Panel

Dr. Rosina Bierbaum is Dean Emerita of the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment and School of Public Health, University of Michigan, and a Research Professor and Roy F. Weston Chair in Natural Economics University of Maryland School of Public Policy. Her experience extends from climate science into foreign relations and international development. She served for two decades in both the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. Government and ran the first Environment Division of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Edward R. Carr is Professor and Director of International Development, Community, and Environment (IDCE) at Clark University. A geographer and anthropologist, Dr. Carr has more than twenty years of experience working at the interface of climate change adaptation and global development as an academic, through policy and technical positions with bilateral and multilateral development donors, and various roles on global environmental assessments, serving as a lead author for the ongoing IPCC AR6. 

Dr. Ngonidzashe Chirinda is a climate change scientist and an Assistant Professor in Sustainable Tropical Agriculture at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco. His research focuses on greenhouse gas emissions, uptake, monitoring, and modelling; identifying and evaluating climate change mitigation options; and assessing environmental policy implications. He has worked on several projects in Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean, exploring new ways to solve climate-related and food security issues.

Professor Miriam Diamond has gained expertise in chemical contaminants and environmental issues in general, from over three decades of conducting research and teaching at the University of Toronto. She has also been involved in promoting sound chemicals management at national to international scales.

Dr. John Donaldson is a biodiversity scientist and conservation biologist with over two decades of experience working at the interface between biodiversity science and national and international policy.  He has worked mostly in government agencies with a strong focus on strengthening the evidence base for environmental decision making.

Professor Graciela Metternicht is an environmental geographer who works at the interface of science and policy for sustainable development. With over two decades of experience in applied research, training and as an adviser on environmental management, her skills range from development of tools and approaches to map and monitor land degradation processes and for land use change, to operationalization of socioecological frameworks for sustainable land management.

Dr. Blake Ratner is Executive Director, Collaborating for Resilience - a cross-regional, non-profit initiative working to address environmental resource competition and strengthen governance and livelihood resilience in interconnected resource domains and landscapes. An environmental sociologist (Ph.D., Cornell University), he has published widely on rights, equity, accountability and institutional innovation in environmental decision-making, drawing on insights from action research to inform both policy and practice.

Dr. Susanne Schmeier is an Associate Professor of Water Law and Diplomacy and the Head of the Water Governance Department at the Institute for Water Education (IHE) in Delft, The Netherlands. Her research, educational, and advisory work focuses on the legal and institutional mechanisms for mitigating conflict potential around natural resources and the environment, with a particular focus on water. She has published widely on topics relating to environmental security, transboundary water management and international organizations managing natural resources and the environment, both in academic journals and books and for a broader policy and general audience. She is particularly active in engaging with non-expert audiences, advocating for cooperative and sustainable water governance that involves a broad variety of stakeholders.

Dr. Mark Stafford Smith is based in Canberra, Australia, and contributes to research on adaptation and sustainable development. He is retired from CSIRO, Australia's national research organization, where he oversaw a highly interdisciplinary program of research on many aspects of adapting to climate change, as well as regularly interacting with national and international policy issues around sustainable development. He continues as a CSIRO Honorary Fellow, and in several international roles.

Chris Whaley is a senior policy advisor with extensive experience of global agreements on climate change, biodiversity, chemicals, forestry, and sustainable development, working in the U.K., EU, internationally, as a diplomat and in the UN system.