairs office at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Originally from Buffalo, NY and a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Degen holds a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. from the Ohio State University.

Amy Duffuor is Managing Director of Prime Impact Fund, with responsibility to oversee and guide all aspects of the Fund’s strategy and operations. Her professional background spans business, finance, and impact across three continents. Prior to Prime Impact Fund, Amy was a renewables and power investment banker at Bank of America. There, she worked with CEOs of public and private companies to raise investment capital including the IPO of Sunnova (NYSE: NOVA), a residential solar company initially valued at approximately $1 billion. Before her stint on Wall Street, Amy ran early-stage social venture accelerators around Southeast Asia for a Singapore-headquartered impact investing firm called Impact Investment Exchange. Earlier in her career, Amy was a management consultant at State of Flux, a London-based consulting firm that specializes in supply chain and procurement.

Amy Duffuor is Managing Director of Prime Impact Fund, with responsibility to oversee and guide all aspects of the Fund’s strategy and operations. Her professional background spans business, finance, and impact across three continents. Prior to Prime Impact Fund, Amy was a renewables and power investment banker at Bank of America. There, she worked with CEOs of public and private companies to raise investment capital including the IPO of Sunnova (NYSE: NOVA), a residential solar company initially valued at approximately $1 billion. Before her stint on Wall Street, Amy ran early-stage social venture accelerators around Southeast Asia for a Singapore-headquartered impact investing firm called Impact Investment Exchange. Earlier in her career, Amy was a management consultant at State of Flux, a London-based consulting firm that specializes in supply chain and procurement.

As the Senior Climate Change Specialist and Clean Energy Lead, he works with the Climate Investment Funds’ partners to help deliver transformational change in the energy systems of developing countries. Daniel’s 12 years of experience in working to build economic and policy solutions to the climate crisis are also derived from his previous roles as an Advisor to the US Executive Director of the World Bank and as a Policy Analyst in the US Treasury. In the latter position, he helped to execute the agency’s responsibilities related to the United States’ climate and energy agenda. Daniel has a Master’s degree in Environmental Science and Management, Political Economy of the Environment from the Bren School of Environmental Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science from Northern Arizona University.

Archie was the UK's lead climate negotiator for the past six years, overseeing negotiations in the UN, G20, G7 and previously the EU. He led the negotiations process for the UK Presidency of COP26, securing the agreement of all 196 countries to the Glasgow Climate Pact and finalising the Paris Rulebook. He has held a range of senior UK government posts including Director of International Climate and Energy, Deputy Director for the Americas in the UK's Foreign & Commonwealth Office, and Deputy Director for Business, Environment and the Olympics in the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and was appointed CMG (Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George) for services to tackling global climate change in the late HM The Queen's Jubilee Honours.

The first-ever White House National Climate Advisor and former U.S. EPA Administrator, Gina McCarthy is one of the nation’s most respected voices on climate change, the environment, and public health. As head of the Climate Policy Office under President Biden, McCarthy’s leadership led to the most aggressive action on climate in U.S. history, creating new jobs and unprecedented clean energy innovation and investments across the country. Her commitment to bold action across the Biden administration, supported by the climate and clean energy provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, restored U.S. climate leadership on a global stage and put a new U.S. national target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 within reach.

Graham Steele serves as the Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He is an expert on financial regulation and financial institutions, with more than a decade of experience working at the highest levels of law and policy in Washington, D.C. Graham was previously the director of the Corporations and Society Initiative at Stanford Graduate School of Business, a research initiative that examines issues at the intersection of markets, business, and government to promote more accountable capitalism and governance. Prior to joining Stanford GSB, Graham was a member of the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. From 2015 to 2017, Graham was the Minority Chief Counsel for the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs.

Cristina manages strategic initiatives for Breakthrough Energy’s U.S. Policy & Advocacy team. She leads the team’s private sector engagement and supports strategy development to advance Breakthrough Energy’s efforts towards an ambitious U.S. climate agenda that encourages innovation and accelerates the deployment of clean technologies. Cristina joined Breakthrough Energy in January 2021 from the United States Senate, where she served as policy advisor to U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow and Senate Democratic Leadership. There, she supported the Senator’s energy and environmental policy agenda and broader efforts as chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee.

Justin Worland is a senior correspondent at TIME magazine where he covers climate change and the intersection of policy, politics and society out of the magazine’s Washington D.C. bureau. Justin’s work aims to tell the climate story in new ways, connecting the dots between the changing planet and changes in policy, business and society. Since coming to the beat in 2015, his work has included an array of features and cover stories—from Greta Thunberg’s Person of the Year story to his recent “Climate Is Everything” cover. In previous roles at TIME, he covered health and breaking news. He has worked to improve the climate conversation beyond TIME, speaking frequently to a range of audiences and serving on the steering committees of a range of organizations including Columbia University’s Energy Journalism Initiative and the Uproot Project, a network for environmental journalists of color. He is a Los Angeles native, and a graduate of Harvard College, where he studied history.

Sagatom Saha is an Adjunct Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA. He is an expert on the geopolitics of the global energy transition and U.S. competitiveness in clean energy technologies. In addition to his role at CGEP, he is a senior associate in the energy transition practice at Macro Advisory Partners. Sagatom previously worked on cleantech competitiveness at the International Trade Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce and served as a special advisor in the Office of the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate.

Sanjana Paul is the executive director and co-founder of The Earth Hacks Foundation. She holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and physics, and is currently a researcher at MIT. When not shooting lasers around or coding solutions to climate issues, she likes exploring the outdoors and reading sci-fi.

The Eco-Healing Project sheds light on the impact of climate disasters on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) by offering HBCU students a way use planting and gardening as a spiritual practice to navigate mental health challenges triggered in the aftermath of climate disasters. The project will help students explore connections between environmental justice, spirituality, and social action.

