Financing and Funding Equitable Adaptation

Finance Panel

Join us May 6th to hear from expert panelists on how to finance and fund equitable adaptation. Learn about strategies for building a state-local climate resilience financial system that includes bonds, a local pipeline, policies to enable local funding and other criteria and mechanism to build social equity through climate finance.

This presentation is one part of the 2021 Virtual Local Solutions: Climate Preparedness and Communities of Practice Conference sponsored by The Island Institute and NOAA. This presentation is available at no-charge. Pre-registration is required.  

Joyce Coffee LEED AP

President, Climate Resilience Consulting

Joyce Coffee LEED AP is founder and President of Climate Resilience Consulting, a social enterprise that works with clients to create practical strategies that enhance markets and communities through adaptation to climate change. Coffee has 25 years of leadership experience in government, private, nonprofit, philanthropic and academic sectors. She has worked with over 200 institutions to create and implement climate-related resilience strategies. Specific areas of emphasis include resilience strategy, resilience finance, resilience measurement and social equity. She is an appointed director or chair of over ten nonprofit boards and initiatives. She received a B.S. in biology, environmental studies and Asian studies from Tufts University and a Masters in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Bola Kushimo is a senior analyst on the Southwest Local Government Ratings Team located in Dallas. She is responsible for credits in Oklahoma and Texas. Prior to joining Moody’s, Bola worked for AmeriCredit Financial Services in Arlington TX. Bola holds a Masters in Public Administration from the University of North Texas, and a Honors B.S. in Psychology from University of Texas, Arlington.

Deb Markowitz is the Director of the Massachusetts Chapter of The Nature Conservancy.  Deb spent most of her career in public service. She was elected Vermont’s Secretary of State six times, serving from 1999-2011. In 2011 Deb was appointed Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR), where she served until 2017. At ANR, Deb shaped the state’s environmental agenda, focusing on climate change, forest health and integrity, and water quality. She served on the boards of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the Transportation Climate Initiative, and represented Vermont on the White House Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience, and at the United Nation’s Conference of the Parties on Climate Change in Paris and Marrakech.