Sarah Whitmee
Executive Secretary
Dr Sarah Whitmee is a senior postdoctoral researcher who works on a range of topics including planetary health, trade-offs in ecosystem services, the effectiveness of protected areas and the impacts of climate change on species distributions. She is also a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and is part of the WCPA/SSC IUCN Joint Task Force on Biodiversity and Protected Areas, an international collaboration on protected area management effectiveness.
Michael Grubb
Chief Policy Analyst
Michael Grubb is Professor of Energy and Climate Change at University College London (Institute of Sustainable Resources). In 2016, he moved from a role as Senior Advisor at the UK Energy Regulator OFGEM, to Chair the UK government’s Panel of Technical Advisors on Energy Market Reform. His former positions include Senior Research Associate in Economics at Cambridge University; Chair of the international research organization Climate Strategies; Chief Economist at the Carbon Trust; Professor at Imperial College London; and head of Energy and Environment at Chatham House.
Lucien Georgeson
Policy Advisor
Lucien Georgeson is a Policy Advisor with the Secretariat of the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health. He is also a contributing author to Working Group II of the Lancet Countdown on Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change.
Lucien has recently conducted research as a postdoctoral researcher at University College London on the green economy and adaptation to climate change. His recent publications include articles on adaptation in megacities (Nature Climate Change), climate and weather information services (Science Advances), climate change adaptation and health (The Lancet), clean energy R&D (Nature), the green economy, and the Sustainable Development Goals (both Geo: Geography and Environment).
Ian Bateman
Expert – Environmental & Economic Analysis
Ian J. Bateman is Professor of Environmental Economics and Director of the Land, Environment, Economics and Policy Institute (LEEP) at the University of Exeter, UK. He also holds professorships in Australia and New Zealand and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit award (awarded 2011 for five years) and is a Member of the H.M. Treasury and UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Natural Capital Committee. He is also a Member of the Board of Directors of the UK Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the Environment Agency Long-Term Investment Scenarios Development Group and the NERC Strategic Programme Advisory Group.
Mark Schulman
Communications Specialist
Mark Schulman has 20 years of writing and editing experience, focusing on international environmental, economic and development issues. He has been a senior editor at the World Economic Forum in New York and was the managing editor at WWF International in Geneva, Switzerland. Mark worked many years as a writer and editor for the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, a publication of the International Institute for Sustainable Development Reporting Services (IISD-RS), covering UN environment and development negotiations and meetings. He has also done communications work for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Environment Programme (UNEP), UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP).
Advisors
Latha Swamy
Senior Advisor to the Chair
Latha Swamy joined the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization in October 2016 as the Senior Advisor to the Chair of The Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health, Dr Ernesto Zedillo. She also advises on the centre’s Universal Health Coverage Steering Committee as it develops a Charter for Equitable and Sustainable Universal Health Coverage. Her work broadly examines the relationship between environmental degradation and human health. Latha’s research also explores the linkages between health systems strengthening and access, tropical resources, food justice and security, gender equity, and post-colonialism in the midst of global environmental change – particularly their effects on those living in poverty, and innovative solutions that challenge the resulting systems of oppression.
Former Secretariat Members
Sam Bickersteth
Executive Director
Sam Bickersteth joined the Oxford Martin School as Executive Director of the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health in February 2018.
Sam was Chief Executive of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) from 2011 to 2018. CDKN is a global alliance of southern and northern organisations delivering innovative solutions for climate compatible development in developing countries. It has supported over 1,000 technical assistance, research and knowledge management projects in 70 countries in the areas of climate policy, planning, finance, climate-related disasters and international negotiations.
Matthew Neidell
Chief Economist, Health
Matthew Neidell is an Economics Professor at Columbia University, where he holds faculty positions in the Mailman School of Public Health and The Earth Institute. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Research Fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) and the Developmental Core Chair of the Columbia Population Research Center.
Matthew received his PhD in Economics from UCLA, and was a post-doc at the University of Chicago prior to joining Columbia. He has held visiting positions at the European University Institute and the Property and Environment Research Center. He serves on the Environmental Economics Advisory Board of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Scientific Advisory Board, and previously served on the Institute of Medicine’s “Study on an Oral Health Initiative.”
Joshua Graff Zivin
Chief Economist, Environment
Joshua Graff Zivin is Professor of Economics at UC San Diego, where he holds faculty positions in the School of Global Policy & Strategy and the Department of Economics. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Research Director for International Environmental and Health Studies at the Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) and Co-Director of the UCSD Global Health Initiative. In 2004-2005, he served as Senior Economist for Health and the Environment on the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Prior to joining UCSD in 2008, he was an Associate Professor of Economics in the Mailman School of Public Health and the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, where he served as the Director of the PhD Program in Sustainable Development.
Jennifer Cole
Public Health Policy Advisor
Jennifer Cole joined the Oxford Martin School in August 2017 as Public Policy Health Advisor to the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health. She previously worked at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), where she ran the Resilience and Emergency Management programme from 2007-2017. This covered policy research on the UK’s emergency preparedness and response capabilities, with particular regard to pandemics, flood management and CBRN(E). During her time at RUSI, she ran projects on topics that included the security of the UK’s pharmaceutical supply chains; the safety and security of radiological materials in India’s expanding healthcare sector; potential threats to the UK from antimicrobial resistance (for which she was shortlisted for the Lloyds Science of Risk Prize in 2013); and UK support to overseas health crises.
Montira Pongsiri
Senior Science Policy Advisor
Montira Pongsiri is a Senior Science Policy Advisor with The Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health. She is also a Visiting Scientist at the UN Environment Asia-Pacific Regional Office in Bangkok, where she helps UN agencies in the region to incorporate environmental change-health issues into their strategic planning and activities.
Montira was the first Science Adviser at the US Mission to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), leading the mission’s efforts to develop and apply science and technology to support ASEAN’s sustainability goals, and to strengthen the capacity of science-based policy-making.
Philippa West
Administrative Assistant
Philippa West is the Personal Assistant to the Executive Director of the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health. Prior to joining in 2017, she worked within the educational and charity sectors in the UK and Spain. In addition to teaching English, Philippa’s background includes editing, proof reading, translation and copy writing. She has a BA in Spanish.