Meet the team

Rachael is the CEO of Climate Outreach. She works closely with the board to ensure effective governance and growth of the organisation and with our senior leaders in defining and delivering the organisation’s overall strategy, goals and impact.

Rachael has spent her career in the voluntary sector in leadership roles combining a deep commitment to social justice and to public engagement. She has run campaigns for Shelter, led programme and campaigning work at Oxfam and currently serves as Chair of Trustees at the Refugee Council.

It was in her last role, leading a network of housing associations, that Rachael really appreciated the huge gap in public awareness and engagement on climate change – and the huge opportunity to fill this gap. Housing, like many sectors, is in a race to decarbonise, and the sector is still really developing its approach to community, resident and public engagement. Rachael firmly believes that Climate Outreach is uniquely placed to help many sectors fill this gap.

Rachael is a mum to two young children so most of her spare time is spent playing schools or superheroes – and tidying up. She spends any time she gets to herself running, cycling and going to the theatre.

Noora is Climate Outreach’s Deputy CEO. She leads on organisational development and business strategy of Climate Outreach and works closely with the board and other senior leaders.

Noora is from the Maldives – one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world due to the country’s natural land scarcity and low-lying geography. Having experienced how people and communities are adapting to climate change, Noora is passionate about having an inclusive conversation about how we tackle climate change as a global community.

After Business and Law School, she started her career at Financial Ombudsman Service (UK). She has worked in charities, co-operatives, and ethical finance in the UK. Through her diverse career experiences, she has developed a passion for organisational behaviour, transformation and leadership and has completed the Executive Leadership programme at Oxford University, Saïd Business School. She is always looking for innovative ways of working to facilitate teams to create impact.

Her first language is Dhivehi and she tries hard not to forget her Sinhalese from the days when she lived in Sri Lanka. In her free time, she loves to spend time with her friends, read and go for walks.

Lauren is part of the Communications team at Climate Outreach, working to share insights and materials to support government, organisations and individuals engage a wide range of people with climate change. Lauren has worked in communications for a number of years across energy, science and consultancy landscapes.

Lauren holds a Master’s in Climate Change from King’s College London, a highly multidisciplinary degree pulling from both physical and social sciences. Her thesis explored the role of gender in peer-group perceptions of climate scientists’ media statements, and was published in 2021. With a love of environmental sciences and psychology, working in communications to further climate action is a perfect combination of her interests and experience. She believes using evidence-based techniques to engage diverse stakeholders is key to tackling climate change.

In her spare time, Lauren enjoys trying new things (successfully or unsuccessfully), the outdoors, and reading.

Alvin joined Climate Outreach in July 2021 and is our Head of Finance. He is responsible for managing our finances, ensuring strong financial control, and helping to scale up our systems and processes that will support our growth plans. He has 25 years of experience in senior finance roles within large organisations, predominantly in the mineral extraction and construction materials industry.

Whilst Alvin originally trained as an accountant, he also holds an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies. After some travelling in southeast Asia, he became increasingly interested in the close interconnections between climate change and development. This led to postgraduate studies in Climate Change and Development at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Alvin lives with his family on the Kent coast. He can often be seen enjoying some long cycle rides through the Kent countryside and beyond.

Rose manages Climate Outreach’s science communication programme (maternity cover) – supporting scientists, researchers and experts on public engagement with climate change. She came to Climate Outreach from the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) where she managed the centre’s comms and engagement activity. She previously spent several years in public engagement roles at the University of Exeter, Sustrans and the Wildlife Trusts plus a 6 year stint in the education department at Bristol Zoo.

Passionate about the natural world, Rose was becoming increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress on global environmental issues and undertook a PgCert in Sustainability and Behaviour Change at the Centre for Alternative Technology in 2020. She loves trying to understand what makes people tick and the best ways to inspire meaningful change.