As a landscape architect, Pamela has focused on developing nature-based solutions in the exterior built environment for the past 20 years. Through leading waterfront resilience projects in San Francisco, to developing climate action tools, including the Pathfinder landscape carbon app, Pamela’s goal is to scale up equitable climate solutions through advocacy, education, and design. Her work has been featured in Forbes, Time Magazine for Kids, San Francisco Business Times, Metropolis Magazine, and on the UN Climate Conference stage at COP27. As she transitions from the Loeb Fellowship, she will join the GSD as a faculty lecturer this coming year as well as advancing the impact of her organization, Climate Positive Design.

Alexandria (Alex) Gordon, a senior at Eckerd College (in St. Petersburg, FLA) and student organizer with Florida PIRG Students, a student-run nonpartisan nonprofit, got her start organizing on that group’s New Voters Project, working to register young people for the 2018 midterm elections. In 2019 she launched a successful campaign to get Eckerd to sign the “Break Free From Plastic Pledge” and eliminate all nonessential single-use plastics on campus, resulting in Eckerd becoming the first school in the nation to implement such a pledge. Alex continues to build support for campuses and communities to break free from plastics and to build student power in the state of Florida.

Inés is a young activist from Peru who’s been actively working towards a more sustainable future since she was 15. By volunteering in beach cleanups in the coastline of Peru, she helped collect data and organize thousands of volunteers to help inform policies in Peru: leading to the country banning single use plastic bags! She is currently the Lead Next Generation Fellow at the UN Foundation supporting young people's engagement in the multilateral space and helping build a movement of young people ahead of the SDG summit. She was the Global Youth Power Manager for Restless Development helping young people achieve a more just and sustainable world, also sitting on the leadership team. In 2021, she led the Youth Power Hacks helping young people find solutions to the issues in their communities. Inés is on the board of L.O.O.P. (a grassroots women led Peruvian social impact company conserving the marine ecosystem) and of Ensemble pour TECHO which she co-founded (an organisation seeking to overcome poverty in Latin America). Her previous experiences include working with organisations in France, Lebanon, Japan and Sierra Leone to reach the 2030 agenda. She was a part of the Peruvian delegation in COP25 following the topic of deforestation and represented the Missing Majority at COP26 and COP27. Inés is also a Global Shaper (Lima Hub), a Plastic Action Champion and sits on the Global Plastic Action Partnership Advisory committee.

Kristina Wyatt is the Chief Sustainability Officer at Persefoni. Recently, Kristina served as the Sr. Counsel for Climate and ESG to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Director of the Division of Corporation Finance. Prior to joining the SEC, she was a Senior Counsel and Director of Sustainability at Latham & Watkins. She previously worked at the SEC in the Division of Corporation Finance and the office of Commissioner Roel Campos. She holds a BA from Duke University, JD from the University of Colorado, and MBA in Sustainability from Yale University.

Gabriel Malek obtained their Bachelor's degree from Yale University in American Studies and Anthropology. In 2020, Gabriel was a Project Manager, Investor Influence, Investor Influence Coordinator, and Research Fellow, Investor Climate Advocacy for the Environmental Defense Fund. In 2021, they joined Initiative on Climate Risk and Resilience Law as a Member and On Deck as a Climate Tech Fellow. Finally, in 2022, Gabriel began working as Chief of Staff for Fervo Energy, Contributor for Climate Tech VC, and Deputy Chief Of Staff to Mark Carney for Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) and Bloomberg LP.

Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru is a climate storyteller passionate about making the climate movement relevant and accessible to everyone. Harnessing her background as a Rhodes Scholar and youth climate activist, Wawa works to bring climate justice to the mainstream. Her goal is to be an effective communicator that helps inspire a generation of “unlikely” environmentalists.

Dr. Michael Campos is an Investor at Energy Impact Partners (EIP). His focus is EIP’s Frontier Fund, which backs revolutionary technologies that accelerate the transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. His areas of expertise include geothermal energy, chemistry, nanoscience, and climate adaptation. Michael has over a decade of experience in climate technology, spanning venture capital, government funding, and basic and applied research. He started his career at the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) in the U.S. Department of Energy, where he developed funding programs in geothermal energy and proof-of-concept R&D in small businesses. Prior to joining EIP, he was a Principal at Azolla Ventures and Prime Impact Fund, where his work included board service, transaction execution, due diligence, and sourcing.

Dr. Christina Chang is a Partner at Lowercarbon Capital, where she incubates and invests in new technology startups with outsized climate impact. Christina has broad and deep experience in techno-economics, R&D, invention and patenting of clean energy technologies. Most recently, Christina was a Fellow at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) within the U.S. Department of Energy, where she developed new research directions for sustainable manufacturing of commodities. In her two-year tenure as a federal employee, Christina initiated and co-led the Agency’s green steel thrust, including co-leading a 200-person workshop with senior stakeholders. She also performed quantitative technology impact studies spanning industrial decarbonization technology areas including process heat and chemical manufacturing, to inform and help create DOE initiatives under Secretary Granholm and President Biden, including the DOE Earthshots, Advanced Manufacturing Office funding opportunities, and U.S. involvement in COP26 in Glasgow.

Mike is a Partner at The Engine. He serves as a Board Member for Osmoses, VEIR, Mantel, and Copernic. Before The Engine, Mike was the Executive Director of the MIT Roosevelt Project, an interdisciplinary study on energy transition pathways. He was the 1st employee at a clean-tech startup called Ambri, where he led business development efforts, working with customers in electric power across the United States. Mike holds a PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he trained as an economist, with research focused on frictions in the commercialization of science and regulatory barriers to energy innovation and entrepreneurial strategy. Mike received an MS in Technology & Policy from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BA from Williams College.

Sanjay Seth is Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor for Climate and Equity in Region 1, New England, for the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Before that, he served as Climate Resilience Program Manager for the City of Boston, where he led neighborhood climate resilience planning, managed the Climate Ready Boston program in collaboration with a wide range of partners, and engaged in other plans, projects, and partnerships that address the impacts of climate change and protect the health and well-being of all residents and communities in Boston. He has a Master in Urban Planning and Master of Public Administration from Harvard University and a Bachelor’s Degree in economics, politics, and public policy from the University of London.

