Internal Advisory Board
Kathleen Hall Jamieson
Kathleen Hall Jamieson is the Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Pennsylvania, the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Director of the University’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, and Program Director of the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands. She has authored or co-authored 17 books, including Creating Conspiracy Beliefs: How Our Thoughts Are Shaped (2022) and Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President, which won the Association of American Publishers’ 2019 R.R. Hawkins Award. Six of the books that Jamieson has authored or co-authored have received a total of 12 political science or communication book awards (Cyberwar, Packaging the Presidency, Eloquence in an Electronic Age, Spiral of Cynicism, Presidents Creating the Presidency, and The Obama Victory). She co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication and The Oxford Handbook of the Science of Science Communication. In 2020, the National Academy of Sciences awarded Jamieson its Public Welfare Medal for her “non-partisan crusade to ensure the integrity of facts in public discourse and development of the science of scientific communication to promote public understanding of complex issues.”
Cornelia Colijn
Cornelia Colijn is Executive Director, Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. Cory Colijn envisions, plans, and manages all center programming, while building connections with students, faculty, and leaders in the energy industry. She joined the Kleinman Center team after serving as the administrative director of Penn’s Professional Programs in Earth and Environmental Science. Prior to coming to Penn, she worked for several Philadelphia-based nonprofits, focusing on the ecological restoration of Philadelphia’s extensive park system. Colijn holds a master’s degree in applied geoscience and a bachelor’s degree in earth and environmental science, both from the University of Pennsylvania.
Kathleen Morrison
Kathleen Morrison is Chair of the Department of Anthropology and the Sally and Alvin V. Shoemaker Professor of Anthropology and co-chair of the Penn Environmental Initiative (EII). Her research is focused on governing regimes, agricultural change, and their environmental impacts in the Deccan Plateau of South India. Her books include Daroji Valley: Landscape History, Place, and the Making of a Dryland Reservoir System, The Vijayanagara Metropolitan Survey, and Fields of Victory: Vijayanagara and the Course of Intensification. Prof. Morrison earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1992, her M.A. from the University of the New Mexico in 1987, and her B.A. From the University of Notre Dame 1984.
Joseph S. Francisco
Joseph S. Francisco is President’s Distinguished Professor of Earth and Environmental Science, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, and co-chair of the Penn Environmental Initiative (EII).. He was the president of the American Chemical Society from 2009-2010. He is currently a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 2010 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In his research, Prof. Francisco has applied new tools from theoretical chemistry to atmospheric chemical problems to enhance our understanding of chemistry in the atmosphere at the molecular level. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983, and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin in 1977.
Michael Weisberg
Michael Weisberg is Bess W. Heyman President’s Distinguished Professor and Chair of Philosophy, as well as Senior Faculty Fellow and Director of Post-Graduate Programs at Perry World House. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Biology and Philosophy, advisor to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Nairobi Work Programme, climate advisor to the Republic of Maldives, and directs Penn’s campus-wide research in Galápagos. He is the author of Simulation and Similarity: Using Models to Understand the World and Galápagos: Life in Motion, as well as a contributing author to the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report. Much of Professor Weisberg’s research is focused on how highly idealized models and simulations can be used to understand complex systems. He also leads efforts to better understanding the interface between humans and wildlife, between humans and the climate system, and how scientific issues are understood by communities in the Americas and in East Asia. Professor Weisberg received a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of California, San Diego in 1999, and continued graduate study in Philosophy and Evolutionary Biology at Stanford University, earning a 2003 Ph.D. in Philosophy.
External Advisory Board
Robert D. Bullard
Dr. Robert D. Bullard is distinguished professor of urban planning founding director of the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University. Professor Bullard is often called the “father of environmental justice.” He is the author of 18 books and co-founder of the HBCU Climate Change Consortium. In 2020, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) honored him with its Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2021, President Biden appointed him to serve on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, and in 2022 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Susan Joy Hassol
Susan Joy Hassol is the Director of Climate Communication. She is an award-winning climate change communicator and author known for her ability to translate science into English. For 30 years she has helped scientists communicate more effectively and provided clear information to policymakers and journalists. Susan has written and edited numerous high-level reports including the first three U.S. National Climate Assessments. She has testified to the U.S. Senate, written an HBO documentary, and written popular commentaries in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The LA Times, The Boston Globe, Newsweek, Time, The Hill, and Scientific American. Susan is the recipient of the 2021 Ambassador Award from the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and is a Fellow of AGU and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for her exceptional contributions to the communication of climate change science to policymakers and the public. She Tweets @ClimateComms.
John Schwartz
John Schwartz is a professor of practice in journalism and at the UT Austin School of Journalism Media and associate director of U.T.’s new Global Sustainability Leadership Institute. From 1985 until 1992, he worked at Newsweek Magazine, ultimately becoming a senior editor in the business section. He then moved to The Washington Post as a science reporter, writing on a range of topics including federal efforts to regulate the tobacco industry, the Unabomber case, and the school shooting in Jonesboro, Arkansas. In 2000, The New York Times hired him, initially to cover technology. Over the next 21 years, his beats included the U.S. space program, including the loss of the shuttle Columbia and its crew, Hurricane Katrina and the efforts to rebuild hurricane protection around the city, legal affairs and, most recently, climate change. At the NYT and WP, he wrote stories for nearly every section of the newspaper. He retired from The Times on July 31, 2021. He has written several books, including “Oddly Normal: One Family’s Struggle to Help Their Teenage Son Come to Terms with His Sexuality,” and “This Is the Year I Put My Financial Life in Order.”
