2019 Register
October 13, 2019
2019
October 14, 2019
Meet The Key Note Speakers and Expert Panelists for The 2019 Climate Change, Urban Risk Management & Sustainability Public Forum
Mike Spano / Key Note Speaker
Mayor of The City of Yonkers, New York.
The Key Note Speaker, Spano is the current Mayor of the City of Yonkers. Spano is also a member of numerous community organizations such as the Yonkers Chamber of Commerce, Access Westchester, Exchange Club of Yonkers, Sons of Italy, and an Honorary Member (non-veteran) of the Armando Rauso AMVETS Post. He is also a former member of the board of directors of Westchester School for Special Children.
Jainey K. Bavishi / Key Note Speaker
Director of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Resiliency
Jainey leads the New York City’s multi-layered
resiliency program, preparing the city for the impacts of climate
change. She previously served as the Associate Director for Climate
Preparedness at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. In
this role, she led the implementation of the climate preparedness pillar
of the President's Climate Action Plan. In the final year of the Obama
Administration, she was responsible for embedding and institutionalizing
climate resilience considerations across Federal programs and policies;
advancing climate equity to address the disproportionate impacts of
climate change on low-income and other vulnerable communities; and
developing innovative approaches to climate adaptation finance.
Prior to this, Jainey served as Executive Director of R3ADY Asia-Pacific
based in Honolulu, Hawaii, where she was responsible for initiating,
expanding and managing the start-up public-private partnership, which
focused on enhancing disaster risk reduction and resilience in the
Asia-Pacific region. Jainey has a Master’s degree in city planning from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Bachelor’s degree in
public policy and cultural anthropology from Duke University.
Katharina Davis/
UNDP
Katharina connects the dots within UNDP and beyond to advance policy research and advocacy strategies on NDCs. Her technical focus is on urban climte planning and policy coherence. She brings more than 12 years of experience in the international development and private sector, having worked at GEF, UNICEF, the Global Fund, as well as renowned companies in investment research, economic consulting and global communications. Katharina completed her M.A. and post-graduate studies in Political Economy at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (HEI), Geneva, where she studied the social impact of economic shocks, innovation and capacity building. She also earned an MPA with a focus on Urban Planning from the NYU Wagner School of Public Service and is currently studying City Resilience Design & Management at Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Barcelona.
Henrietta Elizabeth Thompson
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations
Liz Thompson is a Barbadian who has worked in development policy for nearly 25 years. She is currently Barbados’ Ambassador to the United Nations. She has previously served in a number of professional roles including as an elected Member of Parliament from 1994 to 2008 and as Minister of Government during this period. At various times, she held the portfolios of Energy and Environment, Housing and Lands, Physical Development and Planning, and Health. Ms. Thompson also led Minority business in the Barbados Senate from 2008 to 2010.
From 2010 to 2012 she served as Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, with specific responsibility as one of two Executive Coordinators of the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development. In this role she also developed the highly successful Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI). Therefore, she was engaged in a number of advisory roles within the UN System, including on the transition from the MDGs to the SDGs, in the Office of the UN Secretary General, UNDP, the President of the General Assembly and on the Secretary General’s global energy initiative, Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL). Liz has considerable experience in national and international policy and negotiations, including with international financial institutions and within the UN System and processes. As a Minister she led major policy initiatives in Barbados such as the island’s national sustainable development, green economy, sustainable energy policies and the greening of government facilities. Her professional engagements have included consultancy in the Caribbean and internationally, to private sector entities, government and UN agencies. Liz has lectured and spoken in many countries and at universities such as Harvard, Yale, Colombia, the Universities of North Carolina, Waterloo and the West Indies on a number of issues in development, environment and energy. She has authored several papers and articles on these themes and is the co-author of two books on sustainable development published in 2014.
Dan Connors
Chief Operating Officer /Aris Renewable Energy
Mr. Connors, a seasoned renewable energy entrepreneur, co-founded Aris
Renewable Energy, LLC, (www.ariswind.com) to introduce a novel off-grid
power and lighting solution to the US markets. Additionally, Mr.
Connors and Aris Energy Solutions are launching state-of-the-art
micro-CHP fuel cells for residential and commercial applications in the
US. He has an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering and an MBA in
Marketing. His 35+ years of experience includes both technical and
management roles across a range of technology sectors including Small
Wind, Solar PV, Solar Thermal, Fuel Cells, Hydrokinetic Energy and
conventional power generation.
Robert Pirani
Program Director/,New York-New Jersey Harbor & Estuary Program Hudson River Foundation
Robert Pirani is the program director for the New YorkNew Jersey Harbor & Estuary Program at the Hudson River Foundation, and a senior fellow at Regional Plan Association. HEP is a collaboration of government, scientists and the civic sector that helps protect and restore the harbor’s waters and habitat. It is one of 28 such programs around the country authorized under the Clean Water Act. RPA is a non profit organization that focuses on long term planning and capital needs of the NY-NJ-CT metropolitan area.
