GovCon Wire
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Recorded on Thursday, November 18, 2021 1:00pm-2:30pm EST ON24
In the wake of the recent White House release of more than 20 federal government “Climate Adaption
and Resilience Plans,” the U.S. critically needs swift action and implementation to reduce climate change
risk and build sustainability. Please join Steve Ambrose, chief climate scientist SAIC, on November 18 for
a discussion with Michael Berkowitz, founding principal of Resilient Cities Catalyst, a non-profit created
to change the way cities plan and act in response to climate change. Mr. Berkowitz will share recent
success stories of climate resilience and adaption efforts in the U.S. and globally, as well as describe
future initiatives to enable communities to bring together diverse stakeholders to address vital issues
such as training the workforce and job creation related to climate change.
Stephen D. Ambrose has been a meteorologist, physical scientist, and program manager in his long federal and private sector career. He has directed teams and groups in the development of science and technology research and reapplications in Earth Science. He now serves as Chief Climate Scientist at SAIC. His research and application interests include: natural disaster reduction; climate data and information, and implications of a changing climate on people, ecosystems, and the planet. From 1978 to 2014 he worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service and antecedent agencies. After years of work related to meteorology, climatology, and oceanography at the National Ocean Service, National Weather Service, and the National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service, he joined the Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service as Director of the National Wetlands Inventory Center, from there he joined NASA as Program Executive for Disasters in the Science Mission Directorate encouraging applications of NASA’s cadre of satellite and airborne missions towards decision support systems for government and private industry. In 2008 he was awarded NASA’s Exceptional Achievement Medal for efforts responding to the nation’s weather and wildfire disasters. He retired from civil service in 2014 as NOAA’s Data Operations Manager in the development of their geostationary satellite ground system supporting satellite ingest and product generation. From 2014 to now, he worked in private industry as Program Manager and Director supporting NOAA, NASA, and the EPA missions in operations, research and development. This included working at NASA’s Center for Climate Simulation developing services to access downscaled climate information and working to utilize NASA’s supercomputer cloud services to support Arctic climate research. At NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, he led a program of over 50 specialists, analysts and scientists supporting the Climate Program Office, Sea Grant, the Weather Program Office, and the Uncrewed Systems Research office. In 2018, joining Woolpert, a geospatial and architecture firm, as Program Director for Government Solutions, he supported the firm’s work with critical infrastructure, natural disasters, GIS, and information systems. Lastly, joining General Dynamics Information Technology in late 2019, he led a group of scientists and engineers at the EPA supporting research and development in geographic information, environmental protection, chemical analysis, and disaster resilience. Now at SAIC he leads the growth of a climate program office supporting federal, industry, state, and local customers as well as utilizing SAIC’s deep experience in science and technology for solutions to benefit society. He received a B.S. in General Physical Sciences that included meteorology, geology, and astronomy from the University of Maryland in 1977, and did graduate studies in geography and climatology at the University of Maryland, Geography Department from 1981 to 1985.
Michael Berkowitz is a founding principal of Resilient Cities Catalyst a new global non-profit helping cities and their partners tackle their toughest challenges. Previously he joined the Rockefeller Foundation in August 2013 to shape and oversee the creation of 100 Resilient Cities. He served as the 100RC President from 2013 to 2019. From 2005 to 2013 he worked at Deutsche Bank, most recently as the global head of Operational Risk Management (ORM). In that capacity he oversaw the firm’s OR capital planning efforts, served as a primary regulatory contact and connected the myriad operational risk management efforts group-wide. He held multiple positions at DB, including Chief Operating Officer of Corporate Security, Business Continuity (CSBC) and Operational Risk Management, where he had responsibility for budgeting, operations, and global coordination across the group's six workstreams. During this time, he also served as the head of the Bank’s Protective Intelligence unit, designed to assess and analyze security and geo-political threats to the Bank, its staff, processes and information. Prior to December 2010, he was the CSBC head in APAC with responsibility for all business continuity planning and alternate site operations, as well as physical security, executive and event protection, fraud investigation and prevention, and cybercrime. Between 2005 and 2008 he had management roles for DB in Mumbai, India and New York, including leading the firm’s crisis management effort to the 2009 flu pandemic. Until January 2005, he was Deputy Commissioner at the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) in New York City. In this position he worked on major planning initiatives, including the New York City Coastal Storm, Biological Terrorism and Transit Strike contingency plans. At OEM, he led an initiative to create OEM’s Public-Private Emergency Planning Initiative and its Ready New York citizen preparedness campaign. He also responded to incidents including the 1999 outbreak of West Nile Fever, Tropical Storm Floyd, major flooding in Southern Queens (1999), the crashes of SwissAir 111 and American Airlines 587, the 2003 Northeast blackout, as well as the 2001 anthrax incidents and the World Trade Center disaster.
1:00pm - 1:05pm EST
Opening Remarks
1:05pm - 2:05pm EST
Fireside Chat/Q&A
2:05pm - 2:10pm EST
Closing Remarks
