On Tuesday, April 14th at 11am EST, CityLinks will be hosting a free interactive webinar to introduce the new CityLinks Primer on Subnational Approaches to Low Emission, Climate Resilient Development. We are excited for Dana Kenney, Joshua Gallo, Margaret McKenzie, and Liz Strange to join us for a one hour panel discussion followed by an audience Q&A. You can register for this exciting hour here.

 

Joshua Gallo, Senior Municipal Finance Specialist at the World Bank since 2000, leads the World Bank’s global City Creditworthiness Initiative and various country-specific technical assistance programs (in particular Tanzania, Uganda, Colombia, Malawi). He’s also Program Manager for the Multi-Donor City Creditworthiness Partnership. Previously he was Program Leader for the Sub-National Technical Assistance (SNTA) Program under the Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF), as well as Program Manager for the Norwegian Trust Fund for Private Sector and Infrastructure (NTF-PSI). He was posted in long-term assignments in Peru and Tanzania. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Economics and Law from the Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

 

Dana Kenney is a climate change and energy expert with over 25 years of professional climate change and energy experience, including 12 years in developing countries. She is the former Chief of Party/Team Leader for the Low Emission Development Strategies (EC-LEDS) Clean Energy Program in Georgia funded by USAID/Caucasus. Previously, she managed activities in the Philippines and Jamaica focused on low emissions growth and clean energy development. Prior to this, she analyzed emissions reductions, as well as other environmental and trade impacts, of green building rating systems and product certification programs for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Standards and Conformance sub-committee (SCSC) and developed recommendations on promoting water and clean energy efficiency investments in Jordan. For almost 10 years she managed staff, as well as designing and managing USAID projects, including programs supporting energy policy analysis and clean energy investments. Ms. Kenney also served as the Climate Change Coordinator for 2 USAID missions, with responsibility for linking energy, forestry and agriculture programs to climate change, including budgeting and reporting emissions reductions.

 

Margaret McKenzie has an MSc in Environment and Development from the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa and has eighteen years of experience working in the environmental and sustainability sector and six years of experience working directly on climate change projects. Margaret is currently the Director of Urban Earth and is based in Durban, South Africa. Key sustainability work she has done over the years includes acting as the local project officer for the Durban Industry Climate Change Partnership, project leader of the process to develop the Durban Climate Change Strategy, strategic advisor to the KwaZulu-Natal Sustainable Energy Forum, and manager of the Imagine Durban Project. Margaret is also part of a project team supporting the implementation of the Durban Adaptation Charter, a global charter through which local government can commit to climate action. In addition she facilitated the process that lead to the development of the Central KwaZulu-Natal Climate Change Compact and has provided support to a range of events promoting a climate change partnership between Durban and Dar es Salaam.

 

Dr. Elizabeth Strange, Moderator, is an environmental scientist specializing in climate change impacts, mitigation, and adaptation, and the integration of climate knowledge into development activities. She earned MS and PhD degrees in ecology from the University of California, Davis and has over 15 years of professional experience designing, implementing and evaluating projects on the environment, ecosystem services, and climate change. Most recently, she contributed to USAID’s Climate Change Resilient Development and Asia Regional Environmental Field Support contracts and led an Asian Development Bank project on climate change vulnerabilities in countries of Central and West Asia. She currently works as an independent consultant in Washington, DC.