Proven impact. Grounded in research. Built for the real world.
Our vision, validated by results
Geos Institute brings many years of experience working directly with communities, building common sense planning frameworks, and learning what works and what doesn’t to the task of creating climate services for communities who need help the most. From community-level adaptation planning to national systems design, our work is changing what is possible for local climate action and proving it can be done at scale.
Proven Impact & Expertise Highlights
- Decades of climate resilience expertise, partnering with local leaders in 10 U.S. states and Alberta, Canada, to translate climate science into actionable strategies.
- Led the creation of Climate Ready America, with confirmed partners in 48 states and four territories.
- Established the Climate Ready America Southeast demonstration project, providing community-based adaptation support for Community Disaster Resilience Zone (CDRZ) communities in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
- Developed the Whole Community Adaptation Planning Framework, a widely recognized model for integrated climate resilience planning.
- Member of the Climate Smart Communities Initiative Core Team, directing over $3 million in funding to 22 underserved communities in its first two years.
- Established an organizational equity statement to guide our governance and decision-making.
- Embedded representation from Tribal, rural, frontline, and under-resourced communities in the National Strategy Team.
- Designed and launched Climate Ready Communities, an “assisted do-it-yourself” planning program for small, rural, and under-resourced communities.
- Early pioneer in translating raw climate modeling data into GIS mapping for planning.
- Co-led the development of a climate resilience strategies database.
- Conducted a 50-state landscape analysis of climate services.
- Co-sponsored the first national gathering of climate adaptation practitioners in 2012, a precursor to the National Adaptation Forum.
- Facilitated multi-state collaborations, including with Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative, UN Environment North America, and the insurance industry.
- Successfully advocated for FEMA rule changes to fund large-scale, cross-state resilience projects.
- Guided the creation of the first Climate Innovation Center in Georgia.
- Managed an annual grants program that protects drinking water supplies and native fish habitat in the Pacific Northwest.
- Developed vulnerability assessments and adaptation plans for counties, towns, Tribal nations, and watershed partnerships across 10 states.
- Facilitated a climate resilience planning cohort in Indiana.
- Recipient of the Lightship Prize for Climate Action. (2023)
- Honored with the Achievement in Community Engagement award from the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development. (2025)
Why climate resilience work matters
The science is clear: the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calls for urgent action on both mitigation and adaptation. Yet most U.S. communities lack the capacity and support to meet the moment. Geos Institute has spent over a decade designing, testing, and scaling systems that address this need, systems like Climate Ready America.
From co-leading the effort to create a Climate Adaptation Service Bureau in 2015 to launching the Climate Ready Communities model and creating a climate resilience strategies database, our team has consistently pushed the field forward.
We believe that by building a collaborative, equity-driven, and scalable national support system, we can help the U.S. meet its climate goals and protect the people and places we love.
Contact us
Have questions? Interested in partnering with us? Want to support our initiatives? Reach out to our team. We will make sure your inquiry lands in the right place.
Support the work
The challenges are urgent, but the solutions are within reach. With your support, we can expand proven climate resilience systems to every corner of the U.S. and ensure no community is left behind.
Samantha Medlock is President of Climate Risk Advisors, helping communities and organizations advance equity, sustainability, and resilience. Her career began chasing floods as a local official in Texas Flash Flood Alley—a hands-on experience that still shapes her approach to climate and disaster risk management.
Arsum is the Senior Adaptation and Coastal Resilience Specialist for the National Wildlife Federation’s Southcentral Region. In this role, she advances climate adaptation efforts, with a focus on nature-based approaches to address the impacts of climate change and extreme events across the Gulf region. She has authored and co-authored numerous publications on climate impact assessments and adaptation solutions. Additionally, she regularly participates in state-based coastal resilience and hazard mitigation planning across the Gulf, collaborating with regional and local stakeholders.
Jim is a multilingual world traveler. Based in Bavaria during the 1970s, Jim spent most of this period in India, Afghanistan and Nepal, where he founded and operated a charitable medical clinic serving Tibetan Refugees. He settled in Oregon in 1983 on a forested ranch in the Umpqua National Forest.
Dr. Micah Hahn is an Associate Professor of Environmental Health in the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies at the University of Alaska-Anchorage. She received her joint PhD in Epidemiology / Environment and Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her MPH in Global Environmental Health from Emory University. Subsequently, she was a postdoctoral fellow for the CDC Climate and Health Program, and in this position worked collaboratively with the CDC Division of Vector-borne Diseases and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Her research focuses on understanding the health impacts of climate change and working with communities to develop locally-relevant adaptation and resilience-building strategies. Dr. Hahn is also on the Management Team of the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center.
Michael is a former Founding Principal of Resilient Cities Catalyst, a global non-profit helping cities and their partners tackle their toughest challenges. He is currently the Executive Director of Climate Resilience Academy at the University of Miami.
Dr. Quintus Jett is a consultant, educator, and strategist for public causes. He has a doctorate in Organizations & Management from Stanford University, and a two-decade faculty career which spans schools, departments, and programs of business, engineering, liberal studies, divinity, and public and nonprofit management. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Dr. Jett launched a volunteer project in New Orleans, which enlisted residents, students from over a dozen colleges and universities, and hundreds of others to field map the city’s Gentilly district, Lower Ninth Ward, and New Orleans East. Dr. Jett is an innovator in higher education, bridging the divide between academic research and the other priorities of the modern university, including student access and diversity, community engagement, and providing foundations for life-long learning in today’s rapidly changing world.
Scott is Monfort Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. He has written about 100 publications in the peer-reviewed climate literature, is a former editor of the Journal of Climate, and served for five years as founding Science Chair of the North American Carbon Program.
Linda has many years of experience in disaster preparedness and resilience. She has been an elected official on the Linn County Iowa Board of Supervisors, Chair of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the East Central Iowa Council of Governments, the statewide Mental Health Developmental Disability and the Linn County Board of Health. Langston is a former president of the National Association of Counties (2013-2014).
Ken works with families and organizations as a mediator, organizational consultant, trainer and facilitator. Along with his passion for helping people prepare for and reduce climate change, Ken also volunteers as a mediator through Mediation Works and is passionate about supporting youth through mentoring with Boys to Men of Southern Oregon.
Matthew is a retired high school teacher who was once honored as Oregon High School Social Studies Teacher of the Year. Before his teaching career he was in the restaurant business in Portland. He is also a lawyer who has been a member of the Oregon State Bar Association since 1980.
Andrea is the Resilience Policy Advisor for the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency. She works across state agencies and with local governments to increase the state’s resilience to the impacts of climate change.