PATHWAYS - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Analyst
• Marine Geographer and GIS Analyst

Abby Mohan is a marine geographer and GIS analyst who works on the intersections between coastal use, coastal policy, and coastal science with a focus on natural and nature-based adaptation solutions. Abby Mohan is a marine geographer and GIS analyst who works on the intersections between coastal use, coastal policy, coastal science, and best practices in communicating these complex issues to the public. Abby is active in the maritime community and serves as the Chair of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council (GFNMS). Abby supports climate change vulnerability and risk assessments with a focus on coastal environments, sea level rise, and emergent groundwater. Abby led the technical analysis and GIS modeling of the response of shallow groundwater to sea level rise since Pathway's work with the All Bay Collective to our most recent release of the Shallow Groundwater Response to Sea Level Rise for four Bay Area counties in partnership with the San Francisco Estuary Institute. Abby worked with the GEF Blue Forests project translating the experiences of project managers from carbon and ecosystem service based mangrove conservation and restoration in seven countries (Abu Dhabi, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, and Mozambique) to develop lessons learned, tools and guidance to replicate and scale up successes from these pilot projects. Abby is also a licensed captain and enjoys being out on the water every chance she can get. You may see her out on a boat along San Francisco's seawall supporting the monitoring of San Francisco's Living Seawall Pilot with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center this spring, summer, and fall! When Abby is not working you can find her out on the water on Ishkabibble, her Baltic 38DP sailboat, or out at the dog park with her adorable Bernadoodle, Finn.

Job Titles:

• Environmental Engineer
• Environmental Engineer and Community Engagement
• Member of the BayCAN

Daisy uses her engineering and analytic skills to assess and communicate climate vulnerabilities and risk, and her engagement skills to build trust with local communities and encourage youth participation. Daisy Ramirez Lopez is an environmental engineer with a personal passion for improving both our natural and built environments. Daisy brings her analytic skills to Pathways' work, developing profiles that communicate climate vulnerabilities and risk for a wide array of clients, including public and private water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities, and the public. She often works between the technical teams and stakeholder engagement teams, helping to synthesize, translate, and document key findings to support and communicate the progress towards climate adaptation. Daisy has been at the center of San Francisco's Waterfront Resilience Program adaptation strategy development, working with Champions from multiple city departments as they co-create distinct waterfront strategies that re-imagine San Francisco's future. She has supported walking tours to communicate the stratgies to a broad cross section of the public, and led youth engagement tours and events with the San Francisco Unified School District. As a San Francisco native, she is driven and passionate about helping her community and the City and County of San Francisco become more resilient to future climate change. Daisy is a member of the BayCAN equity working group, and a technical contributor on the Fifth National Climate Assessment (Coastal Effects chapter).

Job Titles:

• Engineer
• Founder
• CEO and Founder, Climate Adaptation and Engineering

Kris is a coastal engineer and climate scientist providing leadership and technical expertise to support climate change resilience and adaptation strategy development. Kris is a coastal engineer and climate scientist with over three decades of experience providing leadership and technical expertise related to climate change resilience and adaptation strategy development, with an emphasis on coastal environments, sea level rise, rising groundwater, and increasing extreme precipitation as the climate continues to warm. Kris firmly believes that adapting our shorelines requires consideration of the entire water cycle, while balancing nature-based solutions, protecting our built environments, and honest discussions of managed retreat. Kris founded Pathways because she is passionate about helping communities adapt to our changing climate, including building capacity within communities, and developing climate adaptation plans that are actionable and equitable, based on the latest climate science, with tangible roadmaps (pathways) for implementation. Kris currently serves as a lead author for the Fifth National Climate Assessment (Coastal Effects and Blue Carbon), technical working group member for the New York State Climate Assessment, Engineering Criteria Review Board Member for the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, and previously served as a lead author for the Fourth National Climate Assessment. When she is not working, you can often find her walking or running along the San Francisco Bay Trail. She lives in Alameda where she is raising two amazing children that love art, math, and science. She has three cats and four aquatic turtles.

