Dr. C. Mark Eakin is Coordinator of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch, an effort focused on the monitoring of coral reef ecosystems through satellite, in situ, and paleoenvironmental observations. A coral reef specialist, with a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the University of Miami, Dr. Eakin has published on various topics in coral reef ecology, especially the impact of climate change and other disturbance on coral reefs.  This includes El Niño impacts on eastern Pacific coral reefs in coral reef ecology and carbonate budgets, thermal stress and coral bleaching, ocean acidification, oil spills, coral paleoclimatology, and the behavior of marine organisms. He co-chairs the US Coral Reef Task Force’s Climate Change Working Group and has briefed and testified before the US Congress on climate change impacts. He is a Councillor for the International Society for Reef Studies and member and advisor to the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.

I hold an MS in watershed hydrology and a BS in botany, with additional course work in mined land reclamation.  I was an environmental consultant for 22 years specializing in wetlands ecology, soil science, physical habitat, habitat restoration, T&E recovery work, and NEPA documentation.  More recently, I served as the Natural Resources Manager for a western Washington county.  Currently, I serve as Water Resources Program Manager for the Nooksack Indian Tribe near Bellingham, WA. I am particularly interested in the effect of climate change on glacier ablation and recession as it relates to the reduction of sustaining flows for spring Chinook salmon in the Nooksack River.

Here is my piece of CAKE. My main research interest is adaptation to climate change in water management. Based at the Centre for Water and Climate of Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands, my research is firmly rooted in the global change community branching out into institutional as well as biophysical aspect. My work seeks to identify robust land and water management strategies and opportunities to implement these strategies at the regional scale. My scientific background in water management, climate adaptation, environmental sciences and experimental physics is complemented by practical experience, working in the national government and the private sector.

I am a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering at the Open University of Sri Lanka.

My main areas of teaching and research and coastal hydrodynamics and sediment transport, coastal zone management, extreme events, water pollution and sustainable sanitation. 

I have also been involved in several inter-disciplinary intiatives including the Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) project (www.loicz.org) and the establishment of the Master of Development Practice at the University of Peradeniya (http://www.pdn.ac.lk/arts/econ/mdp/index.htm).

Dennis Carlberg, AIA, LEED AP is the Sustainability Director at Boston University working to move the University and its culture to greater resource efficiency and environmental responsibility. http://www.bu.edu/sustainability/  He is an architect with over 25 years of experience who began his career at the Solar Energy Research Institute conducting daylighting research to reduce building energy consumption and improve the indoor environment.

Dennis co-chairs the Sustainability Council at the Urban Land Institute – Boston, a council dedicated to exploring policies and solutions that address global climate change and which are both feasible and effective at the nexus of energy, land use, infrastructure and real estate. He also co-chairs ULI – Boston’s the Sea Level Rise committee developing programming to educate and motivate the Boston-area real estate community decision makers (private and public sector) on climate adaptation and ultimately achieve action from policy makers on these issues.

Field of Interests:

Conservation Biology in a Changing Climate

I was an elected official in Santa Cruz County, California for twenty years. Now, I am an environmental attorney, "Of Counsel" to the law firm of Wittwer & Parkin. To get my perspective on land use and planning issues, please listen to the Land Use Report that I give each weekday morning on KUSP Radio, covering land use policy issues on the California Central Coast.

Stan Bronson is a sixth generation Floridian, born in Orlando, with undergrad education done at Florida Southern College and grad work done at Florida Atlantic University and the University of Florida.  Spending most of his career in the citrus industry, 14 years of which was COO of Callery-Judge Groves, in 1999 he joined the extension faculty of the University of Florida, developing a natural resources education program for South Florida ecosystem restoration initiatives. That program has evolved into the Florida Earth Foundation, begun in January 2002.  FEF is a public-private partnership of over 70 agencies, universities, industries and not-for-profits, whose mission is to “put people together through education, outreach and facilitation to ensure the environmental integrity of Florida and quality of life.  Bronson now serves as Executive Director of Florida Earth, which administers Florida’s only permanent program with the United Nations, the UNESCO-IHE/Florida Earth Partnership and USNC, the US-Netherlands Connection Program, which is a knowledge exchange between the US and the Netherlands on climate change adaptation and water management.  Coming from a ranching family who supplied the land for Disney World in the 60’s, Stan’s love of the land has always been an inspiration throughout his career.

The Adaptation to Climate Change Team (ACT) brings leading experts from around the world together with industry, community, and government decision-makers to explore the risks posed by top-of-mind climate change issues and identify opportunities for sustainable adaptation.