Jenny is coordinator and assistant researcher for our Advocacy Communications work, focusing on providing civil society campaigners with knowledge and tools to help them engage diverse people on climate change. She has over fifteen years’ experience working in the community, environmental, and arts sectors, specialising in designing, managing and delivering projects and processes that facilitate dialogue, exchange and action around ecological and social challenges.  She is co-founder of School Farm Community Supported Agriculture, where she spent 6 years as the Education and Outreach Coordinator.  Prior to working at Climate Outreach she worked as a Creative Associate and Project Manager with arts organisation, Encounters, and as the Coordinator of Transition Town Totnes, a charity focused on collective action to radically reduce energy and material use and build community resilience.

Jenny studied Environmental Geography and International Development at the University of East Anglia, leading to an interest in human scale development and post development approaches.  In her spare time, she loves to read, spend time outdoors, organise with others, and to explore new stories we could live by.

Increasingly concerned about climate change from the mid 1990s, Steve could not understand why almost no-one around him shared his concern. Climate Outreach public events from 2005 were addressing this problem, which led to him being active in local climate action groups and taking an interest in building energy use.

Steve worked for the Potato Council for 25 years, providing an information and knowledge transfer service to potato growers. He took redundancy when the organisation relocated to Warwickshire in 2009, which provided opportunities to volunteer for Climate Outreach and to study for MSc Architecture: Advanced Environmental and Energy Studies at the Centre for Alternative Technology.

In late 2011, Steve stepped in to provide part-time support for Carbon Conversations at Climate Outreach, and stayed on as a volunteer. At the same time he trained as a Domestic Energy Assessor and in 2013 began working for a local family firm carrying out energy assessments on new dwellings, and advising architects and builders. Now semi-retired, he continues to work part time as both a volunteer with Climate Outreach and as an energy assessor.

Emma joined Climate Outreach in December 2021 as a Researcher. This role focuses on helping to design and disseminate quantitative and qualitative social science research for various climate communicators including Local Authorities and Grassroots Campaigners. Emma is excited to combine research with public engagement as she loves learning from data and sharing climate change knowledge in a way that inspires action.

Emma completed an MSc International Environmental Studies degree at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Her thesis investigated the use of information as a policy instrument to encourage climate relevant behaviour. A BSc Physical Geography degree at Lancaster University and interning with the British Columbia Council for International Cooperation to research the SDGs are also part of her background. More recently, Emma worked on a climate change programme in local government.

Outside of work, Emma enjoys playing basketball and has played for National, University and Local leagues. If not playing basketball, Emma can often be found walking her dogs!

Alastair is Climate Visuals Advisor. With a background in photojournalism, he is particularly interested in how you tell stories through photography, and how viewers interact with photographs.

Prior to joining Climate Outreach Alastair was a picture editor at The Times and The Sunday Times newspapers, working on domestic and international news photography. Before this, he trained in photojournalism at the London College of Communication and worked as a newspaper photographer.

Alastair is happiest when taking photographs and riding bicycles, often at the same time, ideally up a hill.

Gurpreet is the Engagement Advisor at Climate Outreach (maternity cover) working on the Climate Engagement Initiative.

Gurpreet comes from the tiny island-state of Singapore and grew up hearing how a rising sea-level could be disastrous for the country. Being a feminist and a human rights advocate, she then decided to explore the gender – human rights – climate connections in her PhD thesis on postcolonial ecofeminism and literary narratives. During this period, she also had to confront her own health scare which was a direct result of complications surrounding endometriosis. 

After a long and painful battle with endometriosis, which resulted in her being in a wheelchair for 5 years, she ultimately pivoted her focus to international human rights law. She now also raises awareness on endometriosis and disability, and the disproportionate impact it can have on women’s careers and life opportunities. More recently, she has been using her life experiences in exploring the interconnectedness of climate justice, endometriosis and the pink tax. 

In her free time, Gurpreet can be found watching Netflix, and when the fancy strikes, solo-travelling. To give her racing thoughts some sort of structure, she writes.

