Dr. Pablo Méndez-Lázaro works in the Department of Environmental Health at the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Puerto Rico. He leads science on Climate Change, Equitable Climate Adaptation, and Public Health. Trained as a geographer, Pablo expanded his transdisciplinary background by pursuing a master's degree in Marine Sciences, a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences, and a three-year Postdoctoral Fellowship in Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events at the University of South Florida-College of Marine Science and the San Juan Bay Estuary Program in Puerto Rico. He is the Chapter Lead for the ongoing Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) for the U.S. Caribbean. Currently, Pablo is the Lead Principal Investigator at NOAA CAP/RISA: Caribbean Climate Adaptation Network (CCAN).

Manuel is a dedicated and competent professional with a solid background in public health and gerontology, along with a passion for community development and health promotion. He holds a Master's in Public Health from the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, with practical experience and specialized certifications, reflecting a commitment to continuous learning and professional growth. With extensive experience in community settings, Manuel has demonstrated exceptional competence in health promotion, project development, and implementation. As a Project Coordinator at the Primary Health Services and Socioeconomic Development Corporation El Otoao, Manuel led the development and implementation of a Community Health Promoters project aimed at underserved communities in rural areas. He ensured effective coordination of project staff, implemented intervention plans, and facilitated educational workshops, thus making a tangible contribution to community well-being. Additionally, he has actively participated in advisory roles, such as Community Technician at the Puerto Rico Community Foundation, where he provided invaluable guidance in community preparedness initiatives and proposal development processes. Manuel is motivated by a deep commitment to fostering healthier communities through collaborative efforts and innovative approaches to problem-solving.

Dr. Mimi Sheller is the inaugural Dean of The Global School at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. She was a Professor of Sociology, Head of the Department of Sociology, and founding Director of the Center for Mobilities Research and Policy at Drexel University in Philadelphia. She holds an A.B. in History and Literature from Harvard University and a master's and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the New School for Social Research. Dr. Sheller has researched the cultural history of the Caribbean for over 25 years and has published extensively in the fields of mobilities research, Caribbean and Haitian studies, and on mobile media, public space, climate justice, and infrastructure. Her books include *Island Futures: Caribbean Survival in the Anthropocene* (Duke University Press, 2020); *Mobility Justice* (Verso, 2018); *Aluminum Dreams* (MIT Press, 2014); *Citizenship from Below* (Duke University Press, 2012); *Consuming the Caribbean* (Routledge, 2003); and *Democracy After Slavery* (University Press of Florida, 2001). Her partner is an artist and woodcarver who enjoys cooking and mushroom foraging. They have two daughters. She enjoys reading, traveling, biking, hiking, swimming, sea kayaking, and sailing around the coastal islands of Maine. She is not a good cook but loves Caribbean food. She’s not a good dancer, but she loves Caribbean music!

Dr. Patricia Chardón-Maldonado is a coastal and civil engineer with 6 years of experience in coastal morphodynamics, oceanographic and meteorological modeling, and the design of coastal risk mitigation alternatives. Chardón-Maldonado earned her Bachelor's in Civil Engineering and Master's in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, and a Ph.D. in Coastal Engineering from the University of Delaware. Dr. Chardón-Maldonado currently serves as the Technical and Deputy Director of the Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System (CARICOOS; https://www.caricoos.org) and co-leads the design and implementation of CARICOOS' observation and numerical modeling components. She has participated in multiple research projects measuring, analyzing, and modeling climate, weather, coastal characteristics/processes, and their impacts on socio-ecological systems, infrastructure, and communities in the U.S. Caribbean region. Chardón-Maldonado is enthusiastic about promoting a consistent, well-integrated, and sustainable approach to coastal risk management in Puerto Rico, as well as maintaining a healthy, resilient, and sustainable ocean and coastal resources for the benefit of present and future generations. She is addicted to the ocean and the adrenaline it brings; it's her place for swimming, paddleboarding, diving, sailing, and surfing.

Dr. Frank E. Müller-Karger is a Professor at the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida (USA). As a biological oceanographer, Dr. Müller-Karger’s research focuses on how marine ecosystems change over time. He assesses the connections between water quality, primary production, and biodiversity in coastal marine environments, and how these may be linked to climate change and human activities. Müller-Karger is a co-leader of the U.S. and international Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON), the Marine Life 2030 program supported by the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, and the NOAA Climate Program Office/Sanctuaries Climate Indicator Task Force. He has published more than 340 peer-reviewed articles. He is the recipient of the 2021 William T. Pecora Award (Individual); he is a Fellow of the AAAS; and he has served on the U.S. Ocean Policy Commission.

