Carbon pollution from cars, power plants, and deforestation has heated the Earth, altering global climate. Scientific research shows that this human-caused climate change is damaging the ecosystems and threatens the cultural resources of World Heritage Sites. Yet, recent progress on sustainable actions offers hope for the future.

National Park Service managers discuss observed historical changes and future risks to natural and cultural resources in US World Heritage Sites.

Moderator: Dr. Amber N. Wiley
Panelists: Allison Young, Dr. Joseph Kellndorfer, R. Grant Gilmore III, Ph.D.

Allison Young is the Integrated Resources Program Manager at San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. The Integrated Resources Division stewards the park’s natural and cultural resources through advocacy of best practices, ensuring compliance with law and policy, facilitating scholarship and research, and maintaining records and databases of information. The program works with partners in landscape scale stewardship efforts. Allison is originally from Kansas City, Missouri. She earned a B.A. in Archeology and History from the College of Wooster and an M.A. in Anthropology with a specialization in Professional Archeology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She began her career with the National Park Service as an Archeological Technician at the Midwest Archeological Center in 2011. She earned her first permanent position in the agency as the Park Archeologist at Ozark National Scenic Riverways in 2013. In 2019, Allison moved to Washington D.C. to serve as the Section 106 Coordinator for the National Capital Regional Office. She very happily relocated to San Antonio, Texas in January of 2023 for the position at San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.

Dr. Joseph Kellndorfer is President and Principal Scientist of Earth Big Data LLC. His research focuses on monitoring and assessing terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and disseminating Earth observation data products to researchers, resource managers and policy makers to improve decision making and support capacity building. He is a distinguished visiting scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center and currently serves on various expert working groups within NASA, NOAA, the Japanese Space Agency JAXA, and on the NISAR Science Team to advance the use of remote-sensing technology for natural resource mapping and monitoring. He founded Earth Big Data LLC in 2015 to provide scalable solutions to modern data-mining challenges. Dr Kellndorfer is a Senior Member of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society and a Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow.

Dr. Richard Grant Gilmore III is a distinguished archaeologist and Director of the Historic Preservation and Community Planning Program at the College of Charleston, where he holds the Addlestone Chair in Historic Preservation. With over thirty years of experience across the United States, the UK, and the Caribbean, Dr. Gilmore specializes in 17th- and 18th-century archaeology and heritage management. He is deeply committed to efforts that mitigate climate change impacts on cultural heritage wherever these are manifest. Gilmore was recently elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries London for his lifetime dedication to heritage issues.

Panel 2: Climate Change Resilience and Adaptation – as seen in U.S. World Heritage Sites

Managers are developing resilience measures to conserve natural and cultural resources under future climate change.

Moderator: Kate Montague Perry, JD
Panelists: Dr. Victoria Herrmann, Jennifer Posner, Jennifer Browning

Jennifer Posner is the Director of Programs at the University of Miami’s Climate Resilience Institute. In this role, she supports the creation of strategies and collaborations to enhance UM’s interdisciplinary, problem-driven research and education and to promote Miami as a leader in delivering solutions to climate change impacts and other environmental stressors in partnership with industry, government, universities, and other stakeholders. Jen has extensive experience as an urban planner shaping physical planning and policy initiatives that enhance neighborhood livability, sustainability, and equitable access. Through her work overseeing affordable housing and resilience initiatives as Senior Manager for Policy and Programs at the University of Miami’s Office of Civic and Community Engagement, Jen has managed the creation of accessible tools and policy initiatives that explore the impacts of climate change on Miami’s vulnerable communities and the stability of its affordable housing stock. Previously, Jen spent nearly a decade with the New York City Department of City Planning where she led the agency’s policy and planning work for several large-scale initiatives in Brooklyn and helped to execute the agency’s strategic planning vision. Jen received a Master’s degree in City & Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia.

Jennifer Browning is a Senior Director at the Pew Charitable Trusts, where she leads Pew’s US Conservation program aimed at conserving biodiversity and enhancing climate resilience for both people and nature. Previously, she headed Pew’s initiatives to safeguard coastal and marine ecosystems in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean, as well as to promote sustainability in U.S. fisheries by managing forage fish and reducing bycatch. Before taking on her current role, Browning was a senior officer in Pew’s strategy department, responsible for strategic planning within the organization’s environmental portfolio. Prior to her tenure at Pew, Browning served as executive director of Bluestem Communications, a nonprofit specializing in environmental communication that collaborates with other nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies to develop campaigns and behavior-change strategies. She was also president of Quercus Consulting, an environmental education, program development, and management consultancy.

 

Panel 3: Carbon Solutions and Sustainability – Reducing the Cause of Climate Change 

Protected areas and their visitors can reduce the carbon pollution that causes climate change through energy efficiency, renewable energy, and reducing waste.