Léane leads on disseminating our insights and resources in a way that creates the biggest impact possible. She started her career as a Marketing Manager for Johnson & Johnson, before deciding to become a history teacher. She was asked to teach an Environmental Studies class without any previous experience in the subject, and learning and talking about climate change with her students completely changed her worldview. She has since dedicated herself to public engagement with climate change, working for the David Suzuki Foundation and now Climate Outreach.

Léane’s life has been evenly split between Canada, France, the UK and the US, with a bit of time in Hong Kong and Argentina. She is a native speaker of English and French, speaks Spanish and is currently learning Mandarin. She holds a Master’s degree in Environment and Management (Canada) and an MBA in Marketing (US) as well as undergraduate degrees in Education (Canada) and Humanities (France). In her spare time she can be found climbing mountains, kayaking, reading graphic novels and sometimes unicycling.

Abishek joined Climate Outreach in August 2020 and is a part of the organisation’s project management team. He has 9 years of experience working in the Indian development sector, operating across domains such as capacity building, organisation development & social sector consulting, helping NGOs ramp up their reach & operations. 

Having experienced the impacts of climate change in his home country (India) first-hand, Abishek is keen to be a part of the solution to the global climate crisis by sensitising people to the gravity of the challenge. He holds an MSc in Climate Change, Development, and Policy (UK), and an undergraduate degree in Management Studies (India). 

Abishek grew up in a multicultural home and can speak three Indian regional languages. Outside of work, Abishek is most often found trying to balance his love for food with his love for training and playing sports.

Luisa joined Climate Outreach in September 2021. In her current role as Researcher, she enjoys designing and analysing research and turning empirical data into actionable insights.

Her first experience of climate change action was on a youth exchange with an Indonesian partner church, in which participants developed playful ways of engaging primary school students in Germany and Indonesia in pro-environmental behaviours.

After graduating with an MA in Sustainable Development and an MSc in Migration Studies, Luisa supported the Sector Project on Migration at the German development agency (GIZ). She then worked at St Antony’s College as a Research Manager for the Europe’s Stories project and PA to Timothy Garton Ash. As part of this, she co-authored a chapter on young Europeans’ views on free movement in the EU.

Luisa is a German native and, in addition to English, is trying to revive her Indonesian, which stems from a year of living in West Papua. In her free time, she enjoys singing, playing the piano, hiking, and amateur rock climbing.

Fahmida is a Project Manager at Climate Outreach, helping deliver a range of the organisation’s projects. Fahmida has spent much of her career in the charity sector, her role at Media Trust saw her lead programmes of free training, mentoring, and resources for UK charities. She has also supported charities and newsrooms in embedding inclusivity and intersectionality into their storytelling to better reflect lived experience.

She holds a BA Hons in English, an APM Project Management Qualification and has completed a Level 4 Project Manager Apprenticeship.

Being a second generation British Bangladeshi, and with Bangladesh being a particularly climate vulnerable country, Fahmida has a deep interest in the intersections of racial and climate justice. Alongside work, she helps run Bangladeshi Diaspora Climate Action (BDCA), a network of UK Bangladeshi professionals leveraging their expertise to support climate mitigation and adaptation in Bangladesh and build climate awareness in their community.

You can also often find her painting, reading, or exploring London’s parks and food markets!

Siri is part of the Project Management team at Climate Outreach, ensuring the organisation’s diverse project portfolio stays on track. She draws from a range of disciplines in order to create and run projects that are inclusive, effective, and responsive to change. Her interests include feminist leadership, systems thinking, design thinking and agile project management, and much of her experience is in non-hierarchical environments. Siri has a Masters’ Degree in Global Environment, Politics and Society from the University of Edinburgh.

In her free time, Siri enjoys the Scottish outdoors near her home in Edinburgh, when she’s not visiting her family in Finland. She is an active part of the local art community and you can often find her juggling with fire, drumming, or organising performances around the city. Siri originally joined Climate Outreach as an Executive Assistant in September 2020; she is also a Trustee of Wellbeing Economy Alliance Scotland.