Laurian Farrell
Associate Director at 100 Resilient Cities
Laurian is a Water Resources Engineer with over 20 years expertise in private, public and philanthropic sectors. As an Associate Director, City Resilience Delivery at 100 Resilient Cities, Prior to joining 100 RC, Laurian led the Environment department at the City of Brampton, Ontario. managing a multi-disciplinary team of professionals to develop and deliver the city’s programs for stormwater management, flood mitigation and environmental master planning. The latter required the implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation actions for land, water, air, waste, energy and people across all sectors of the municipality. Laurian also project managed the city’s “game changer” Riverwalk initiative; a $250 million flood protection and downtown revitalization project. her other experiences include the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority where she executed a new program for Flood Risk Management & Infrastructure. with asset management of $40M worth of flood control infrastructure including large scale dams, flood control channels and dykes.
Thomas Abdallah
Vice President Chief Environmental Engineer MTA Transit / Adjunct Prof.at Columbia
Thomas Abdallah, P.E. LEED AP, is the Deputy Vice President & Chief Environmental Engineer for MTA New York City Transit. Mr. Abdallah is also an Adjunct Professor in Columbia University’s Sustainability Management graduate program, and has over 32 years’ experience in the environmental engineering and transportation field. Thomas is the author of “Sustainable Mass Transit: Challenges and Opportunities in Urban Public Transportation” The book looks at different types of public mass transit systems, including heavy and light rail systems, and bus networks. The book closely examines the environmental mitigation measures that reduce or eliminate negative environmental impacts in operations, design and capital construction projects.
Susanne E DesRoches
Deputy Director, Infrastructure and Energy at NYC Mayor’s Office of Resiliency and Sustainability.
Susanne DesRoches is the Deputy Director for Policy, Infrastructure at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency where she focuses on adapting regional infrastructure systems to climate change.In this role, she oversees analysis and advocacy on a wide range of regulatory and legislative energy matters before the New York State and federal government. She also leads the NYC Climate Change Adaptation Task Force, a group of 60 public and private infrastructure operators, to identify climate risks, coordinate adaptation strategies and develop resiliency design guidelines. Susanne was previously the Chief of Resilience and Sustainability in the Engineering Department at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, where she oversaw incorporation of sustainability and climate resiliency into the agency’s $27B ten-year capital program. She led the development of the PANYNJ Climate Resilience Design Guidelines, which incorporates future climate impacts into design strategies. She represented PANYNJ on numerous regional climate change initiatives including the NYC Building Resiliency Task Force, the NYC Climate Change Adaptation Task Force and the New York State Climate Action Council.
Josh Ayers
Sr. Advisor - Risk & Resilience at Food for the Hungry
Susanne DesRoches is the Deputy Director for Policy, Infrastructure at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency where she focuses on adapting regional infrastructure systems to climate change.In this role, she oversees analysis and advocacy on a wide range of regulatory and legislative energy matters before the New York State and federal government. She also leads the NYC Climate Change Adaptation Task Force, a group of 60 public and private infrastructure operators, to identify climate risks, coordinate adaptation strategies and develop resiliency design guidelines. Susanne was previously the Chief of Resilience and Sustainability in the Engineering Department at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, where she oversaw incorporation of sustainability and climate resiliency into the agency’s $27B ten-year capital program. She led the development of the PANYNJ Climate Resilience Design Guidelines, which incorporates future climate impacts into design strategies. She represented PANYNJ on numerous regional climate change initiatives including the NYC Building Resiliency Task Force, the NYC Climate Change Adaptation Task Force and the New York State Climate Action Council.
James Gary Lawrence
Representative of UNISDR / Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies (ARISE)
James is a Representative of the Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies (ARISE).which is a private sector initiative of the UNISDR. Gary has also authored several groundbreaking articles and was also named Sustainability Leader of the Year by the World Sustainability Congress in 2015. Prior to joining EnviroDynamix, Gary held the position of VP and Chief Sustainability Officer at AECOM for over five year, following a position as the urban planning and strategies leader at Arup. He has also held positions as a director of sustainability planning for the City of Seattle,, he has also serving as advisor to U.S. President Clinton’s Administration Council on Sustainable Development, the U.S. government at the United Nation's Habitat II, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Brazilian President's Office, the British Prime Minister's Office, the European Academy for the Urban Environment in Berlin and the Organization for Economic and Community Development in Paris on matters of sustainable development, economics and environmental policy.