Fernando Castellanos Silveira is the Head of Environment and Climate at the United Nations Global Compact, where he oversees the organization’s work to engage and mobilize the private sector in ambitions environmental and climate actions. Mr. Castellanos has over 15 years of experience in sustainability and climate change issues. Prior to joining the UN Global Compact, he worked for 5 years as a consultant in the private sector in Mexico. From 2014 to 2017, he served as Liaison Officer in the United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Team in the lead up to the Paris Agreement and its early entry into force. From 2008 to 2014, Mr. Castellanos served in various capacities at the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where he was responsible for various aspects of the intergovernmental negotiations and supported stakeholder engagement.

Anshuman is the founder of Terra.do, the global platform for learning & working in climate. He's been a serial tech entrepreneur (started 4 companies, sold 2), starting up while in undergrad at IIT Bombay. After bizschool at Stanford, Anshuman sold solar lights in Vietnam and started a non-profit that helped Indian elected officials develop their constituencies. All this while working with Deloitte, then Google in New York. He moved to Bangalore in 2009 to start Mygola.com, a travel planning app that was acquired by MakeMyTrip in 2015, where he was their CPO until 2019 when a classic midlife crisis sent him in search for what was truly worth working on. Anshuman currently lives on Stanford campus where his wife is finishing her PhD in the School of Sustainability. He has two kids, and often finds himself taking climate inspiration (and career advice!) from them these days.

Darryl Fears is a reporter on The Washington Post’s climate team who covers environmental justice — the intersection of race, inequality, poverty and disproportionate pollution. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2022 for “a sweeping series of stories about environmental racism.” He also received a Pulitzer Prize in 2020 for his contribution to a groundbreaking investigative series about the alarming impact of climate warming on hotspots across the globe. During his tenure at the Post, Fears has covered national race and ethnicity issues, immigration and federal prison sentencing disparities. He was one of three staff members who conceptualized the award-winning 2006 series, “Being A Black Man.” In recent years, he has reported on the Interior Department, wildlife and the Chesapeake Bay. Before joining the Post, he worked for the Detroit Free Press, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Los Angeles Times.

Laurie Schoeman is a White House Senior Advisor for Climate Resilience. Laurie is a deeply committed multi-sector climate risk reduction leader with 20 years of experience working in affordable housing, climate finance, community and economic development, equity and environmental justice, and federal and local policy to build the resilience of communities across the nation. Schoeman is a nationally known practitioner and intermediary recognized for her keen ability to drive complex problems into tangible outputs to accelerate climate-safe and adaptive communities. Laurie has led leading-edge local, state and federal efforts to promote climate risk reduction, including the passage of the nation’s first utility-sponsored environmental justice policy in San Francisco; the construction of the nation’s first off-grid environmental justice learning center in California; and the publication of a series on Climate Resilient Housing which has led to close to $250M of investment into housing resilience. Schoeman is the co-chair of the New York State Climate assessment buildings chapter and co-facilitates Resilience21, a network of practitioners across the U.S. advancing climate risk reduction and adaptation. Schoeman has an MUP. from Hunter College and a BA from Smith College

Renata Koch Alvarenga is a Master in Public Policy candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School and Belfer Young Leader Student Fellow. For the past seven years, Renata has been a prominent youth voice in Brazil for gender and climate justice, having founded the global initiative EmpoderaClima at 22 years old to advocate for gender equality in climate policy with the leadership of Global South youth. Renata is involved in several international spaces; she's a G(irls)20 Ambassador, National Gender Youth Activist of UN Women, Transform Education Leader at the UN Girls' Education Initiative, Vital Voices Fellow and Gender Co-lead for Youth at UN Climate Change. Prior to Harvard, she led the political work of the British Government in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Renata holds a Bachelor's Degree in International Relations from Unisinos, with a focus on global climate policy. Between her first and second year at HKS, Renata worked as a Climate and Sustainable Development Fellow at the United Nations Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth.

Daniel Tong | Conference Chair

Daniel is a second-year MBA student at Harvard Business School. He is passionate about strategy and finance in the energy transition, resilient infrastructure, and decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors. Originally from Brazil, he previously worked at Cosan, a large Brazilian energy conglomerate, focusing on renewables and gas & power business development. In the summer, he interned at FirstElement Fuel, a clean tech start-up responsible for building light- and heavy-duty hydrogen refueling stations. He holds a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of São Paulo.

Charles Hua | Conference Co-Chair, Innovation and Finance

Charles Hua is a student at Harvard College studying statistics and mathematics. At Harvard, Charles serves on the Presidential Committee on Sustainability, is helping develop Harvard's sustainability plan, and conducts research on climate and energy policy. Charles is an electrification policy analyst at Rewiring America and previously supported clean energy investment with Generate Capital, developed clean energy projects with Avangrid, and analyzed climate policies with Clean Energy States Alliance. Charles has advised Fortune 500 companies and international NGOs on sustainability issues and serves on the Board of Directors for environmental nonprofits Slipstream, Energy News Network, and Clean Wisconsin. Born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, Charles organized a campaign that successfully petitioned his school district to become the then-largest with a 100% renewable energy commitment. Charles has been recognized as a 2018 U.S. Presidential Scholar, an Energy News Network 40 Under 40 honoree, and an Aspen Institute Future Climate Leader.

Hanna Davies | Conference Co-Chair, Marketing and Communications

Hanna Davies is the Marketing lead for the Harvard Climate Leadership Summit. She is passionate about utilizing creativity and education to inspire social and environmental change. She completed the Mind Brain Education Program at Harvard Graduate School of Education and holds a bachelor's degree in Cognitive Neuroscience from McGill. Hanna is also a Strategy Analyst at FNDR, a founding member and program strategist for MELD, and the Director of Cloud 9 Electronic Music and Eco-Art Festival, a youth-led sustainable fundraiser event. Additionally, she has served as a Creative Educator for No.9, The Culture of Sustainability. Through her work, she aims to prepare the next generation with the tools and confidence to be change-makers by providing them with scaffolded access to multidisciplinary climate education resources, real-world learning opportunities, and strong mentorship support networks.

