We’re pleased to announce that Dr. Jairo Garcia, a leader in urban climate change and health, will be a featured speaker during the 2025 Conference

Dr. Jairo Garcia is an expert in urban sustainability and climate change. As the former Director of Climate Policy with the City of Atlanta, Dr. Garcia led the development of the first citywide Sustainability Report and the first city’s Climate Action Plan. Dr. Garcia is the CEO of Urban Climate Nexus, the North America Curator for United Nations Habitat, Visiting Lecturer at Johns Hopkins University and The Georgia Institute of Technology, and was selected by the IPCC to work as a Subject Matter Expert in the pre-scoping Special Report on Climate Change and Cities.

Dr. Garcia received the Individual Climate Leadership Award from the EPA in 2017, the Green Ring Award by Former Vice-President Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project in 2018, and the Excellence in Climate Leadership Award by the American Public Health Association Center for Climate, Health, and Equity in 2023 for his demonstrated an exceptional commitment to climate change research, communications, and activism.

His areas of research are in urban climate change mitigation, vulnerabilities, and resilience with a focus on urban heat and floods, food security, and public health.