Working closely alongside our Deputy CEO, Noora Firaq, and the wider Climate Outreach team, Samuel supports our most-frequent tasks to ensure we can successfully focus on our ever-growing output.

With a childhood encased with rising talk of climate change and the severity at hand, Samuel pledged to focus his life’s efforts on making as much positive change as possible, sacrificing superficial personal desires to assist the future of humanity.

Samuel undertook a digital marketing apprenticeship, but owes most of his life’s learnings not from professional studies, but from engaging in conversation with people all around the world, whilst gaining exposure from different cultures, religions, and environments.

Having a key interest in all forms of design, Samuel runs ‘Clouted‘, his own website design business, and has also provided work towards sustainable industrial and fashion design projects worldwide.

On a day’s rest, you’ll find him either on a long walk surrounded by nature, reading a book, or playing chess.

David leads our Climate Engagement Lab, which helps communicators tell new climate stories. He also leads our work with the business community to help them engage the public effectively on climate change. 

David has nearly two decades of experience as a campaigner, communicator, researcher and strategist on environment and climate change. He’s worked as Head of Environment and Green Transition at the New Economics Foundation and senior campaigner on economics and resources at Friends of the Earth. He has a MA in English Literature, an MSc in Environmental Strategy, and a Graduate Diploma in Economics. He’s particularly interested in the intersection between systems change and individual psychology, and how to build campaigns that harness the deeply held concerns we all have about the climate crisis.

Outside of work he hosts the climate psychology podcast, Your Brain on Climate, and until 2022 was co-host of Sustainababble. He is also the chair of Somerset Wildlands, and spends whatever time there is left running and playing the sax.

Nameerah joined Climate Outreach as an Engagement Advisor working on Climate Engagement Initiative, an ambitious and multi-partner project that aims to influence the outcomes of the UNFCCC negotiations on Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE), and to support governments to strengthen their national public engagement initiatives.

She is also the founder of Women In Energy Pakistan, working to build a strong community of female professionals and foster a culture of career and leadership development.

With ten years of experience, Nameerah has worked in the nexus of energy and climate policy in the UK, USA and Pakistan. She formerly served as a Policy Specialist in the Government in Pakistan working on renewable energy and energy efficiency with development partners. She studied Energy, Resources and Environment at The Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in USA.

Alex manages the Climate Change and Migration Coalition – an alliance that exists to challenge the lack of long-term strategies to support and protect people at risk of displacement linked to environmental change. Before joining Climate Outreach, he worked at the Centre for Alternative Technology. He has also worked for the Public Interest Research Centre on their Values and Frames project. He co-founded Cheat Neutral, a spoof offsetting company, and UN Fair Play, an organisation that works with small island states at international climate change negotiations.

Raphene is Climate Outreach’s Executive Assistant, working closely with the Leadership Team and Board of Trustees to provide administrative support.

She developed her skill at providing efficient business support in both the private and non-profit sectors, including at a global fintech company, a private equity firm and a small faith-based charity. Working in a broad array of organisations revealed her passion for collaborating with a variety of people to drive solutions and increase organisational effectiveness. 

Raphene earned her BA in Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. Being immersed in the environment of a modern university with a highly international student body, her studies and the lived experiences of her peers highlighted the pressing reality of climate change. Through her role at Climate Outreach and her voluntary campaigning work with climate-focused NGOs, Raphene strives to make a positive impact.

Outside of work, Raphene enjoys gym classes and long walks in nature, travelling, eating out with friends and Jamaican food with loved ones. She has basic competency in French and is learning – much to the joy of her fiancé – Czech.

Martha joined Climate Outreach in 2018 as the Executive Assistant, moved to the project management team in 2020, and is now working in the Operations Department as the Organisational Development Manager – supporting Climate Outreach to grow sustainably within our organisational values. She is particularly passionate about developing and implementing systems that have wellbeing at the heart of them, while improving cross-team effectiveness and collaboration.