Professor González-Cruz is a SUNY Empire Innovation Professor at the University at Albany's College of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, the Chief Scientist of the Urban-Coastal Environmental Research Group (CUERG), and a Presidential Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the City College of New York (CCNY). He earned his Ph.D. (1994) and Bachelor's (1988) in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, respectively. His teaching and research focus on urban energy sustainability and resilience, urban climate and meteorology, and regional climate modeling and analysis. Professor González-Cruz holds several patents in solar energy equipment, solar desalination systems, aerosol detection, and energy forecasting for buildings. He was recognized as an outstanding young researcher by the National Science Foundation with the prestigious CAREER Award. He has authored or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, presented hundreds of papers at conferences, and his research has attracted over $50 million in external funding. He is a Fellow Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and former Vice Chair of the Urban Environment Board of the American Meteorological Society. In 2015, he was appointed by the Mayor of New York City as a Member of the Climate Change Panel for the City of New York, and more recently, he was appointed as a Senior Scientist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and a Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. He is a co-editor of the ASME Handbook of Integrated Sustainable Building Equipment and Systems and in 2019 was appointed as the Founding Editor of the newest ASME Journal of Engineering for Sustainable Buildings and Cities.

Dr. Stephen Hughes is a Professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez (UPRM). He obtained his Bachelor's degree in Earth Sciences in 2009 and his Ph.D. in 2014 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. At UPRM, he teaches courses in Structural Geology, Geomorphology, and Field Geology, in addition to conducting research primarily related to tropical landslides and landscape evolution. His projects have been sponsored by groups such as the NSF, the Science, Technology, and Research Trust of Puerto Rico, USGS, USDA NRCS, and NOAA. He also collaborates on landslide-focused initiatives with colleagues from mainland academic institutions and involves students at all levels in research and outreach. Hughes is the principal investigator of the Storm-induced Landslide Impact on Environment and Society in Puerto Rico (SLIDES-PR) initiative.

Masoud Ghandehari is a professor at the Civil and Urban Engineering Department of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and an associate professor at the Center for Urban Science and Progress at NYU. His research focus is on urban systems engineering and the application of advanced instrumentation and data analysis aimed at aging, health, and performance of infrastructure systems. Through sensor application and modeling, he works on methodologies that generate data on the interaction of physical, natural, and human systems in cities. His research in optical spectroscopy, sensors, imaging, and data analysis has led to the development of applications and technologies suitable for diverse environments and multiple scales, from molecular to urban landscapes. Professor Ghandehari is the author of "Phenomenology and Optical Applications: Health Monitoring for Infrastructure Materials and the Environment, 2018," a founding researcher of the New York State Resilience Institute for Extreme Climate Events, and founder of Chromosense LLC, supported by the National Institutes of Health for environmental sensor innovation.

Seth has been part of the Division of Interdisciplinary and Global Studies since 2002, serving as a professor, advisor, and co-director of project centers. He is the co-director of the Boston Project Center and was the co-director of the Bangkok Project Center from 2011 to 2018. He enjoys exposing students to contemporary issues in environmental and public health policy formulation, challenging them to apply emerging research ideas to practical applications. He loves sharing his curiosity with students about how people are affected by different technological and natural systems. The desire to link research and practice has been a central part of Seth's work since he earned his Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Policy from Clark University in 1996. Seth's research interests have focused on risk governance, public participation, long-term management of contaminated sites, and the development of tools to characterize human impacts and vulnerabilities to risk events. He has conducted research primarily with colleagues from the Institute for Social and Environmental Research, in a wide range of policy areas, focusing more recently on climate change adaptation planning, cleanup of sites in the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, and nuclear waste management. A common thread throughout his work has been empowering communities to participate more effectively in risk management. Seth was a member of the Federal Advisory Committee on Energy-Related Epidemiologic Research, which provided guidance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on health studies derived from programs in the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, and chaired its Community Affairs Subcommittee for 2 years. The role of this subcommittee was to bring the voices of community residents into deliberations on health study designs and public health responses to contamination from nuclear weapons facilities. He also served on the National Academies Committee on Nuclear Fuel Transportation and High-Level Radioactive Waste, the Standing Committee on Chemical Demilitarization, and the Committee on Alternatives for the Demilitarization of Conventional Munitions.