Moderator: Dr. Arleen Pabon
Panelists: Stephen Tryon, Eric J. Lopez, Megan Brown

Since 2009, Eric J. Lopez has been the Historian of the San Juan National Historic Site, part of the National Park Service, which includes castillos San Felipe del Morro and San Cristóbal, Fort San Juan de la Cruz, El Cañuelo, and a large part of the historic wall of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Lopez completed his doctoral degree in 2019 from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus with the thesis: From Spanish Stronghold to U.S. Military Reservation:  Strategies and Transformations of the Militarized Landscapes of San Juan, Puerto Rico.  He has published several articles on military and sports history in newspapers, books, and magazines. Among them, On fortifications and armaments in the defensive system of San Juan, for the Puerto Rican Genealogy Magazine Hereditas in 2018. Essays such as Sports and Recreation in Puerto Rico: Notes for its study and Sports in the Second World War in Puerto Rico were published, the first, in the book, The Sports Homeland, edited by Carlos Mendoza Acevedo and Walter Bonilla Carlo in 2018 and the second, in the text entitled, Puerto Rico in the Second World War: The Regional Scenario, edited by doctors Jorge Rodríguez-Beruff and José L. Bolívar-Fresneda in 2015.

 

Megan J. Brown has worked at the National Park Service for 20 years, starting as a Grants Management Specialist, spending 10 years as the Certified Local Government (CLG) Coordinator, and now serves as the first female Chief of the State, Tribal, Local, Plans & Grants division located within the Cultural Resources Directorate of the National Park Service in Washington, DC. She is responsible for the management of the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) and the average $200 million that it now disburses. Annual funding is provided to States, Tribes, and Certified Local Governments, as well as competitive programs like: Underrepresented Communities, African American Civil Rights, Save America’s Treasures, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.  With a staff of 23, the division works hard to provide the outreach and grant funding necessary to enable our partners to carry out the programs outlined by the National Historic Preservation Act and funded by the HPF.

Panel 4: Climate Change – The Role of World Heritage Sites in Communication and Education 

World Heritage sites bear witness to climate change and offer a platform to communicate impacts and solutions.

Moderator: Monica Rhodes
Panelists: Julia Washburn, Dr. Lee Lines, Donna Graves

Dr. Lee Lines is a Professor of Environmental Studies at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. He earned his Ph.D. in Geography from Arizona State University in 1995. Lee’s teaching and research interests are focused on physical geography, climate change, national parks, sustainable development, and climate change communication. In recent years, he has taught field-based courses in California, Washington, Costa Rica, and Panama. Lee’s most recent fieldwork explores the wide-ranging impacts of climate change on public lands in the United States.

 

 

Donna Graves is an independent historian/urban planner based in Berkeley, CA. She develops interdisciplinary public history projects that emphasize social justice and sense of place. Graves has developed multiple award-winning projects that bring increased social justice and inclusion to urban landscapes through a variety of creative methods: films, publications, exhibits, public art, reuse of historic sites, permanent interpretive projects, new urban design elements, and development of a new US national park. She is focused currently on how heritage can be a tool for climate action and developed History & Hope for Climate Action: An Interpretive Toolkit (2024) for the National Park Service. She has lectured widely and taught about inter-disciplinary approaches to developing public history projects, and new ways of thinking about cultural heritage conservation. Her recent work has been published in The Public Historian,Change Over Time and Columbia University’s Issues in Preservation Policy series. Graves holds an M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA and an M.A. in American Civilization from Brown University. She was a 2022 Fulbright Specialist in the UK and was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in 2010.

Panel 5: Climate Change – National Policy and World Heritage Site Action 

Advocacy for new national policies and site-level actions can help protect World Heritage for future generations.

Moderator: Thomas Cassidy
Panelists: Kristen Brengel, Jenny Parker, Amy Gilbert Fehir

Kristen Brengel has over 20 years of experience working to ensure National Park Service laws and policies are upheld and implemented to best protect all national park units. Kristen leads NPCA staff on public land conservation, natural and cultural resource issues, and park funding. She co-led two successful legislative efforts to increase park funding—the Great American Outdoors Act and the National Park Service Centennial Act. She has worked to establish new park units including Katahdin Woods and Waters and Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality. National Monuments. From recreation management to fighting damaging development, Kristen is passionate about conservation and historic preservation to ensure future generations can enjoy our parks.

 

Jenny Parker is the Program Manager for the Cultural Resources Climate Change and Appeals Program within the National Park Service (NPS). She has 17 years of prior experience with the NPS, where she reviewed applications for the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program and developed guidance related to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards like the Guidelines on Flood Adaptation for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings. In her current role, Jenny is coordinating and leading projects to develop policy, resources, and guidance related to the stewardship of cultural resources with vulnerabilities to climate change. She is also the Chief Appeals Officer for the Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program.

Amy Gilbert Fehir serves as the Executive Director of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, a public lands-focused membership organization of current and former National Park Service (NPS) employees. In her role, she oversees the planning and execution of membership, fundraising, advocacy and communications activities. Beyond her role with the Coalition, Amy has served in various partnership and fundraising roles, including time spent at the Mark Foundation, the Milken Institute, the United Nations Foundation, and Conservation International. She has provided strategic guidance to non-profits and companies focused on scaling their business development activities and building operations. Beyond her non-profit experience, from 2005-2011, Amy worked as a seasonal NPS Ranger at Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial. She has served in a variety of roles focused on global health and international development. In 2008, Amy worked at the World Health Organization on World Health Day, which was focused on climate change’s impact on health. Amy received her B.A. from Boston University in Political Science and Public Health and an M.P.S. in Political Management from George Washington University.