Anthony Leiserowitz
Anthony Leiserowitz, Ph.D. is the founder and Director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and a Senior Research Scientist at the Yale School of the Environment. He is an expert on public climate change and environmental beliefs, attitudes, policy preferences, and behavior, and the psychological, cultural, and political factors that shape them. He conducts research at the global, national, and local scales, including many surveys of the American public. He conducted the first global study of public values, attitudes, and behaviors regarding sustainable development and has published more than 200 scientific articles, chapters, and reports. He has served as a contributing author, panel member, advisor or consultant to diverse organizations including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (AR6 Report), the National Academy of Sciences (America’s Climate Choices Report), the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, the Harvard Kennedy School, the United Nations Development Program, the Gallup World Poll, and the World Economic Forum, among others. He is a recipient of the Friend of the Planet Award from the National Center for Science Education, the Mitofsky Innovator Award from the American Association of Public Opinion Research, and the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication from Climate One. He is also the host of Climate Connections, a radio program broadcast each day on more than 680 stations and frequencies nationwide. Twitter: @ecotone2
Edward Maibach
Edward Maibach—a distinguished University Professor and Director of George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication—is a public health communication scientist who focuses on climate change and related public health challenges. In 2020, Ed was awarded the Stephen Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication (with Anthony Leiserowitz), and Mason’s top research honor—the Beck Family Presidential Medal of Excellence in Research and Scholarship, and in 2021 he was identified by Thompson Reuters as one of the world’s 10 most influential scientists working on climate change. Ed previously served as Associate Director of the National Cancer Institute and Worldwide Director of Social Marketing at Porter Novelli, and is currently a Board Member of the Global Climate and Health Alliance.
Marshall Shepherd
Dr. Marshall Shepherd is the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Georgia and Director of its Atmospheric Sciences Program. Dr. Shepherd was the 2013 President of American Meteorological Society (AMS). Prior to academia, he spent 12 years as a scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and was Deputy Project Scientist of the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission. Dr. Shepherd is the host of The Weather Channel’s Weather Geeks Podcast and a senior contributor to Forbes Magazine. In 2021, Dr. Shepherd was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The only member of the University of Georgia faculty to ever achieve this trifecta. He has received numerous awards including the 2004 White House PECASE Award, the Captain Planet Foundation Protector of the Earth Award, the 2019 AGU Climate Communication Prize, the 2020 Mani L. Bhaumik Award for Public Engagement with Science and the 2018 AMS Helmut Landsberg Award. He received his B.S., M.S. and PhD in meteorology from Florida State University. He has two TEDx talks on climate science and communication that collectively exceed two million viewers. He is routinely asked to brief the media, Congress, and the White House on weather-climate-science related topics. Dr. Shepherd has almost 100 peer-reviewed publications on various topics.
Kim Cobb
Kim Cobb is the Director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society at Brown University, and Professor in Environment and Society as well as Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences. In her climate research, she uses observations of past and present climate to advance our understanding of future climate change impacts, with a focus on climate extremes and coastal flood hazards. She received her B.A. from Yale University in 1996, and her Ph.D. in Oceanography from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in 2002. Prior to joining Brown in 2022, she served as Director of the Global Change Program at Georgia Tech, Professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and ADVANCE Professor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In her research, Kim has sailed on oceanographic cruises and led caving expeditions in the Borneo rainforests. She received a NSF CAREER Award, a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and the Hans Oeschger Medal from the European Geosciences Union in 2019. She was elected as a AAAS Fellow in 2021, and was a Lead Author for the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, released in 2021. As a mother to four, Kim is a strong advocate for women in science, and champions diversity and inclusion in all that she does. She is also devoted to the communication of climate change to the public through media appearances, public speaking, and social media channels, and enjoys frequent exchanges with policymakers about climate impacts and solutions.
Max Boykoff
Max is a Professor in the Environmental Studies department (where he now serves as Chair) at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is also a Fellow in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. Max has ongoing interests in science and environmental communications, science-policy interactions, and political economics and the environment. He has experience working on six continents, and is a co-author and editor of seven books and edited volumes, along with over 75 articles and book chapters. Among Max’s other activities, he is a Contributing Author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment ‘Mitigation and Policy’ Report, he is a part of the Independent Science Panel for the Deep South Challenge in New Zealand, he is Deputy Editor for the social sciences/history team for the Journal of Climatic Change for over a decade and he has been an advisor on the ‘Don’t Look Up’ film platform. Max also leads the Media and Climate Change Observatory (MeCCO) while he leads the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Colorado Local Science Engagement Network and co-Directs Inside the Greenhouse. Finally of note, Max was named a ‘radical professor undermining democracy’ by David Horowitz in 2009 and also earned the University of Colorado Thomas Jefferson Award for “embodying and advancing the ideals of Thomas Jefferson: broad interests in literature, arts and sciences, and public affairs; a strong concern for the advancement of higher education; a deeply seated sense of individual civic responsibility; and a profound commitment to the welfare and rights of the individual”. Max earned a PhD in Environmental Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz, and a BS in Psychology from The Ohio State University.