Regional Roots, Resilient Future: How the Southern Lowcountry Is Collaborating to Accelerate Resilience Action
In South Carolina’s Southern Lowcountry, where stormwater knows no jurisdiction and sea level rise does not stop at county lines, communities are coming together to build climate resilience together.
The Southern Lowcountry Resilience Collaborative (SLRC) is a fast-growing alliance spanning Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton, and Colleton counties showing how shared goals, regional trust, and local leadership can build the future of climate resilience. And it has benefitted from the recent support of the South Carolina Climate Ready America Navigator, part of the Climate Ready America initiative led by the Geos Institute and supported by the Walmart Foundation.
The SLRC emerged from Beaufort County’s long-term climate resilience strategy, a community-driven roadmap created over several years with input from planners, conservationists, nonprofits, and local agencies. One of its top recommendations was to reestablish a regional group to maintain momentum.
Enter Adelaide Bates, South Carolina’s Climate Ready America Navigator, hosted by the Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities. After reviewing Beaufort County’s plan and meeting with local leaders like Juliana Zadik, she identified a clear opportunity. Through the Climate Ready America Navigator Network, Adelaide connected the county with Resilient Cities Catalyst (RCC), a national nonprofit known for supporting community-led climate resilience initiatives and a partner organization in Climate Ready America Southeast.
Adelaide Bates (left) and Juliana Zadik (right) discussing the collaborative at the SC Resilience Conference in 2026
“Adelaide saw the need and the opportunity, and then she made the connection,” said Juliana Zadik, Environmental Long Range Planner for Beaufort County. “She did not come in with an agenda. She came in and asked, ‘How can we help you do what you are already trying to do?'”
Together, Adelaide, RCC, and Beaufort County launched the Resilience Accelerator, a series of virtual sessions followed by a full-day in-person workshop. More than 60 participants from over 40 organizations attended, including utilities, nonprofits, military installations, and state agencies.
“We heard loud and clear that people were ready to stop planning and start doing,” Adelaide said. “Our job was to create a space where the right people could talk, share what they are working on, and identify what was missing.”
Originally divided into three subcommittees – Collaborative Governance, Environmental Integration, and People-First Communities – the SLRC soon realized that the most resilient path forward was one collaborative working group with no silos.
By fall 2024, the group had a name, a shared vision rooted in South Carolina’s official definition of resilience, and inspiration drawn from Florida’s Resilience First Coast. The SLRC now meets every two months and welcomes participants from local governments, nonprofits, utilities, academia, and more.
The impact is already visible. In Jasper County, staff wanted to adopt the regional stormwater manual, one created jointly with Beaufort County and nationally recognized for its forward-thinking, green infrastructure focus. But they lacked the staffing and enforcement capacity to make it happen. Through connections sparked in the SLRC, nonprofit partners applied for funding to build a toolkit and support Jasper’s implementation efforts.
“This is exactly the kind of cross-pollination we were hoping for,” Juliana says. “Now, instead of duplicating work or spinning wheels, we’re building momentum together.”
The SLRC also conducted a regional staff survey to assess existing climate resilience efforts, identify new priorities, and uncover what is holding communities back. Those insights are shaping future initiatives and helping make the case to local decision-makers.
Looking ahead, the group is focused on elevating climate resilience within local governments, whether through staff roles, dedicated funding, or policy support. The SLRC is also working with the regional Council of Governments and the South Carolina Office of Resilience to develop a public-facing data dashboard, making climate and flood tools accessible to all.
“It is about meeting people where they are,” said Adelaide. “Some communities need help seeing how their stormwater upgrades are resilience work. Others need funding to scale up. But they all need to be connected, and that is what this collaborative does.”
The Southern Lowcountry Resilience Collaborative is becoming a model for others, including Charleston County, which is now launching a similar initiative with guidance from Adelaide. “This is a replicable, scalable structure,” she said. “But it is rooted in listening first, not bringing in a solution, but helping communities move forward on their own goals.” The SLRC is a powerful illustration of how Climate Ready America is helping local communities tackle local challenges while contributing to a stronger, more resilient nation.
Robert Macnee, Ph.D. is Deputy Director of Resilience Services at Climate Resilience Consulting, where he helps governments, institutions, and communities reduce climate risk in equitable and practical ways. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Management focused on climate change impacts on health and communities, and brings over a decade of experience spanning economic development, resilience planning, and implementation.
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.
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.