Karan Takhar | Conference Chair

Karan is a dual MPP-MBA candidate between Harvard Kennedy School and Wharton Business School. He is the founder of the ZNRG Foundation, which is a Media and Careers platform that hosts The Zenergy Podcast, a series of interviews with 70+ Global Climate Leaders, and connects young professionals to work opportunities in the Climate and Energy Space. Prior to graduate school, Karan worked in the International Affairs Office at the U.S. Department of Energy and as a Fulbright Scholar for the U.S. Department of State. In these capacities, he briefed senior government officials about clean energy issues and projects and provided analysis that supported U.S. international energy engagements.

Madison Smither | Conference Chair

Madison is an MPP candidate at HKS. A lifelong New Orleanian, she works at the intersection of environmental justice and environmental economics in the Gulf Coast region. A Research Assistant with Harvard’s Environmental Economics Program and Executive Board member of the Student Public Service Collaborative, Madison conducts independent research surrounding civic engagement and clean energy in Louisiana and Co-Chairs the Advocacy Committee of the Democratic women’s organization IWO New Orleans, working closely with the Louisiana state legislature. Madison holds a B.A. in Economics and Global Public Health from the University of Virginia, where she was a Jefferson Scholar.

Stirling Haig | Chief Operating Officer

Stirling is an MPP candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he works as a Research Assistant studying Arctic environmental security at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. At Harvard, he focuses on adaptive institutional design, reflexive governance structures, and how to tighten science-policy feedback loops. He has a background in Arctic institutions, climate geopolitics, global governance, risk assessment, the law of the sea, and public international environmental law. A dual U.S.-Norwegian citizen, Stirling holds a bachelors from the University of North Carolina and a Master of Laws from the University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway.

Angela Zhong | Conference Co-Chair, Emerging Leaders Programming

Angela is an undergraduate Harvard student hailing from Houston, Texas. She is studying economics with a secondary in environmental science public policy and a citation in Mandarin. On campus, Angela is a United Nations Association National Campus Fellow and conducted research with UN SDG Advocate Dr. Alaa Murabit through the Harvard Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies as well as with the Kennedy School of Public Policy’s Belfer Centre for International Affairs. She also serves as a team lead for: the Harvard College Consulting Group’s plant-based meat substitute case, the Council of Student Sustainability Leaders, and the Presidential Committee on Sustainability Scope 3 Emissions Group.

Alexia Leclerq | Conference Co-Chair, Organizing and Training

Alexia Leclercq is a grassroots organizer, educator, scholar, and artist. She has led dozens of environmental justice campaigns from passing national climate and chemical reform legislation and fighting for clean water, to addressing aggregate mining pollutions, relocating toxic tank farms. Alexia is the co-founder of the Colorado River Conservancy and Start:Empowerment, an environmental justice education non-profit. Her education curriculum has reached over 120,000 students across the U.S and her work has been recognized by the NYC Department of Education, NYU Global Awards Center, and was awarded the prestigious Brower Youth Award. She served as the 2022 UN Youth Assembly Ambassador and has also been invited to speak at various events such as the Global Peace Education Conference, Bioneers conference, CUNY Climate Education Conference.

Laura is a senior at Harvard College concentrating in Economics with a secondary in Environmental Science and Public Policy. During her time at Harvard, she has been active in the undergraduate Latine community as President of Latinas Unidas and an Executive Director of the Latina Empowerment and Development Conference. Off-campus, she has worked across the public and private sectors, working on environmental initiatives in programming, policy, research, and grantmaking at World Wildlife Fund, Environmental Defense Fund, Xpansiv Inc., Azolla Ventures, Avangrid, the U.S. Senate, and BlackRock Social Impact. She is passionate about a variety of climate areas, including environmental justice, offshore wind, grid and transmission capacity, land conservation, indigenous environmental reclamation, and international environmental accords.

Alayna is a senior at Harvard studying Environmental Science & Public Policy. She began her environmental advocacy work at the age of 16 by collaborating with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment to call for the removal of a radioactive waste site in Bridgeton, Missouri. Alayna is the President of the Board of The Missouri Biodiversity Project, a conservation site. At Harvard, Alayna co-leads the Resource Efficiency Program, educating the study body on environmental issues, and works with the administration to help make facilities more sustainable.he was also the Chair of the Community Action Committee at Harvard’s Institute of Politics and recently moderated a climate discussion with United States Senator Ed Markey. Alayna was a delegate at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) and was a part of several working groups within the United Nations Youth Constituency.

Kritika Kharbanda is a master in design studies candidate specializing in Energy and Environments from Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Cheng Social Innovation Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Pathways, a climate intelligence platform for the construction sector. On a mission to decarbonize the built sector in every capacity, she co-founded DeCarbon, a non-profit enabling data transparency for sustainable construction. Before pursuing her graduate studies, she worked as a sustainability engineer at Henning Larsen Architects in Denmark and strived to bring sustainability to the core of each project. #Climate Solution Innovation #Building industry decarbonization

I am a youth climate justice advocate born and raised in Brazil, and a Master in Public Policy candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School, studying disaster risk financing and climate policies in Latin America and the Caribbean. When I was 22, I founded the youth-led organization EmpoderaClima, where I still serve as the Director , to raise awareness of the need for women's empowerment in climate decision-making spaces, and advocate for girls' education and climate action. In my climate advocacy, I have engaged closely with UN Women, the UNFCCC and the New York Times through formal roles focused on youth leadership. My entry into public service ignited a wish to address the climate crisis in decision-making spaces through policy, and in recent years, I have worked with Brazilian politics and climate action at the British Mission in Rio de Janeiro, and with sustainable development at the United Nations Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth. I have been taking part in the global climate negotiations since COP21 in Paris, and I am a firm believer that more intersectionality and diversity in climate policy spaces can have an important impact on the outcomes of the negotiations.