Martha’s background is in project management, executive coordination and supporting projects for local community organisations such as Good Food Oxford, Refill Oxford and Tandem Collective, as well as international NGOs such as the South African based Children’s Radio Foundation. It was while working at the Children’s Radio Foundation that she saw how providing a platform for people to tell their stories to their own communities can lead to social transformation.

Martha holds a BA in Geography from the University of Oxford and a Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainability and Adaptation from the Centre for Alternative Technology. She is a keen musician and plays cello, piano and accordion, and is a member of the collective, “Folkatron Sessions”.

Camilla Born is a political strategist, policy advisor and activist specialising in climate diplomacy, security and risk. She is committed to finding solutions for wicked problems. Her work addresses climate change as a systemic risk to our cultures, societies, economies and political systems. She is currently on secondment to the UK Cabinet Office as Deputy Director of Strategy in the COP 26 team. Prior to this appointment she supported the UK’s leadership role on adaptation and resilience at the UK’s Department for International Development and was a Senior Policy Advisor at E3G. She is also a Senior Fellow with the Stockholm International Peace and Research Institute (SIPRI) and the very proud Chair of Climate Outreach.

Susan is a London based lawyer and governance expert who is committed to making a difference in the world through purpose-led responsible leadership.

Susan is an experienced non-executive in the healthcare and charity sector, has held senior executive positions at Lloyds Banking Group, Monzo and Standard Chartered and ran her own business for several years as an executive coach. She is a current Fellow of the Forward Institute.

Outside work, when not spending time with her family, Susan sings jazz and latin music for fun, reads voraciously and loves weight-training and running.

Phil is the Executive Director of Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, a digital action platform that empowers human rights advocates in civil society, business, government; tracks the human rights performance of over 9,000 companies around the world; and seeks corporate accountability for around 550 allegations of abuse each year. The Resource Centre also presses for policy and practice that drive fast and fair transitions to zero carbon economies; uphold labour rights; and protect civic freedoms .

Phil was previously the Director of Campaigns and Policy at Oxfam, where he led global campaigns on climate justice, trade and investment for development, access to medicines, and major humanitarian crises. Phil worked for 11 years in Central America and Colombia working on human rights, especially indigenous rights, and broader economic justice.

Polly is an experienced family office and finance executive. She has extensive knowledge of the management of a family office, including governance, finance, technology, people, philanthropy and sustainability as well as direct emerging market investing and indirect global endowment investing. She is a seasoned board member, both from an executive and non-executive perspective, having sat on a wide range of commercial and non-profit boards. 

From 2017 to 2023 Polly was CEO of Oppenheimer Generations Custodian, and for the previous 12 years was CFO of its predecessor entity. The Oppenheimer Generations family office represented the global commercial, philanthropic, and family interests of the Nicky Oppenheimer family.  In this capacity, Polly represented Oppenheimer Generations on the boards of portfolio companies and non-profit organisations.  This included 18 years as a Trustee of the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, an education focused non-profit, and 4 years as a member of the De Beers audit committee.

Prior to joining the Oppenheimer family, Polly was the finance director, and a member of the executive and investment committees of Brait Private Equity, a leading private equity firm in South Africa. She qualified as a chartered accountant at Deloitte in London and became a partner in the financial institutions team at Deloitte in Johannesburg, specialising in private equity. Polly holds a BA in History from the University of Exeter.

Faiza Farooq is the treasurer trustee of Climate Outreach and is involved in the development of the financial risk management initiative within the organization. She is a career financial regulator, and risk consultant with a focus on capital risk management within the banking and investment firms markets. Her work has encompassed working with top banking sector organisations on regulatory issues ranging from consumer deposit protection to the impact of climate risk on banking business models.

Faiza is committed to working with financial and financial logistics organisations to address the impact of climate change risk on financial consumers. As part of her work, she works with financial institutions to understand the financial impact of climate change risk and understand long term strategic options to achieve net zero before 2050. Faiza has extensive experience as a Board effectiveness reviewer and is a seasoned risk manager. She has a passion for climate justice and management of the financial impact of climate change risk.

