Mentorship Spotlight: Can Regenerative Food and Farming Enhance Community Resilience?

Mentee Laura Lengnick is an award-winning soil scientist with 30 years of experience putting sustainable values into action in food and farming.  She contributed to the 3rd National Climate Assessment as the lead author of the USDA report, Climate Change and Agriculture in the United States: Effects and Adaptation.  In 2015, Laura founded Cultivating Resilience,…

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Mentorship Spotlight: Grounding Climate Change Planning in Local Experiences

Mentee Annabel Cryan is committed to building a world capable of withstanding the uncertainties of our changing climate where both society and the environment thrive. She is passionate about strategic thinking and new technology that builds more resilient urban centers and business communities. She has spent the past 2.5 years working at the American Flood…

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Mentorship Spotlight: Gaining Adaptation Perspectives

Mentor Chris Choo works at Marin County’s Department of Public Works. Her efforts support Marin Communities with sea level rise, flood protection and watershed restoration. She manages BayWAVE, the sea level rise planning and adaptation program for the bay shoreline in Marin. Marin is among the most vulnerable counties in California. Chris leads the work…

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Leaving Room for Serendipity

Mentee Mary Hannah Smith is an urban planner hoping to help communities proactively adapt to climate change. She currently works as an Associate Resiliency and Environmental Planner at the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission (CMRPC), serving 39 suburban and rural towns along with the City of Worcester.  She holds a B.A. in Global Studies, a…

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Mentorship Spotlight: Grounding and Guidance During Career Transition

Mentee Carolyn Heaps is an environmental project manager and planning professional who is passionate about supporting communities to adapt to the challenges of climate change. She envisions a future in which urban environments support each of their residents to thrive under changing climate conditions. Carolyn graduated from the University of Virginia with a master’s degree…

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Mentorship Spotlight: Strategizing for a Career in Adaptation and Resilience

Mentee Joe Lampe is an urban planner and leads projects ranging from transportation policy plans and airport master plans, to equitable public engagement efforts and statewide freight plans. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Joe has degrees in Environmental Science and Spanish from Allegheny College, and a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from the University…

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Mentorship Spotlight: Adaptation in Maryland

Mentee Kate McClure is a Coastal Climate Specialist with the University of Maryland Sea Grant Extension Program. In this role, she assists residents and decision-makers in coastal communities throughout Maryland with understanding and preparing for the effects of climate change, with a focus on flooding due to sea level rise, precipitation, and storm events. Prior…

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Mentorship Spotlight: New pathways and perspectives for adaptation planning across levels

Mentee Karen Buchsbaum has a passion for food, community, and climate.  She has over 15 years of experience in education, program management, outreach and communications and enjoys engaging with community leaders, students, non-profits, farmers, and the public around issues of nutrition, agriculture, and sustainability. She holds a B.A. in Biology, and an M.S. in Environmental…

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Mentorship Spotlight: Staying Open to Unexpected Opportunities in the Adaptation Sector

Mentee Isabela Schultz (Bela) is passionate about every intersection between climate and people, so much so that during her undergraduate career she designed her own major in Environmental Sociology. She has dipped her toes into many different sectors and pathways to change, including doing research for Project Drawdown, grassroots organizing for the Sunrise Movement, and…

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Mentorship Spotlight: Building Community in Adaptation

Mentee Emma Diamond is a Master’s of Public Administration student graduating from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington in 2022. Currently, she is working at the Washington State Department of Commerce as an Energy Policy intern. Emma is interested in local and state government, environmental policy, climate adaptation,…

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