SWEP Webinar – Climate Change

Please join SWEP on December 1, 2020 from 11:30 to 12:30 for a virtual presentation by Dr. Rebecca French, Director of Climate Planning at DEEP. She will provide a brief overview of the Governor’s Council on Climate Change then discuss the current state of climate planning in Connecticut and the role of environmental professionals in the years to come.

As the new director of the Office of Climate Planning at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Dr. French advises the DEEP Commissioner on mitigation, adaptation and resilience plans across all divisions of the agency. Her first charge in the position is to administer the Governor’s Council on Climate Change. Previously, Dr. French served as the Director of Resilience for the CT Department of Housing, overseeing the $64.3M grant awarded to the State of Connecticut through the US HUD National Disaster Resilience Competition as well as the Rebuild by Design pilot project in Bridgeport, CT. She was the Director of Community Engagement for the Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation (CIRCA), a partnership between the University of Connecticut and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. She translated science and engineering to help communities, state and local government, private industry, and academic partners implement solutions to adapt to a changing climate and extreme weather while strengthening resilience through economic development, policies and social cohesion. Prior to her positions in Connecticut, she was a AAAS Science &Technology Policy Fellow with the U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development and an American Geophysical Union Congressional Science Fellow in the United States Senate.

Dr. French is an alumni fellow of the Center for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (CEINT). Her research on the characterization of engineered and naturally-occurring nanomaterials helped build the scientific basis for policy decisions regarding nanotechnology. She is the recipient of two NSF Interdisciplinary Graduate Education and Research Traineeships (NSF IGERT). She holds an M.S from Cornell University in soil chemistry and a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in geosciences. She received her B.A. from Oberlin College in chemistry and environmental studies.

She is also native of northeast Connecticut. This webinar is a members-only event. The Zoom information will be provided upon registration. We look forward to seeing you on December 1st!