ASAP and USDA Forest Service Partner to Address Gaps in Workforce Climate Literacy
In 2018, ASAP Members began a series of discussions on professional education needs for the climate change adaptation community. It quickly became clear that the group’s most valuable output would be a knowledge and competencies framework for our field. After several months, the resulting working group ultimately created ASAP’s Knowledge and Competencies Framework for Climate…
Read MoreThe American Society of Adaptation Professionals Names New Executive Director
YPSILANTI, Mi. (April 27, 2023)—The American Society of Adaptation Professionals (“ASAP”) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Debra M. Butler as Executive Director, beginning April 24, 2023. Debra M. Butler is a native of the U.S. Gulf Coast, growing up in Mobile, Alabama. Dr. Butler will bring her transdisciplinary leadership, knowledge, and experience…
Read MoreASAP Welcomes the American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact as JEDI Fund Partner
ASAP is thrilled to announce that the American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact (AmFam Institute) is providing the ASAP JEDI Fund with a $10,000 sponsorship to catalyze the Fund’s third year. This generous gift provides financial stability for the Fund, enabling us to grow its impact as we pursue a more just,…
Read MoreWelcome Dr. Debra Butler as ASAP’s New Executive Director
Dear ASAP Network, We are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Debra M. Butler as ASAP’s next Executive Director! Dr. Butler joined ASAP as a member in 2017 and worked part-time for ASAP in 2019 while completing her Ph.D. dissertation in Environmental Studies from the University of Massachusetts-Boston. As a survivor of Hurricane Katrina…
Read MoreExplore ASAP’s Peer Learning Groups in 2023
Last week ASAP announced this year’s Peer Learning Groups! Keep reading to explore the groups and sign up to receive vital monthly updates and calendar invites. If you have questions or need help finding the right group for you, join one of our ASAP 101 Orientation sessions or connect with ASAP’s Program Manager, Breana Nehls.…
Read MoreMENTORSHIP SPOTLIGHT: Examining Social Inequities in Climate Adaptation
About the Mentees and Mentor MENTEE Cailin Notch is a Community Resilience Planner at WRA Environmental Consultants in the San Francisco Bay Area with an extensive background in land use planning and community engagement. Her areas of expertise include development and design review, environmental review, meeting facilitation, stakeholder engagement, and project management. Previously, Cailin built…
Read MoreMENTORSHIP SPOTLIGHT: Pivoting from Polymer Physics Ph.D. to Policy
About the Mentee and Mentor Mentee Sophia Chan is graduating with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow developing polymeric materials for gas separations like carbon capture. While at Columbia, she taught ESL high schoolers about renewable energy topics, co-founded her department’s Diversity, Equity,…
Read MoreMENTORSHIP SPOTLIGHT: Navigating Professional Conferences
Julia Nassar, a Mentee in the ASAP Mentorship Program is employed as a Senior Analyst at the Cadmus Group where she specializes in climate adaptation and resilience. Julia supports local and state governments, such as Boston, the District of Columbia, Fairfax County, and the State of New York to enhance their resiliency through strategic climate…
Read MoreASAP and HARC Launch Program Committed to Growing Community Leadership in Climate Adaptation Projects
Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), in partnership with the American Society for Adaptation Professionals (ASAP), has announced a new program to enhance climate adaptation in the Upper Texas Gulf Coast. Leading with Equity in Adaptation Practice (LEAP) aims to strengthen community-led climate change adaptation initiatives through partnerships, collaboration, and capacity-building. Alongside partners, ASAP and HARC…
Read MoreMENTORSHIP SPOTLIGHT: Making Impact As You Can!
Mentee Yilin Lai Giltinan is a community-adaptation-planner with a focus on transferring climate data and a community’s adapting capacity into an integrated Urban-Heat-Island adaptation strategy and urban design. Yilin has a background in landscape architecture and received a MS.c in Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design from the University of Stuttgart, Germany. During this time she…
Read MoreMENTORSHIP SPOTLIGHT: Making Space for Long-Term Career Visioning
Mentee Cameron (Cami) Ramey has a background in climate adaptation, community resilience, and climate change communications. Cami has supported a number of nonprofits with policy analysis and research at the nexus of adaptation, urban planning, and environmental justice. Cami is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Environment Review, where she manages a 12-student writing team that…
Read MoreUncovering Our Assumptions With American Resiliency
This is a featured blog from ASAP Member Emily Schoerning, Founder of non-profit American Resiliency. What are Your Knowledge Assumptions? My name is Emily Schoerning. As a researcher in science education, I’ve spent years studying how we acquire knowledge, and what unexpected barriers make it harder for us to learn new things. One of the…
Read MoreJoin ASAP in Thanking Members of Congress for Introducing the National Climate Adaptation and Resilience Strategy Act (NCARS)!