Last fall I worked with dozens of Harvard undergraduates to organize Our Climate Change Stories (OCCS) and found the Harvard Climate Coalition. OCCS featured seven Harvard students to share their personal stories of environmental injustice, community resilience, and climate action in front of an audience of over 150 Harvard students, faculty, staff, and members of the local community. OCCS was the first time Harvard’s undergraduate environmental groups collaborated on any initiative, and as soon as we started organizing OCCS, student group leaders voiced their dreams to create a coalition to unite the environmental groups and strengthen our campus climate community. I served as a facilitator of the creation of the Harvard Climate Coalition, working with campus climate leaders to find shared values, shared goals, and a structure for our Coalition. The Coalition was founded in December and serves as the hub for undergraduate climate action, providing students with the resources and community they need to turn their climate action visions into reality. I currently serve as the Longevity Chair of the Coalition, which means I have a have a birds-eye view of the Coalition and act to ensure that this Coalition has a long life.

#communityorganizing #powerofyouth #climatejustice #coalitionbuilding #intersectionalenvironmentalism

Himaja Nagireddy is a proud first-generation Indian American from Acton, MA. She graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2020 with Bachelor of Science degrees in Physiology & Neurobiology and Molecular & Cell Biology, as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. During her time at UConn, Himaja served on the President’s Working Group on Sustainability and the Environment and was the President of the TEDxUConn chapter. These experiences inspired her interest in understanding the intersections between public health and environmental justice. She is now an MS (SM-80) candidate in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

I am a building sustainability specialist who reduces the impacts of buildings and cities on the environment and ecology by quantitatively measuring and improving performance factors such as thermal, lighting, air, and carbon metrics using energy models and simulations. My passion is finding solutions to our contemporary urban issues that lie in the intersection of building design, energy sustainability, and occupant health through research in emergent technologies. This research aims to bridge existing knowledge gaps in our field, helping build better tools, processes, policies, and other interventions. I am an aspiring changemaker in this space who worked as an architect for three years and will soon graduate with an MDes Ecologies, Energy, and sustainability track at Harvard GSD. As an architect on different design proposals, I utilized passive design strategies and reduced the building's dependence on energy-consuming systems. At school, I am a Council of Student Sustainability Leader, a Harvard Circular Economy Symposium organizer, and a building science hub member to support these interests in building performance research.

#building_sustainability #netzero_buildings #urban_ecologies #decarbonize_built_environment #resilient_cities

During my time at Harvard, I have dedicated my time and effort to working across student groups to personally engage in key issue areas pertaining to climate change. I am the student coordinator of Harvard Undergraduates for Environmental Justice, which organizes action for undergraduates and coordinates students who are interested in engaging with EJ work on Harvard’s campus. I am one of the founding members and current Relations Co-Chair of the Harvard Climate Coalition, a nascent umbrella organization which serves as a communication and collaboration hub for all undergraduates interested in engaging with climate and sustainability. I am a board member of Harvard Undergraduate Plant Futures, which advocates for awareness and availability of plant-based products on and around Harvard’s campus. Finally, I am a member of the Harvard Undergraduate Clean Energy Group, where I am part of a team working on establishing a long-term agrivoltaics facility on campus. In my experiences, I work constantly to identify sources of collaboration and support, and emphasize the benefits of intersectional and collaborative efforts towards tackling climate change.

#EnvironmentalJustice #PlantBased #FoodSystems #Conservation #IntersectionalActivism

As a senior at Harvard College studying Statistics with a secondary in Energy & Environment, I've devoted my time and effort to tackling climate change through consulting, data analytics, climate science research, and campus advocacy applications. In addition to the climate science, economics, and responsibility classes I’ve taken throughout my four years at Harvard, I conducted climate dynamics research by building Arctic sea ice models to detect climate change as a Harvard Center for Environmental Grant Recipient. Beyond my coursework and research, I seek to apply what I’ve learned in advocacy and corporate settings. On campus, I worked as the first-year and Eliot House representative for the Office for Sustainability’s Resource Efficiency Program, where I led dorm energy conservation campaigns to engage the student body on sustainability issues. I also served as a Managing Director at Harvard Consulting on Business and the Environment, where I worked closely with executives at Fortune 500 companies to help inform their sustainability marketing strategies. This fall, I worked at community solar startup Solstice as a Data Operations Fellow to streamline the data frameworks that support the movement to make solar more accessible to underserved communities.

#ClimateTech #Sustainable_Transit #Food #Climate_Responsibility #ESGReporting

Oliver came to the Harvard Kennedy School to better understand the role that public and private capital can play in accelerating the development of low-carbon infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries. Having spent several years working in Indonesia at a tech-enabled logistics start-up, Oliver had seen the role that tech and VC capital could play in driving sustained growth in Jakarta. In tandem, it was evident (due in part to the city's air quality challenges), that this growth came at a steep environmental and climate cost. Since moving to Cambridge, Oliver has jumped into the climate community at HKS and the broader Harvard community. This includes conducting research for Henry Lee and Judy Chang on the future of US energy grids; partaking in study groups on US Agriculture Policy and the Future of Coal Regions; and through sitting on the leadership team of the HKS Impact Investing Club.

#climatefinance #cleantech #climateactionfordevelopment #bluebonds #naturebasedsolutions

Co-founder and CEO of bring4you, leading collaborative delivery platform in France gathering 300k membres. Our solution enables to save 5 tons of C02 per year. Bring4you.com

Shivani Gupta is a current student in the MPA/ID program at the Harvard Kennedy School, with a strong interest in climate-related issues. She has gained valuable academic and teaching experience during her time at Harvard, serving as a course assistant for API:110 Advanced Microeconomic Analysis II and a teaching fellow in Teaching GENED1120 - The Political Economy of Globalization. In addition, Shivani has worked as a research assistant for the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Business & Government, where she contributed to research on the Political Economy of Firms and States in a Changing World.

