V. Kelly Turner (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Geography and also serves as the Associate Director of the Luskin Center for Innovation at UCLA. She leads the center’s research informing evidence-based urban design, planning and policy approaches to protect people from extreme heat.
Kimberly is the Policy Analyst for Senator Menjivar (SD-20), who represents the San Fernando Valley and Burbank. She is currently staffing SB 499, The Cool Schools Act, which will address the issue of hot ground surfaces on school campuses that impact the health and safety of students. In 2015, she was chosen as the CSUCI representative to serve in a Congressional office. Through the Leon Panetta Congressional Institute program she worked on Capitol Hill in the office of Congress Member Alan Lowenthal. She then served as the Policy and Communications Director for the California League of United Latin American Citizens, the oldest Latino/a/x civil rights organization, for over four years working on issues related to higher education, consumer protections, and civil rights. Kimberly graduated from California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI) with a Bachelors in Political Science and a minor in Chicano/a studies. She graduated as a Pi Sigma Alpha Political Science Honors inductee.
Existing law requires the California Public Utilities Commission to enforce rules governing the extension of service by electrical corporations, as specified. This bill would require the commission to provide guidance to electrical corporations for the prioritization of projects in each electrical corporation’s distribution interconnection queue and customer service connections, including that the project is shovel-ready, as … Read more
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to prescribe, by regulation, building design and construction standards and energy and water conservation design standards for new residential and nonresidential buildings. Existing law requires the commission to prescribe, by regulation, standards for minimum levels of operating efficiency to promote the use of energy-efficient … Read more
Existing law, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency responsible for monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming in order to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The act requires all state agencies to consider and implement strategies to … Read more
Braden Kay is the new Extreme Heat Program Manager in California’s Governor’s Office of Planning and Research. Recently, he was the founding Sustainability and Resilience Director for the City of Tempe in Arizona. Braden grew the office from one to six full-time employees, including building programs in youth climate action, energy equity, local food, and resilience to extreme heat. Braden received a PhD in Sustainability from Arizona State University and a BA in American Studies from Carleton College (MN). He was the Vice-chair of the Planning and Advisory Committee for the Urban Sustainability Directors Network and was the Chair of the Steering Committee of the Sustainable Cities Network. Braden currently serves on the Local Initiatives Support Commission’s Emerging Leaders Council, the International WELL Buildings Institute Advisory Board and is the co-chair of the Western Adaptation Alliance.
Please join us and the other members of The Climate Center Business Network for a breakfast networking event at SOMO Village’s beautiful new coworking space in Rohnert Park. Our speaker will be California State Senate Majority Leader Mike McGuire. A light breakfast will be served.
As climate change impacts begin to take hold, one of the immediate concerns has been extreme heat. In various parts of California and the West, extreme heat events have been occurring more frequently and with more intensity. Extreme heat plans, developed to mitigate negative impacts and adapt to this new heat reality, are being implemented … Read more
David Hondula is the Director of Heat Response and Mitigation for the City of Phoenix, Arizona. In that role, he helps coordinate and implement programs to protect people from dangerous summer heat and cool the city. Hondula joined the City in October 2021 following Phoenix City Council’s vote to create the country’s first publicly-funded local government office focused on heat. He was recognized as one of the Top 100 Influencers in Local Government in the United States in 2022. Hondula has been a faculty member at Arizona State University’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning since 2016, and has co-authored more than 90 peer-reviewed research articles, book chapters, and technical reports related to extreme heat, public health, and urban climatology. He earned a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia in 2013.
Last year, Governor Newsom set aside $40 million to in a fund to support displaced oil and gas workers and an additional $20 million for a pilot program to train displaced oil and gas workers in Kern and Los Angeles counties for abandoned oil well abatement. Facing a projected $31.5 billion deficit this year, the … Read more