On January 20, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) along with a bipartisan group of seven colleagues introduced the National Climate Adaptation and Resilience Strategy Act (H.R.6461/S.3531). You can learn more about the bill and why ASAP is excited about it in our statement of support. ASAP is encouraging members to reach…
Read MoreJoin ASAP at the 5th National Climate Assessment Engagement Meetings
The 5th National Climate Assessment Chapters Engagement Meetings are now scheduled and open to the public! Public engagement sessions will take place between January and February 2022. All ASAP members are encouraged to attend at least one NCA Chapter Meeting to provide their input and expertise on this important national resource. Space is limited at…
Read MoreStatement of Support for National Climate Adaptation and Resilience Strategy Act from American Society of Adaptation Professionals
Members of the American Society of Adaptation Professionals (ASAP) applaud the introduction of the National Climate Adaptation and Resilience Strategy Act (NCARS). This is a highly functional piece of legislation that would end the ad hoc nature of climate adaptation planning at the national level and form a dependable and consistent basis for us to…
Read MoreThe Color of ASAP: Race & Ethnicity in our Network
ASAP is an anti-racist organization. That means we are finding and rooting out racism in our network and the adaptation field. And it means we are prioritizing accessibility and inclusion in ASAP for people who identify as Black, Indigenous, or other person of color (BIPOC). We are asking for your support by completing a short…
Read MoreJEDI and MLK Day 2022
At ASAP, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a time for us to put more than just words behind our racial justice goals: it is a day to ACT. MLK’s Dream remains a powerful vision of the just and equitable world we want to live in. Take action with us to build that world. We…
Read MoreNCA5 Adaptation Chapter Public Engagement Workshop
February 7, 2022 | 11:00am – 3:30pm ET Please join the authors of the Fifth National Climate Assessment for a virtual workshop to share your thoughts on the climate change-related issues most important to include in the Adaptation chapter. We really need your input! The workshop is free and open to the public. The information gathered will help…
Read More2022 ASAP Member-Led Interest Groups
Get involved in ASAP Member Led Interest Groups in 2022.The votes are in and we are excited to announce the 2022 ASAP Member Led Interest Groups! Policy Practice Group Private Sector Adaptation Professionals Professional Opportunities in Adaptation Convening Climate Collaborators (webpage coming soon!) A big THANK YOU to everyone who submitted one of this year’s…
Read MoreNew Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Fund Supports Black, Indigenous, and People of Color
Inspired by members driven to create a tangible change, ASAP launched our Justice, Equity, Diversity, And Inclusion Fund in April 2021. The Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Fund provides financial support for ASAP members to engage in professional development and capacity-building activities as well as compensate people for their time as they contribute their…
Read MoreASAP to Support the National Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center
The American Society of Adaptation Professionals will collaborate with the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) and Atma Connect to engage with one of three national Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers (EJ TCTACs) developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy. The goal of the TCTAC program is to…
Read More2023 Climate Service Providers Academy Recap
Last year marked the return of ASAP’s Private Sector Climate Service Providers Academy, a virtual course providing participants with the tools to develop higher-quality climate services and help businesses succeed in the rapidly evolving climate services marketplace. The inaugural academy started in 2019 with funding support from the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments (GLISA).…
Read MoreIntroducing Maya Buchanan, ASAP’s New Board President
To start the year, we are excited to share recent changes to ASAP’s Board of Directors! Effective this January 2024, Maya Buchanan became the newly elected President of ASAP’s Board of Directors. Join us in celebrating the hope and opportunity that a wave of new leadership brings. 2023 represented a significant transition year for ASAP,…
Read MoreA Year-End Message From ASAP’s Executive Director
Warmest greetings to the entire ASAP Network during this holiday season. As the Executive Director of the American Society of Adaptation Professionals, I would like to thank each of you, my staff, and the Board of Directors for a prosperous and successful 2023. From April to December of this year and to 2024 and beyond,…
Read MoreA Year in Review: Climate Policy and the White House Summit on Climate Resilient Communities
The Biden Administration has undoubtedly made more progress on climate change adaptation and climate resilience than any other U.S. Presidential administration in history. One high point was last month’s White House Summit on Building Climate Resilient Communities. The Summit was hailed as the first high-level event explicitly focused on climate resilience in the federal government,…
Read MoreNew Community of Practice for Coastal Inundation
The American Society of Adaptation Professionals has partnered with NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management (“OCM”) and the National Sea Grant Office (“NSGO”) to bring together the people and ideas needed to build resilience to coastal inundation. As climate change impacts worsen, so does coastal inundation (i.e., water on normally dry ground as a result of…
Read MoreClimate-Resilient Water Infrastructure in the Great Lakes
ASAP is Excited to Support Delta Institute as an EPA Region 5 Environmental Finance Center (EFC) for Water Infrastructure We are excited to announce that ASAP Is teaming up with Delta Institute as a partner in an Environmental Finance Center (EFC) for EPA’s Region 5 alongside the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) and Current Water…
Read MoreHighlights from the Midwest Climate Resilience Conference
ASAP’s Training Specialist Mia Dozier traveled to the Midwest Climate Resilience Conference in Duluth, Minnesota, held October 25-27, 2023. Dive into highlights of Mia’s experience at the conference, including a special equitable community engagement training, recruitment for water infrastructure from the environmental finance center for EPA’s Region 5, and an update on the Ready-to-Fund Resilience…
Read MoreStatement of Support for the National Coordination on Adaptation and Resilience for Security Act from the American Society of Adaptation Professionals
Short Statement of Support Members of the American Society of Adaptation Professionals (“ASAP”) applaud the introduction of the National Coordination on Adaptation and Resilience for Security Act (“NCARS”). Should Congress enact this legislation, the U.S. will move from reliance on executive action directed toward individual agency interventions to a stable, long-term, coherent national strategy that…
Read MoreMENTORSHIP SPOTLIGHT: Searching for Resources in the Field of Adaptation
This week’s Mentorship Program Spotlight highlights a mentee and mentor duo focused on helping an early retiree find a purpose in climate change adaptation. Meet Mentee Carol Anway and Mentor Jamesine Rogers Gibson! Mentee Carol Anway took early retirement from Boeing to pursue climate change resilience strategic work. She is a decorated physicist with a…
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