Makari received his BA in Environment, Economics, & Politics from Claremont McKenna College. He spent his college years working at various environmental nonprofits and government agencies. This included a two-year fellowship with the US EPA monitoring emissions from trucking fleets. After college, Makari worked in management consulting for 5 years to develop his business skills. He has spent the past two years working at various climate tech startups and at a climate tech venture capital fund. Going forward, Makari is dedicating his career to climate tech entrepreneurship. Makari and his technical cofounder, Amin, are building PolyoseBio, a company that is upcycling food waste into a wide variety of high-value sugar polymers. Their core innovation is a portfolio of engineered microbial strains, which allow for a novel biomanufacturing process that couples insects and precision fermentation. The process is carbon negative and highly scalable, allowing them to revolutionize the $100B sugar polymer market and simultaneously help solve the food waste crisis. By 2050, they will be eliminating half a gigaton of emissions per year.

Climate tech, Sustainable entreprenurship, Sustainable investing, Circular economy, Decarbonization, Carbon dioxide removal, Nature based solutions, Biodiversity

Outspoken Narrative hopes to have an environmental, intellectual, and artistic impact on the world. Through environmental conservation films, we aim to inform our audience of the environmental impact individuals have on mother nature while also exploring its natural wonders. We give voices to communities most affected by climate change, but whom continue to go unnoticed. Most importantly, we wish to not only give a platform to but also inspire creators that are looking to promote environmental awareness. Through research and monitoring, education and outreach, and partnerships and collaborations, Outspoken Narrative looks to achieve big impacts on the world. The main influence upon my work is the stories of frontline workers of many overlooked conservation efforts and initiatives. They play a crucial role in protecting many of our few natural reserves, and they often lead grassroots initiatives that create change across the world. Whether it be the leaders of the Arctic Refuge Protection Committee or the ConnectTree initiative in Pune, India, many of their stories go untold. In these past projects, I was able to interact and learn about the important work the frontline workers were doing. I realized how crucial it is to create a platform such as Outspoken Narrative that allows their passion and message to be heard, encouraging others to both support and engage with such projects while also inspiring people from across the world to pursue their own projects of conservation and innovation.

I am currently working to build DetoXyFi, a drinking water filtration startup working to enable access to clean drinking water as a human right. Working as part of the Harvard Climate Entrepreneurs Circle, at DetoXyFi, we are building drinking water technology for households— individuals and families— affected by disasters and in need of drinking water. We take waste wood and pass it through a human-safe chemical filtration process to create filters that are 60% cheaper and up to 10x more effective. These filters are biodegradable, take waste wood out of landfills and into productive use, help people affected by disasters get clean drinking water and adapt to climate change, and also help reduce emissions by acting as a replacement to plastic water bottles, carbon filters, boiling water, and such. We have field tested our patent-pending technology across five countries and thousands of people to provide WHO standard comprehensive-protection grade water. We are currently working with humanitarian agencies to provide these filters to the millions of people across the world who need these the most.

#Sustainable events #Circular economy #Drinking Water solutions #Adaptation efforts #Post-disaster relief

Wholeheartedly dedicated to restoring the equilibrium of nature and mankind, I launched my career endeavoring to preserve the city's shape, community and neighborhood networks, and Turkey's ecological assets. I headed, initiated, and participated in an array of events, from publicizing the environmental impact of the Third Bosporus Bridge and Istanbul's new airport to educating people about reforestation, recycling, agriculture, and the establishment of the Turkish Foundation Combatting Soil Erosion (TEMA). Furthermore, I collaborated in establishing Imece Evleri, a support platform for Kocaeli Earthquake victims, and the Sulukule Platform, which orchestrates awareness drives about urbanization laws and policies. Besides, my college thesis project was centered around renewing nature through permaculture principles. To understand the theory of renewing/restoring nature by using permaculture, ecovillage, sustainable city, and kibbutz settlement approaches, I did several international trips. Before relocating to the United States, I had been working at an urban design firm in Istanbul, devising Turkey's initial environment-friendly bicycle model and bike path project. Though my mission was to form a more sustainable world, it was not associated with the immediacy of climate change and its impacts on urbanization and vice versa. Consequently, I returned to school to achieve a compromise between urbanization and climate change, while resolving the forgotten correlations among them. I feel climate change has an important role to play in the city and obviously cities and growing populations are also impacting the speed of natural cycle of climate change, and I am ready to investigate and carry out further research to bring about a better future and make the world a better place for all.

John Clayton explores the philosophical, ethical, and spiritual dimensions of climate change and planetary health. With previous experience in government, security studies, and political science research, john clayton turns to philosophy and religion to better understand that climate crisis and apocalypse. This year, john clayton has worked around the idea of “soulful sustainability” and planetary health. Some of his engagements have included the Council of Student Sustainability Leaders, the British Crown’s 2022 Earthshot Award Ceremony, a climate pilgrimage to Iceland, HDS’s Climate Justice Week, a book discussion with Larry Rasmussen and Terry Tempest Williams, and an upcoming engagement in Iceland to rethink the role of nature in religious and ordinary experience.

