Meet the team behind the mission
At Geos Institute, we work together as climate resilience experts, strategists, communicators, and facilitators who support climate resilience nationwide. Each team member brings unique experience, insight, and passion to this work, and we are all united by a commitment to equity, local leadership, and lasting impact.
Rather than siloed experts, we see ourselves as collaborators and coaches, supporting local leaders while continuously learning from the communities we serve.
Leadership Team
Board of Directors
Our board brings deep expertise in climate science, community resilience, governance, local government, and nonprofit leadership. They help steer the long-term vision of Geos Institute while ensuring accountability to our mission and values.
Former President of the National Assoc. of Counties and Former County Commissioner – Linn County, IA
Our extended team: Building resilience, nationwide
We cannot do this alone. Through Climate Ready America, we are proud to work alongside a dynamic and diverse group of national leaders, expert advisors, and on-the-ground partners who help shape, guide, and implement this ambitious effort to deliver equitable climate resilience for all communities.
National Strategy Team
Climate Ready America’s National Strategy Team guides the development of the nationwide climate services system, shaping strategy, securing resources, solving cross-sector challenges, and making recommendations to strengthen climate resilience nationwide. Team members are experts in climate adaptation, mitigation, social justice, nature-based solutions, and systems design, and they work closely with Geos Institute staff and board members to uphold the ten guiding principles of Climate Ready America.
Members include:
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Nikki Cooley, Co-Manager of Tribal Climate Change Program, Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals
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Nancy Gilliam, Model Forest Policy Program
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Lara Hansen, Chief Scientist & Executive Director, EcoAdapt
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Meredith Herr, Deputy Director, Climate Access
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Glynis Lough – Director, Science for Climate Action Network, Aspen Global Change Institute
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Atyia Martin, Black Resilience Network and All Aces
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Matt Posner, The Resiliency Company
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Andrew Rumbach, Urban Institute
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Lola Schoenrich, Vice President, Great Plains Institute
Climate Ready America Advisors
Our Advisors are experts from across the nation who lend their experience and insight to every corner of the system, from governance structure and program design to communications and funding strategies. Their perspectives help ensure that Climate Ready America evolves with integrity and impact.
Advisors include:
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Steve Abbott - Rocky Mountain Institute
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James Arnott - Aspen Global Change Institute
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Tim Carter - Second Nature
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John Cleveland - Innovation Network for Communities
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Joyce Coffee - Climate Resilience Consulting
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Ernest Cook - Network for Landscape Conservation
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Matt Hutchins - Fernleaf
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Michael McCormick - Farallon Strategies
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Susi Moser - Susanne Moser Consulting
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John Nielsen-Gammon - Texas State Climatologist, Director, Southern Regional Climate Center
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Sascha Petersen - Adaptation International
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Cara Pike - Climate Access
Implementation Partners
We currently have 55 state-level implementation partners poised to expand Climate Ready America as soon as funding allows. These organizations reflect a wide range of expertise, geography, and community ties, exactly the kind of network needed to deliver tailored climate adaptation services at scale.
We have 55 in-state partners ready to go once funding arrives. These partners represent a variety of entity types:
- 6 State governments
- 11 Extension/Sea Grant offices
- 12 Non-land-grant Universities
- 16 Nonprofit organizations
- 2 Regional Planning Commissions/Councils
- 2 For-profit service entities
- 3 State climatologist offices
- 1 CASC
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.
Frank is the former President of the Reinsurance Association of America. Frank currently serves on the Advisory Board of the OECD’s International Network for the Financial Management of Large-Scale Disasters, the RAND Center on Catastrophic Risk Management and Compensation, and the University of Cincinnati’s Carl H. Lindner III Center for Insurance and Risk Management Advisory Board.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.