Faiza is a Pakistani/UK bi-national currently residing in London. She also works with diversity networks and engages senior stakeholders to ensure equitable outcomes and well-being initiatives for those in employment within the consulting sector. In her spare time, Faiza is a nail art and watercolour painting enthusiast, in addition to having trained as a hip-hop and belly dancer.

Ludovic likes to ride road bikes, routinely taste great wines and works (a bit) on food-waste reduction, forests (carbon capture) and diversity/inclusion initiatives. In his spare time, he is a Faculty member of the Said Business School at the University of Oxford, and heads the Finance Accounting and Management Economics group. He is also a Fellow at The Queen’s College.

Over the last twenty years, Ludovic has been actively researching the private equity industry. He has published about ten articles in leading academic journals on the subject, which have been downloaded nearly 100,000 times and cited more than 3000 times. His work has been featured in the media internationally (including The Economist, Financial Times, The New York Times). He has been fortunate to work directly with a number of large institutional investors regarding their private equity investment decisions as well as benchmarking systems. He has been teaching private equity for ten years to MBA/EMBA students, and developed a variety of executive education courses, including customized programs for leading consulting companies and asset managers.

Peter Morley is a senior leader in the Centre of Excellence at the active travel charity Sustrans. He is especially motivated by helping people choose travel methods that reduce private car usage. This includes the leadership of a portfolio of programmes that encourage societal behaviour change and deliver improvements in cycling and walking infrastructure. He is an experienced project, programme and portfolio manager and has a particular interest and experience in charity governance and risk management.

Before working at Sustrans, Peter led the commissioning social care services at a unitary authority. This was for diverse client groups such as women and children fleeing domestic violence, disabled and older people who need support to stay at home, child victims of sexual abuse and disabled children.

Peter also chairs the Board of Base 51, a charity that supports some of the most vulnerable young people in Nottingham through counselling, youth work, music, an LGBTQ+ support group and targeted work to minimise the risk from gang culture and knife crime.

In his spare time, Peter is a keen road cyclist and mountain biker, and he plays a variety of musical instruments in several groups.

Dr Ellie Murtagh is the UK Climate Adaptation Lead at the British Red Cross. Since starting the position in September 2022, she has been assessing the humanitarian climate related risks individuals and communities face, and will face, in the UK. The aim of the project is to identify where the British Red Cross can add the most value by supporting communities to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from the impacts of climate change. 

Prior to this Ellie worked for the Scottish sustainability charity, Sniffer, from 2017 – 2022 leading projects on public sector capacity building and climate finance, as part of the Adaptation Scotland programme. She holds a PhD from the University of Strathclyde, where her research explored decision-making tools and approaches for climate adaptation. 

In her spare time, she is an avid reader of second-hand paperbacks, enjoys lino printmaking, walks with her dog and spending time in her off-grid cabin in the South West of Scotland.

Dr Halima Sacranie is a housing researcher and completed her PhD in Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Birmingham in 2012. Halima has undertaken research around housing models, tenant engagement and wellbeing, sustainability in social housing, community investment and community-led housing. She has most recently been working at the University of Birmingham on a 4-year EU project applying the principles of the circular economy to social housing demonstration examples in the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Her work within the project has focused on tenant engagement and moving towards a socially inclusive circular economy. Halima is also a Research Fellow at Aston University, undertaking research around the impact of housing quality and neighbourhood conditions on wellbeing, and the impacts of harmful gambling on housing security. 

Halima has chaired the Housing and Communities Leadership Board at the think-tank Centre for New Midlands since July 2021. She believes in housing as a fundamental human right, and in the critical importance of sustainable, affordable and good quality homes on wellbeing, and providing the foundation for children to thrive. When not juggling research work around her 3 children and their busy schedules, Halima enjoys boxing and pilates, and loves visiting new places, especially with interesting architecture.

Zoe Leviston is a Research Fellow at the Australian National University. Her work applies social psychological theory to investigate how individuals, groups, and culture shape people’s responses to climate change and other environmental issues. She is especially interested in how group processes and social norms influence people’s attitudes and behaviours, and the role of collective action in ‘mainstreaming’ meaningful climate action.

