Keynote speakers announced for Earth Day Symposium.
Emily Seyller, U.S. Global Change Research Program
Opening Plenary – Impacts and Adaptation
Mrs. Emily Seyller has an extensive background working with a variety of private, non-profit, and government organizations focusing on domestic and international climate change science, policy, and strategy in the climate change, environmental, and sustainability fields.
She is currently the Inform Decisions and Adaptation Science Program Associate at the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s (USGCRP) National Coordination Office in Washington, DC, a comprehensive and integrated climate change research program under the purview of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In her role at the USGCRP, Mrs. Seyller manages a new major initiative to improve the coordination, integration, and translation of climate change science and impacts for across the Federal government in an effort to enable and empower adaptation and mitigation decisions at a range of scales for a diversity of users. In addition, she manages the development of the USGCRP’s annual report to Congress, Our Changing Planet, highlighting the interagency climate change research and application activities conducted by the USGCRP Interagency Working Groups.
Prior to joining the USGCRP, Mrs. Seyller was the Deputy Program Manager for Booz Allen Hamilton’s Climate Change Center of Excellence, which focused on identifying the first-, second-, and third-order climate change impacts on national and international security while generating innovative mitigation and adaptation strategy solutions. During her three years at Booz Allen, she established a cross-functional Climate Change and National Security Task Force with employees across the Firm’s service offerings (e.g., security, risk management, sustainability and natural resources, analytics, modeling, etc.) to provide multi-disciplinary climate change-related services to our Civil, Security, and Defense clients in the Federal government.
Mrs. Seyller is a certified Change Management Advanced Practitioner from Georgetown University and is also certified in Climate Change Decision-Making from the University of Washington. She received an M.A. in Environmental and Natural Resources Policy from The George Washington University and a B.A. in Public Policy and Environmental Studies from Hamilton College.
Laurens van der Tak, PE, D.WRE, CH2M HILL
Confronting Climate Change: An Early Analysis of Water and Wastewater Utility Adaptation Costs through 2050
Laurens van der Tak is a Vice President and Water Resources Engineer with CH2M HILL in Silver Spring, Maryland. He has 23 years experience on projects involving: hydrologic, hydraulic and water quality monitoring and modeling; stormwater and watershed management; wastewater collection systems; water resource systems; and GIS applications. Mr. van der Tak has worked for municipal, state, federal, and industrial clients and has contributed to more than 20 technical papers helping to advance the water industry at large. Mr. van der Tak is also CH2M HILL’s Deputy Global Service Leader for Water Resources and Ecosystems Management. He has experience across the globe, including the US, Haiti, Singapore, Maldives, Hungary, Italy, France, Spain, Morocco, and Brazil. Mr. van der Tak has bachelor’s degrees in Biology and Agricultural Engineering from Cornell University, a master’s degree in Agricultural Engineering from the University of California at Davis, and a Civil Engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a registered P.E. in Virginia and Maryland. Mr. van der Tak is a member of the Water Environment Federation, International Water Association and the American Water Works Association (AWWA), and is the Chair of the AWWA Climate Change Committee.
John Hoal, Principal, H3 Studio
Sustainable Neighborhood Design for an Incremental Impact on Climate Change
John Hoal is the president and founder of the award-winning H3 Studio, a design firm in St. Louis specializing in sustainability, urbanism, architecture, landscapes, and codes. Hoal lectures nationally on the design and development of sustainable, livable cities. In 1990 he co-founded the City of St. Louis’ first Urban Design Department, between 1993 and 2000 was the Director of Urban Design for the City of Saint Louis, and is Associate Professor of Architecture and Chair of the Master of Urban Design Program at Washington University in St. Louis.
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Registration ends March 11, 2013.
