Bio

Carolyn Kousky is Associate Vice President for Economics and Policy at Environmental Defense Fund. Dr. Kousky’s research examines multiple aspects of climate risk management and policy approaches for increasing resilience. She is the author of Understanding Disaster Insurance: New Tools for a More Resilient Future and an editor of A Blueprint for Coastal Adaptation. She has published numerous articles, reports, and book chapters on the economics and policy of climate risk and disaster finance and she is routinely cited in media outlets. She is the vice-chair of the California Climate Insurance Working Group, a member of the Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance at the U.S. Department of Treasury, a member of the High-Level Advisory Board on the Financial Management of Catastrophic Risks at the OECD, a non-resident senior fellow in the Brookings Metro program, a university fellow at Resources for the Future, a non-resident scholar at the Insurance Information Institute, and a member of the Roundtable on Risk and Resilience of Extreme Events at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She was previously Executive Director at the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also directed the Policy Incubator. She has a BS in Earth Systems from Stanford University and a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University.