I'm a weird blend of scientist, policy wonk and wannabe filmmaker, still hopelessly idealistic for transformative change. I find collaborative spatial planning, policy and human behavior solutions to potentially high-conflict wicked problems - as a global change and climate scientist, systems and policy analyst, conservation biologist, environmental and societal futurist, sustainability risk and resilience strategist, climate bioadaptation science-policy analyst, writer, editor, mentor, professor and film co-producer.
I'm an inveterate team-builder and try everywhere to accelerate and deepen science-policy impact. I have 26 years of deep experience, founding and leading programs and teaching across southern and eastern Africa and North America. In 2017 I returned to the USA and was founding CEO of the lively new Stable Planet Alliance, a dynamic global coalition of respected and determined organizations and experts. I'm also Affiliate Full Professor at the University of Washington (Center for Environmental Politics and School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences), and Research Associate at the University of Cape Town (African Climate and Development Initiative and the Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology), and a co-producer and journalist at Transmediavision USA. I'm a core coauthor of the World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency and co-lead on World Scientists' Warnings into Action: Local to Global, guiding implementation of our six recommended areas of action (energy, pollutants, nature, food, population and economy) and in 2023, World Scientists' Warning: the Behavioural Crisis Driving Ecological Overshoot. From 2018-2021 I was Chief Science and Policy Officer and strategist at Conservation Biology Institute, working on biodiversity early warning systems, green economic recovery, climate migration and displacement, managed coastal retreat planning, and triple-whammy episodic events, and Exec Director of the Pacific Biodiversity Institute. Before that, I set up and ran national programs in Namibia and South Africa on biodiversity, climate and environmental futures for 25+ years. Contact me at phoebe.barnard@stableplanetalliance.org.
When not working, I climb mountains and volcanoes, run in the forests, develop a community victory garden, and go adventuring with my groovy husband, filmmaker John Bowey, our puppies and family when they visit.
