Book Talk | Jesse M. Keenan | North: The Future of Post-Climate America

Join the Institute for Public Knowledge on Tuesday, February 17 (5:30-7:00 PM) for an event with Jesse M. Keenan. He will discuss his book, North: The Future of Post-Climate America, with Amy Chester and Robert Freudenberg. 

Jesse M. Keenan is the Favrot II Associate Professor of Sustainable Real Estate and Urban Planning, Director of the Center on Climate Change and Urbanism, and Director of the Climate Change Science and Practice program at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana (USA). Keenan’s research focuses on the intersection of climate change adaptation and the built environment, including aspects of applied science, policy, and planning. Keenan formerly served as the Director and Area Head for Real Estate and Built Environment on the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Design; Fellow of Science, Technology and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; and as the Research Director of the Center for Urban Real Estate on the faculty of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. Keenan has served as a member of the IPCC and three consecutive U.S. National Climate Assessments; led climate research teams at the Federal Reserve and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; served as an advisor on climate policy for the Governors of California and Massachusetts; testified and briefed Congress on various climate- related issues; served as Chair of the U.S. Community Resilience Panel for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems under the Obama White House; and has served various federal details, including as a Senior Economist at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers where he supported interagency climate and national security activities, including the development of the National Resilience Strategy and the U.S. National Adaptation Plan. Keenan’s books include Blue Dunes: Climate Change By Design (Columbia University Press, 2017), Climate Adaptation Finance and Investment in California (Routledge, 2018), and North: The Future of Post-Climate America (Oxford University Press, 2025).

Amy Chester’s career spans municipal policy, community engagement, real estate development, and communications advocating for the built environment. As the Director of Rebuild by Design, Chester’s first task was to lead an international design-driven competition that utilized a truly inclusive and collaborative process to create implementable large-scale infrastructure projects to address the physical and social vulnerabilities exposed by Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast United States. The process resulted in $930 Million in awards from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to implement the winning designs, that now have over $4.5 Billion of investment. Under her leadership, Rebuild by Design transformed the competition’s collaborative approach into an organization that helps governments and communities replicate its success for a variety of scales in locations around the world to address challenges such as climate change, transportation, housing, community collaboration and equity.  Locally, Chester is  responsible for the research and strategic direction that led to New York State’s $4 Billion Environmental Bond Act for climate resilience and ecological restoration, as well as founding the NYS Adaptation Practitioners Network for professionals to share best practices. Previously, Chester worked for NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg as Chief of Staff to the Deputy Mayor for Legislative Affairs and as a Senior Policy Advisor. In these roles she was responsible for the public engagement strategy of PlaNYC, which included initiatives such as the Million Trees Campaign, congestion pricing, and the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan. Chester’s other experiences in New York City government have included positions at the New York City Council, where she successfully ensured the inclusion of affordable housing in large-scale neighborhood rezonings, and at the New York City Housing Authority, where she created development plans to build the Harlem Children’s Zone’s school, and to redevelop a block of non-traditional public housing. Outside of government, Chester’s accomplishments include overseeing the development of a medical home for the Freelancers Union, crafting a democratic process which brought together 5000 New Yorkers for a one-day event to determine the future of the World Trade Center Site called Listening to the City, launching the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance through M&R Strategic Services, and working on numerous electoral campaigns including Hillary Clinton’s winning NYS Senate and Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. Outside of her responsibilities at Rebuild by Design, Chester is a co-founder of  Resilience PAC – created to educate and elect candidates who prioritize climate resilience – and has taught at Syracuse University’s School of Architecture. You can read Amy’s published opinion pieces here.

Robert Freudenberg is vice president of RPA’s energy and environmental programs, leading the organization’s initiatives in areas including climate mitigation and adaptation, open space conservation and park development, and water resource management. He oversees a comprehensive program of projects and policies to improve public health, quality of life, sustainable development and climate resilience in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan area. Rob works closely with other RPA staff to integrate these objectives with RPA’s economic, transportation, land use, design and community development initiatives. Rob has been with RPA since 2006 and most recently served as New Jersey director, where he managed the state program with a focus on sustainability planning and policy. He led projects including developing an arts and revitalization plan for Paterson and a neighborhood revitalization plan for East Camden; producing an economic and land use study for a future bus rapid transit corridor in Union County; advancing regenerative design efforts in the New Jersey Highlands; and facilitating land use and urban design recommendations and leading local demonstration projects for the 13-county Together North Jersey effort. Prior to joining RPA, Rob served as a coastal management fellow at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where he focused on policies for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Rob holds a master’s of public administration in environmental science and policy from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs and a bachelor’s in environmental biology from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.