Karen Florini At CDI, Karen focuses chiefly on the impacts of climate-change-driven extreme weather on electoral systems in the US and around the globe, continuing the work she started during her Rockefeller Foundation residency at the Bellagio Center in April 2024.  She also serves as a Strategic Advisor with CChange Conversations, which provides people with non-partisan information on the science and risks of climate change.

Between 2017 and 2024, Karen held multiple leadership roles at Climate Central, a non-profit climate science research and communication organization that creates highly localized information on climate impacts and solutions.  Previously, she served as Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change at the State Department.  Earlier she spent more than two decades at Environmental Defense Fund, working on environmental health and on climate change. She earned a law degree at Harvard, but now regards herself as a recovering lawyer.  

Contact information: karenflorini@climatedemocracyinitiative.org