#Justice and healing #(Religious) Experience #Ethics #Morality #Decolonial theory #Reparations #Grief, trauma, and mourning

As a graduate student studying Environmental Health, I have spent countless hours into researching and identifying solutions for critical issues such as climate change, sustainable agriculture, and food security. I have a strong interest in exploring innovative approaches such as vertical farming and precision agriculture to address these pressing challenges. Additionally, I have the privilege of serving as a Harvard C-Change student ambassador and was honored to be a youth delegate at the World Travel & Tourism Global Summit on sustainable tourism. I will soon begin a new internship in the summer, where I will work on research that focuses on solar panels, climate-smart agriculture, and youth climate education. #Climate Solution Innovation #Sustainable Practices in Food System

Over the course of my professional career, I have worked on climate in private, public and non-profit domains. This tri-sector experience has given me a robust understanding of the incentives and blockers to climate action in each sphere which I hope to bring to CLP. As a Strategy Consultant, I designed a leadership strategy for a carbon disclosure NGO and developed the operating model for a clean air philanthropic organisation. This gave me a real insight into two key pillars of global climate efforts: accountability and finance. In my next role at UNFCCC, I served as Global Sector Lead for Consumer Goods and Retail for COP26/27. In this role, I created and led a Net Zero Task Force to lobby non-state actors, primarily multinationals in these sectors (cumulatively responsible for 80% of the world’s deforestation) to commit to a zero-carbon future. My work developing net zero roadmaps and building business-government Scope 3 coalitions (e.g. to drive the world leaders COP deforestation commitment), has helped me build strong content knowledge and a vast climate network which I would bring to CLP. This includes C-suite/management at numerous private companies and non-profits like WEF, Climate Group, WWF, Science Based Targets Initiative, OP2B and ofcourse the UN.

William is passionate about international cooperation for the energy transition. He has devoted his professional career to bringing together experts and stakeholders from the Global North and South to implement the best policies to address the climate crisis. He is interested in the intersection between a Just Transition and inequality, and how solid democratic institutions facilitate the energy transition. He is a member of professional networks that work at the intersection of LGBTQ+ rights and climate change. #InternationalCooperation #JustTranisition #EconomicDevelopment

Sylvia Hartmann is a co-founder of the NGO “German Alliance on Climate Change and Health” in Germany. Since 2017, the organization has been working on the adverse effects of climate change on human health and advocating for the health benefits of climate mitigation. Within a few years, the organization built a grassroots movement spreading over more than 70 cities in Germany, called “Health For Future”. Health professionals organize projects to make their hospitals, medical practices, or medical faculties more sustainable, as well as advise politicians. In her former role as vice-chair, Sylvia had the chance to advise the German Parliament and former chancellor Angela Merkel. In 2020, Sylvia initiated a lecture series called Planetary Health Academy (PHA), which taught the organization’s guiding principle of acting into the uncertain. The goal was to develop people into change agents who could accelerate the societal transformation necessary for our world to become carbon-neutral and build community. With the PHA, they reached more than 4,000 people in over 70 countries. Currently, Sylvia is focusing on conveying information about the connections between human health and our environment through social media content to reach a broader audience. #SustainableHealthCare #Grass-rootMovement #Activism #Storytelling #Education

As a Research Assistant for the Climate Governance Commission, I have been working on solutions to the gap in global climate governance. This has included proposing reforms to global trade, investment, UN governance structures and financial mechanisms to support climate mitigation. I have also published a number of legal articles analyzing how areas of law can be adapted to fit the needs of the climate crisis. My articles have covered a wide range of topics including ecocide, reforms to domestic Irish and European environmental policy and the intersection of climate change with refugee law. I have also been working with Law Students for Climate Accountability to investigate the role of law firms in protecting the fossil fuel industry. I am leading a report into how UK law firms have facilitated fossil fuel transactions, as well as the role those law firms have played in pursuing secretive pro fossil fuel arbitration cases in private arbitration courts. #FastClimateAction #ReformOfGlobalGovernance #ClimateChangeLitigation

My approach has been to focus on educating girls and women as a means of mitigating the effects of climate change. I have worked to empower them to openly and knowledgeably discuss sustainable menstruation hygiene, helping to break down taboos surrounding the subject. Additionally, I have provided training on the use of menstrual cups as an alternative to traditional menstrual products, which contribute to the overwhelming amount of waste in landfills (200,000 tons per year alone in the United States) and the pads and tampons which are thrown in the water bodies are affecting the aquatic lives. With the guidance of Harvard professor Tina Grotzer, I have acquired the necessary skills to effectively communicate the issue of climate change and understand the concept of eco-grief. I have also learned about the ways in which indigenous communities are addressing current environmental challenges. #EducationMenstrualHygiene #Storytelling #ClimateSolutionInnovation

My approach has been to focus on educating girls and women as a means of mitigating the effects of climate change. I have worked to empower them to openly and knowledgeably discuss sustainable menstruation hygiene, helping to break down taboos surrounding the subject. Additionally, I have provided training on the use of menstrual cups as an alternative to traditional menstrual products, which contribute to the overwhelming amount of waste in landfills (200,000 tons per year alone in the United States) and the pads and tampons which are thrown in the water bodies are affecting the aquatic lives. With the guidance of Harvard professor Tina Grotzer, I have acquired the necessary skills to effectively communicate the issue of climate change and understand the concept of eco-grief. I have also learned about the ways in which indigenous communities are addressing current environmental challenges. #EducationMenstrualHygiene #Storytelling #ClimateSolutionInnovation

As Climate Leader and negotiator, I have spent 15 years driving results through effective high-level partnerships and complex negotiations. My approach has enabled me to lead multiparty negotiations with the United Nations, banks, governments, and corporations, resulting in securing over USD 7 billion for critical initiatives in climate change, health, education, governance, and infrastructure. #Financing #Implementation #ResultsDelivery

As a native of biodiverse Mexico, I have been fortunate to witness diverse landscapes, from mountains to jungles, deserts, and oceans. Sadly, the Global Forest Watch reports that between 2002 and 2020, our country lost 16% of its forests due to fires, agriculture, urbanization, and resource exploitation. I made significant contributions in my role as the youngest and first female General Director for Investment Attraction in my state. I led a strategy for economic diversification, focusing on renewable energies. This resulted in the establishment of nine solar farms with a capacity of 1,430 MWpk, attracting investors from Canada, the United States, France, and Spain. I am honored to be part of the Harvard Climate Internship Cohort. This summer, I will work on climate finance for SMEs at the OECD. Afterwards, I will join the Ministry of Energy and Environment of Iceland to contribute to their green transition plan. Excited to make a difference in the global shift to sustainability. #GreenGrowthforEmergingEconomies. #NatureBasedSolutions #BiodiversityCapitalization.

