Director, Climigration Network
Kristin Marcell is an adept program designer, coordinator, and director with more than 14 years of experience managing partner networks and assistance programs. A key focus of Kristin’s work is building collaborative capacity with communities and governments to develop innovative approaches to technical, funding, outreach, marketing, and decision-support challenges and to create global models for climate resilience.
Based in Moses Lake, Washington, Kristin is the Director of the Climigration Network, an entity devoted to addressing the difficult questions of when and how communities should consider managed retreat or relocation to adapt to the threats posed by climate change. The Climigration Network works with lived experience and professional experts approaching these questions from a variety of perspectives, including planning, engineering, the arts, funding, research, social work, government, spiritual, human rights, insurance, and property ownership, to grapple with managed retreat. The Network, hosted by CBI, is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Summit Foundation. Learn more here: https://www.climigration.org.
Prior to joining CBI, Kristin led the Climate Resilience Program for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservations’ (NYSDEC) Hudson River Estuary Program and Cornell University Water Resources Institute, where she coordinated and engaged with the DEC Office of Climate Change, state agencies, regional non-profits and key stakeholders in communities on regional and statewide climate adaptation research, policy and design.
Kristin holds a Master’s degree from Tufts University in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning and a Bachelor’s degree from Clark University in Biology. She also has served in local government, as appointed chair of the Environmental Conservation Commission and as a member of the Planning and Zoning Committee in the Town of Rochester, New York.