Job Titles:

• Leader
• Coastal Resilience and Policy Scientist

Hilary Papendick is a leader in climate resilience and mitigation. She integrates her policy and equity expertise at the local and state level to support community resilience through a governance lens, as physical adaptation strategies alone are not enough. Hilary Papendick has expertise in leading climate resilience and climate mitigation programs at the local and state level, with a focus on integrating racial equity into the programs. Hilary focuses on supporting communities in taking actions to prepare for climate change impacts, including translating scientific material into a wide variety of formats, developing policies to address climate impacts, and leading large, multi-year planning efforts, such as sea level rise vulnerability assessments, climate action plans, and Local Hazard Mitigation Plans. Hilary partners with community-based organizations in frontline communities and has extensive experience convening stakeholders and presenting to a variety of audiences, from neighborhood groups to boards and commissions.

Job Titles:

• Scientist
• Science Analyst

James is an atmospheric climate scientist and python wizard supporting regional climate modeling and analysis of existing and future extreme storms, such as atmospheric rivers and bomb cyclones. James analytic skills support Pathways ability to communicate future climate risks. James is a PhD candidate (on leave) at the University of California Berkeley, and an Engineering in Training (EIT) with a background Civil and Environmental Engineering, including environmental fluid mechanics and numerical modeling. He is experienced in data analysis, visualization, and predictive modeling, and proficient in multiple coding languages including. Through his academic experience he has , developed strong collaboration skills and he enjoys communicating about his research to technical and lay person audiences. His PhD research focused on meso- to micro-scale coupled simulations of flow over complex terrain, and he is bringing these skills to our current collaboration with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory looking at how atmospheric rivers and extra tropical storms throughout the Bay Area will change with a warming climate.

Job Titles:

• Director, Science Policy and Engagement

Juliette is an oceanographer, focused on marine and climate science policy, specializing in translating complex science into usable and accessible information for all audiences. Juliette is an oceanographer, focused on marine and climate science policy, and stakeholder engagement. Dr. Hart has led research on oceanic carbon and nitrogen cycling, coastal resilience, and climate adaptation for 20+ years. She specializes in translating complex coastal and climate science to make it useful, usable, and accessible for all audiences. This includes developing web-based and written guidance documents, convening engaging in-person and virtual workshops, and presenting to community-based organizations, executive leadership, and many others in between. Juliette currently serves as a contributing author on the Coastal Effects chapter for the Fifth National Climate Assessment and served as a contributing author on the Coastal Effects chapter for the Fourth National Climate Assessment. She was an invited author and research contributor for CA Fourth Climate Assessment.

Job Titles:

• Environmental Scientist With Expertise in GIS
• Environmental Scientist, GIS and Data Analyst

Katie combines python, GIS, and web tool integration to develop custom web applications, interactive online maps, and dashboards to distill and communicate an arsenal of complex information to decision makers and the public. Katie is an environmental scientist with expertise in GIS and data analysis for complex earth science and water resource challenges. Katie has a broad range of experience using python and ArcGIS Pro to develop customized applications, such as extracting information from aerial and satellite imagery, populating appropriate attributes based on specific criteria, and developing interactive online maps and dashboards to communicate information to decision makers and the public. She has extensive experience with the ESRI suite of tools, including geoprocessing and spatial analysis tool kits, and is highly skilled in using the Google Earth Engine for analysis of remotely senses imagery and data sets.

Job Titles:

• Consultant, Environmental Data Scientist

Lindsay's expertise spans sustainability, biodiversity, conservation, groundwater, green energy, and environmental policy. Lindsay excels at complex data analysis that communicates climate and flood risk and supports recovery efforts. Lindsay provides support to Pathways as an environmental data scientist with expertise that spans sustainability, biodiversity, conservation, groundwater, green energy, and environmental policy. Lindsay uses both qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods, best-practice statistical approaches, data processing in Python, and data analysis and visualizations using ArcGIS. Lindsay excels in developing data analysis approaches that meet the needs of the project team as well as decision makers.