Lauren Simmons, a 2022-23 HGSE Sustainability Fellow, is the co-founder and president of HGSE Students for Climate Justice. Through her efforts, Lauren has built a broad coalition of stakeholders who are working to establish a well-connected network of education professionals committed to leveraging the transformative power of education to accelerate and incubate climate solutions. She also supports her fellow students as they pursue high-impact projects with external organizations to support HGSE’s position as an institutional leader in the climate action space. In partnership with the Aspen Institute’s This is Planet Ed and the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, she led a first-of-its-kind policy landscape analysis examining the role of the education sector in municipal climate action plans, which can potentially inform best practices for education-based climate action at a national level. Lauren's dedication to inspiring the next generation of climate leaders is also demonstrated through her partnership with students from HGSE and HKS to develop a web series for 6-8-year-olds focused on climate resilience and adaptation. #Climate education, #Environmentaljustice, #Cross-SectorResiliencePolicySolutions

For me, tackling climate change has never been a choice. It is a duty. It is my duty to myself, my friends, my family, my community, to all humans everywhere – both present and future generations. I started advocating for climate action as a teenager, delivering leaflets to my neighbours urging them to walk or cycle to work rather than use their cars. Since those early days as an advocate, I have fought for climate action wherever I’ve gone. As a strategy consultant at Dalberg Advisors, I worked with the World Economic Forum to persuade 20+ multinationals to restore more than 2.5 billion trees. As a Venture Associate at Sustainable Ventures, I worked with founders of climate businesses to support them to develop their business and impact strategies. If I’m lucky, I probably have another 60 – 80 years on this planet. And I believe it is my duty to raise my voice and bring together communities to fight for a sustainable future – for both people and planet. #ClimateAdaptation #ClimateCommunicationsAndStorytelling

After three years working as a strategy consultant at McKinsey, I learned that I wanted to devote my career to solving pressing and complex problems that directly impact humanity. This realization led me to join McKinsey’s Energy Insights (EI) practice. During my time there, I better understood the need to collaborate with other stakeholders for a net zero future by 2050. However, the problems I unearthed seemed too large to tackle as a consultant, hence I decided to get close to the problem by working with a mission-driven investment firm committed to building a sustainable planet. During my time there, I collaborated closely with other players such as asset operators, funders, regulators, and academia to advance decarbonization efforts in Africa and beyond. While at HBS, I led several climate actions. I planned panel sessions during the 2022 climate conference at Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan. I also did a project on wind energy as part of a broader initiative on decarbonization and sustainability. I also worked closely with Sustainability Associates to educate students on living sustainably and implement programming around this. Looking forward, I am exploring opportunities to scale my impact on climate action in the United States. #Education #Investing

I started my career as a consultant at McKinsey focusing on energy and climate. This included supporting a global O&G major in building new green businesses, developing a sustainability strategy for an international bank aligning their underwriting and investment portfolio with the Paris Agreement, and creating a sustainability business case for reduced water intensity in a mining company. I left to help scale a waste recycling pilot project in Indonesia. I negotiated with big consumer goods companies (e.g. Tetra Pak etc.) on funding community-based recycling solutions while scaling up our team from 8 people to 27 people. This involved behavior change campaigns in Denpasar and operation improvements of waste facilities. Coming to HKS, I wanted to explore new climate technologies, understand regulation and build a climate start-up. Last year I supported David Keith on solar geoengineering governance – work that led to a summer position with the Global Commission on Governing Risks from Climate Overshoot under the Paris Peace Forum. I did analysis on key actors and technological innovations in climate overshoot. #BuildingDecarbonisation #HardtoAbateSector #HeavyIndustry #ClimateTech

Before coming to HKS, I was the Chief Operating Officer and a founding team member of the India Climate Collaborative (ICC) – India’s first business-philanthropic platform to channel funding towards climate issues, advising grantees, governments, leading corporations and philanthropies on climate strategy, commitments and investments. Prior to that, I helped build the climate and sustainability portfolio for the Tata Trusts’ – one of India’s oldest and largest philanthropies. Most recently, I worked at EarthAcre, an early-stage climate tech start-up that partners with indigenous and local communities to restore ecosystems in Kenya. My background is in economics and international development, and I have previously worked in microfinance and micro-entrepreneurship across India and the United States. I was motivated to pivot to work on climate after working in rural India, where the effects of climate change are becoming impossible to ignore.

I'm doing research on monitoring climate forcers especially aerosol particles that backscatter sunlight and contribute to a net cooling effect. I am part of a climate research group at Harvard in Environmental Science and Engineering. #ClimateSolutionInnovation

Irissa Machetta is an Environmental Science & Engineering concentrator at Harvard with a secondary in Government. She is passionate about creating opportunities to address environmental justice and educational inequities. She has devoted her efforts to addressing climate change through her academic and extracurricular endeavors. She has assisted Fortune 500 companies in decarbonization initiatives and taking measurable actions to reduce carbon footprints. On-campus, she serves as an Advisor/ Co-Captain for the Engineering and Applied Science(PCA) Program, a Fellow for the Lemann Program of Creativity and Entrepreneurship, and on the Advisory Board(SAB) of Harvard Radcliffe Institute, among others. Previously, she served on MIT/Mostec team’s Global Warming Impact Study on Crop Yields, was a speaker at the National Institute of Health(NIH) Conference, Tribomechadynamics’ International Tribology Conference, and she is a grant recipient of TechCrunch Emerging Startups as the founder of Clique – a sustainable enterprise in consumer retail space. She understands environmental issues firsthand, being born and raised Houstonian, home to 40 percent of all publicly traded oil and gas companies and industrial bases, responsible for approximately 10 percent of emissions in the U.S. and three percent of global emissions. Irissa aspires to ignite urgency and actionable investments to create a more sustainable world. #Sustainable Events #Climate Solution Innovation #Education