Before commencing with the Australian National University in 2020, Zoe was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Edith Cowan University, and a research scientist at the CSIRO – Australia’s peak science body. She has worked alongside a variety of community representatives, Catchment Management Authorities, farmers, agricultural scientists, economists, atmospheric scientists, and a range of stakeholders from state and federal government departments.

Edward Maibach, MPH, PhD is a Distinguished University Professor and Director of George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication (Mason 4C).  At Mason 4C, Ed co-directs the Climate Change in the American Mind polling project (with Yale’s Anthony Leiserowitz), is the principal investigator of Climate Matters (a climate reporting resources program that supports TV weathercasters as local climate educators, produced in partnership with Climate Central) and provides strategic direction to the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health (an education and advocacy initiative that currently involves 29 national medical societies in the U.S.).

Ezra Markowitz, Ph.D.is Associate Professor of Environmental Decision-Making in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research and teaching focus on the intersection of decision-making, persuasive communication, public engagement with science, and environmental sustainability. He is particularly interested and expert in the practical application of behavioral science to improve individuals’ and communities’ environmental decision-making; he also has deep expertise in the field of climate change communication and public engagement.

He is the author of over four dozen peer-reviewed research papers, book chapters, and reports, including the 2015 Connecting on Climate guide to climate change communication. At UMass Amherst, Markowitz teaches courses on Environmental Decision-Making, Conservation Social Science, and Public Engagement and Communication for Scientists. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences, Studies & Policy and an M.S. in Psychology from the University of Oregon, as well as a B.A. in Psychology from Vassar College. Markowitz is also a Fellow with the FrameWorks Institute.

Saffron O’Neill is an Associate Professor in Geography at the University of Exeter, UK. Her interdisciplinary research explores the social science dimensions of climate variability and climate change, particularly in terms of climate change communication and public engagement. Her work examines the diverse places in which people experience climate change in their everyday lives: from personal attachments to valued places, to interactions on social media.

Her particular area of expertise is in the visual communication of climate change. Her research has explored climate imagery in different media, across nations, and over time; and what this means for how people engage with climate change. She supervises a fantastic group of PhD students who are all undertaking research in communication-related topics: from how climate change is communicated online, youth attitudes to climate change, communicating adaptation, to communicating about seasonal climate forecasts.

James Painter is a research associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University, a senior teaching associate at the Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography, also at Oxford, and an external collaborator at the LEAP project at the Oxford Martin School.  He has published widely on climate change in the media in several countries.  His current research interests include media portrayals of extreme weather events, animal agriculture and climate change, climate scepticism, and more widely on the challenges of climate journalism and the emergence of climate niche sites.

Linda Steg is professor of environmental psychology at the University of Groningen. She studies factors influencing sustainable behaviour, the effects and acceptability of strategies aimed at promoting sustainable behaviour, and public perceptions of technology and system changes. She is member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), and lead author of the IPCC special report on 1.5°C and AR6.  She participates in various interdisciplinary and international research programmes, and collaborates with practitioners working in industry, governments and NGOs.

Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh, MBE, is an environmental psychologist, specialising in perceptions and behaviour in relation to climate change, energy and transport, based in the Department of Psychology, University of Bath. She is Director of the ESRC-funded UK Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST). She regularly advises governmental and other organisations on low-carbon behaviour change and climate change communication, and is Lead Author for IPCC’s Working Group II Sixth Assessment Report. Her research projects have included studies of energy efficiency behaviours, waste reduction and carrier bag reuse, perceptions of smart technologies and electric vehicles, low-carbon lifestyles, and responses to climate change. 

