A fresh face has joined the small cadre of sustained assessments specialists within the NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) Program. The Northeast Urban RISA recently hired Anna LoPresti (RIGHT) as its new Sustained Assessment Specialist. Anna is based at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York City.
Prior to starting with CCRUN, Anna worked as an Analyst at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. She developed locally relevant indicators to assess progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the city and state level in the US, and she was co-author of The Sustainable Development Report of the United States and The US Cities Sustainable Development Report. She helped launch SDSN USA, a network of over 100 US universities promoting collaborative research on the SDGs and engagement with local decision-makers.
Previously, she conducted research in Colombia in partnership with local coffee producers to design a monitoring and evaluation system for a community-based agroforestry program. She co-produced a resilience assessment, including cultural ecosystem services, economic benefits, and biodiversity impacts relevant at the community scale. Anna holds an MSc in Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford, and a BA in Sustainable Development from Columbia University.
Anna joins specialists Zena Grecni and Benet Duncan in the Pacific and Intermountain West RISAs, respectively. The South Central RISA is currently hiring to replace Leah Kos (see below for link). Together, they form a small network of assessment specialists who synthesize research findings and information about adaptation activities in their region as ongoing input to the National Climate Assessment and relevant regional processes. They convey information about regional decision makers’ needs to help shape future assessment priority topics, products, and processes, and act as a liaison between the RISA network in an NCA region and NCA interests at USGCRP and NOAA.
View the Climate Assessment Specialist, Research Associate (University of Oklahoma) open position »
To learn more about the RISA teams hosting the positions, visit:
South Central: Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program »
Northeast: Consortium on Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast »
Pacific: Pacific RISA »
Western Water / Intermountain West »