Job Titles:

• Marine Geographer and GIS Analyst

Job Titles:

• Resilience and Flood Risk Specialist

Maryellen is a climate resilience and floodplain management specialist, with a focus on flood risk assessments, communicating climate risks, and developing adaptation pathways to support long-term risk reduction. Maryellen is a resilience expert with a focus on flood risk assessment, communicating climate risks, and developing adaptation pathways to support long-term risk reduction. She thrives in collaborative, pioneering projects and environments. Her background is in water science and flood modeling, including riverine, stormwater, groundwater, and coastal systems. She approaches every project with curiosity and the readiness necessary for the dynamic nature of this field. Maryellen has supported the Port of San Francisco's Waterfront Resilience Program since 2018. For the program's multi-hazard risk assessment, she served as a critical intersection point across a large, multi-disciplinary team, leveraging her geospatial skills and resilience expertise to support earthquake and flood risk assessments. She continues to support the program's adaptation strategy development efforts to address urgent risks and build toward long-term resilience. Maryellen seeks to shape and grow the adaptation field. She reaches across disciplines and cultural barriers, recognizing that there are always shared goals to achieve together. Through Pathways and on her own time, Maryellen participates in efforts to promote knowledge sharing and problem solving among resilience and adaptation practitioners, with an emphasis on the intersections with social justice.

Job Titles:

• Director, Innovation, Flood Risk and Climate Adaptation
• Water Resources Engineer

Mike analyzes global and regional scale climate datasets, creates customized tools, and translates best available science to inform climate resilience, risk reduction, and risk communication. Mike is a water resources engineer with 15+ years of experience leading climate change vulnerability and risk assessments, extreme hazard analyses, coastal and riverine flood modeling, watershed and stormwater management, and ecological restoration. His expertise is applied to both built and natural environments, including large-scale multidisciplinary projects supported by green and gray adaptation solutions that reduce flood risks and provide ecological and social equity benefits. Mike also has extensive experience analyzing large global-scale climate datasets and regional climate model simulations, and translating the best available climate science to inform climate resilience planning. Mike works at the intersection between academic and research organizations and end users who rely on the latest science to make informed decisions on future investments in infrastructure upgrades or flood protection structures. He communicates climate risks to decision makers, stakeholders, and public audiences through concise language and innovative visualizations, while acknowledging the uncertainties inherent in future climate projections. Mike is a native New Yorker and often leads Pathways work on the east coast, such as our recent project with the Water Utilty Climate Alliance, New York Department of Environmentmal Protection, and the Philidephia Water Department. He is also supporting the collaboration between NOAA and the American Society of Civil Engineers to develop updating building codes that increase resilience in reponse to a warmer climate. Outside of the office, Mike is in avid soccer player and enjoys snowboarding when the weather cooperates and provides enough snow for a good ski season.

Job Titles:

• Environmental Scientist and Anthropoligist
• Environmental Scientist and Sustainability Analyst With Expertise in GIS

Sierra is an environmental scientist and sustainability analyst with expertise in GIS and data analysis. Her anthropology background allows her to investigate the human connection between climate change and its impacts. Sierra is an environmental scientist and sustainability analyst with expertise in GIS and data analysis to address complex earth science and climate change challenges. Sierra has a broad range of experience using ArcGIS Pro and Online for spatial trend analysis and developing customized applications including interactive online maps and dashboards to communicate information to decision makers and the public. She has experience managing databases using multiple GIS software platforms, including Cartegraph and QGIS, and deploys an additional suite of tools to inform sustainability focused research and communications such as Google Earth Pro, Canva, SPSS, and Qualtrics. Sierra has experience in spatial data science pairing machine learning with remote sensing imagery and applies her background in sustainable environments, anthropology, and indigenous studies to climate-related issues.