Adam Corner is a writer and independent researcher who specialises in climate change communication and climate/culture collaborations. Adam worked with Climate Outreach between 2010-2021, helping to build the research team, developing Climate Visuals and Britain Talks Climate, and establishing the centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST). Adam has published widely on public engagement with climate change, from academic journals and reports for NGOs to media commentary (including for the Guardian and New Scientist). Currently Adam’s work is split between strategic climate communication projects (like the Local Storytelling Exchange), writing and contributing to reports, and developing the climate communication evidence base into music and cultural spaces.

George is the co-founder of Climate Outreach and now works as an independent consultant. He has 35 years experience at all levels of communications and advocacy – from community level protest movements, to senior positions in Greenpeace and the Rainforest Foundation, to advisory roles for governments, businesses and international agencies. He is an award winning documentary maker and writes regularly on climate change issues including articles for The Guardian, The New Statesman, New Scientist and The Ecologist.

He is also the author of two books, Carbon Detox (Hamlyn Gaia, 2007) and Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change, listed by Esquire as one of the ’15 essential books on climate change’. Go to George’s Wikipedia page for more information about him.

Niall joined the Climate Outreach team for an academic placement during his PhD at the University of Bath/Exeter and is now a Research Associate. His thesis highlights the consistent influence of efficacy beliefs for public engagement with climate change adaptation.

During his placement in the research team, Niall led on report writing for the Climate Communication in Practice and Mainstreaming Low Carbon Lifestyles projects. He led on national survey research about communicating climate health impacts, which underpinned a new health image gallery for Climate Visuals. Alongside this, he co-facilitated training workshops about communicating impacts and adaptation with the WI. 

Niall is currently working on a project about communicating heat risks with the Place Based Climate Action Network (PCAN)/LSE Grantham Institute. Separate from his climate change communication activities, Niall works as a social researcher for Defra.

In his spare time, Niall enjoys cycling and making music.

Susie is Research Associate at Climate Outreach, after working for the organisation as a Senior Research Consultant for a number of years. She has a background in environmental and social psychology, and comes to Climate Outreach after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, and her PhD at the University of Western Australia. 

Growing up in Australia, Susie was figuring out what to do with her life in the confusing context of the country’s acute vulnerability to climate change (extreme heat, bushfires, and drought) and politically polarised landscape of climate delay and denial.  For this reason, Susie is interested in the factors that lead people to feel close to climate change, particularly the role of emotions, identity and social connections. Her work spans climate change communications, imagery, pro-environmental behaviours, neuroscience, and behavioural economics. Aside from English, Susie also speaks Mandarin, and is attempting to learn Dutch. She is based in the Netherlands, where she enjoys making art, climbing rocks, and growing food in her backyard.

Chris was part of Climate Outreach’s research team from 2015 – 2023. In that role, he focused on ensuring climate communication practice is informed by a robust and up-to-date evidence base, combining new research with the existing literature to provide communicators with accessible resources to support their work. Chris’s work was driven by a belief that successful climate policies are ones that are shaped by the voices, concerns and aspirations of the people who live their lives outside of the policy and campaigning bubble. Chris completed his doctoral thesis as a mature student in 2011 at the University of Sussex, on the communication of climate risk, a theme he continues to publish on. 

In his previous lives Chris worked as a Geography teacher and then in marketing, always with the ultimate aim of learning how to engage people with climate change risks. Between completing his doctoral studies and starting work at Climate Outreach, Chris held research posts at the University of Sussex and the University of Oxford. Outside of office hours Chris can normally be found either smashing his tennis racket on the ground in frustration at yet another defeat, or wandering aimlessly on the South Downs and blaming inaccurate Ordnance Survey maps for being lost.

Briony was a Research Assistant at Climate Outreach for six months in 2021 as part of her PhD at the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST). She holds an MA in Climate Change: History, Culture, Society where she researched climate change communication and engagement with the older generation in England.

Briony comes from a creative background, having originally trained in Art & Design (Foundation) and Photography & Video. She worked in photography and retouching before moving into communications. She is now in the final stages of her PhD exploring universities and climate change, and also works as a research consultant, mainly on public engagement including projects with a creative focus. Outside of work, Briony can usually be found reading or spending time in the mountains fell running and hiking.