Carlos, a native of Puerto Rico, earned his Bachelor's degree in Geology from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez in 1993. He completed his Ph.D. in Watershed Sciences at Colorado State University in 2004. In 2013, Carlos joined the faculty of the Department of Geography and the Environment and the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His research areas include watershed sciences, hydrology, and applied geomorphology, with a focus on the Insular Caribbean and Latin America. His work has a strong environmental component, addressing how human modification of landscapes for urbanization, agricultural production, or recreation affects their hydrological behavior, resulting in accelerated soil erosion, degraded water quality, and impoverished habitats like coral reefs. He has served as a principal investigator and collaborator on several projects funded by NOAA, NASA, NSF, the National Parks Service, and the National Wildlife Federation in the Eastern Caribbean, and has authored articles in journals such as Scientific Reports, Water Resources Research, and the Journal of Geophysical Research, among others. His current work focuses on characterizing the magnitude and geomorphological impacts of tropical cyclones in the Caribbean and providing technical assistance to communities affected by water scarcity issues driven by climate change in Latin America.

Kim Waddell is the project leader for the upcoming Update of the Risk Mitigation and Resilience Plan for the US Virgin Islands, with the support of FEMA and the Virgin Islands Emergency Management Agency (VITEMA). He is also the Principal Investigator and Program Director of the Virgin Islands Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (VI-EPSCoR), a research capacity development program supported by the National Science Foundation and based at the University of the Virgin Islands. This program focuses on land impacts on the health and function of marine ecosystems in times of Climate Change, as well as STEM education research and opportunities for underrepresented minority students from K-12 to master's degrees. Before that, Kim was a Senior Program Officer at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dr. Waddell served as study director for over a dozen National Academies reports on agriculture, fisheries, and other natural resource management topics. Kim earned his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of South Carolina and his bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. For fun, Kim enjoys hiking on remote island beaches and fishing. He also loves good street food and soca music!

Dr. Guannel is the Director of the Caribbean Green Technology Center at the University of the Virgin Islands, whose mission is to improve resilience, climate adaptation, and sustainable development in the US Virgin Islands. The center's work primarily focuses on issues related to the resilience of civil and coastal infrastructure, renewable energy technology and policies, and water resources management. Dr. Guannel holds a Master's in Public Works from the Ecole Supérieure des Travaux Publics (Paris, France), a Master's in Coastal and Oceanic Engineering from Texas A&M University, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Oregon State University.

Reza Khanbilvardi, a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of New York, has been the NOAA Professor of Civil Engineering and the founding Executive Director of the CUNY Institute for Earth Systems Science and Environmental Remote Sensing (CUNY-CREST) at the City University of New York since 2010. He also served as the founding Director of a NOAA Cooperative Science Center, NOAA-CREST (2001-2016), and NOAA CESSRST (2016-2021). He has been the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal for Water (InderScience Publications) since 2011. Dr. Khanbilvardi has extensively collaborated with agencies such as NOAA, NASA, NSF, USAID, UN, USDA, and CRDF. Dr. Khanbilvardi earned his Bachelor's in Civil Engineering, followed by Master's degrees (Environmental Engineering) and a Ph.D. (Civil Engineering/Water Resources), along with a Post-Doctoral award (Water Resources) from Pennsylvania State University in 1980, 1983, and 1984, respectively. His research interests include Satellite-Based Remote Sensing Applications in Hydroclimate, Hydrology, and Earth Processes; Climate Impacts on Water Resources and Climate Adaptation; Surface Water Hydraulics and Hydrology; Monitoring and Mapping of Urban Flash Floods; and Snow Water Equivalent Studies. He has authored or co-authored over 210 publications with an extensive track record of conference presentations. Dr. Khanbilvardi has served as principal investigator and co-investigator on numerous research grants totaling over $98 million sponsored by various agencies such as NOAA, NASA, NSF, USAID, US Department of Education, New York City Department of Environmental Protection, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and others.

I am a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez. I teach courses in agricultural hydrology, agroclimatology, and irrigation. My research interests include the measurement and modeling of all components of the hydrological cycle, remote sensing of water and energy balance in the tropics, and agroclimatology.