Joyce Coffee

Joyce Coffee, LEED AP, is managing director of the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index for global resilience, which promotes adaptation by identifying the places most vulnerable to extreme weather and changing climate and identifying real-world solutions that can prevent these changes from becoming disasters. Previously, she was vice president at Edelman where she provided strategic counsel to multi-national companies on corporate social responsibility and sustainability. She directed the City of Chicago’s Climate Action Plan, driving climate mitigation and adaptation efforts, and managed water and air resources in the City of Chicago Department of Environment. Coffee started her career in Asia with the World Bank and U.S. Agency for International Development’s U.S.-Asia Environmental Partnership.

Joyce is a board member of the American Society of Adaptation Professionals and was a founding board member of the Alliance for Water Efficiency and a Great Lakes delegate to Brookings International Young Leaders Climate Change Summit. She is a Chicago Council on Global Affairs Emerging Leader and an Aspen Institute Socrates Fellow and has been appointed to Illinois FARM. She received a B.S. in biology, environmental studies and Asian studies from Tufts University and a Masters in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the author of the Climate Adaptation Exchange Blog and resides in Chicago, USA with her husband and son.