From the Acting President
Change is really slow... until it isn’t These are extraordinary days at Woodwell Climate Research Center. Change is everywhere, driven by our mission, our sense of urgency, and by the world around us. I have been a scientist at Woodwell Climate since 2005, but I write this letter in my new role as Acting President and Executive Director, which began in August 2021. I’m in this position because our president for the past seven years, Dr. Phil Duffy, is on leave to serve as Senior Advisor for Climate Change in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. This is a great honor for Phil and a remarkable validation of Woodwell Climate’s mission–doing innovative science and using it to drive policy action. I’m honored to be in this position, and grateful to our staff, our board, and our friends for their support. Stepping in while Phil is away is no easy task, but I’m confident that we’ll keep our momentum charging forward until he returns. Below I provide a few examples of some of the changes that are underway inside Woodwell, and how these changes will lead us to even greater impact globally. When Phil became Woodwell’s President in January 2016, our staff numbered about 50. Today we are at 82, and by the time Phil returns next August, I anticipate that we’ll be approaching 100 employees. Due to the pandemic, much of our workforce is now remote, and there have been silver linings including a greater on-the-ground presence in places like Alaska and Brazil. We don’t yet have a clear vision of what our post-pandemic workforce will look like, but I’m sure it will be much more global than it was before. Not only are our staff numbers increasing, but our staff demographics are shifting as well. Over the years, Woodwell has had a roughly equal balance of male and female employees, but there have been about twice as many men as women on the science staff. This has changed dramatically in the last five years. Currently 70% of our employees are women, including 60% of our science staff and 40% of our principal investigators. We still have a lot of work to do regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion, but I find these recent numbers to be surprising and encouraging. During periods of rapid growth, demographic change can be rapid as well. Thus, as we continue expanding over the coming months and years, we will have the opportunity to make additional progress on other axes of diversity. Our mission is global. A diverse staff, with varied perspectives and lived experiences, helps us to achieve it. As with our staff, our budget is also growing rapidly. In just the past eight months, Woodwell Climate has received the three largest awards in our 36 year history. As a result, our annual budget will at least double over the course of just a few years. This is not a coincidence. Instead, it is a reflection of Phil’s leadership, the remarkable capacity of our scientific and support staff, and of course, the generosity of our donors. also is a function of the world around us. Climate change is here and now. It has arrived with a fury, It and that reality is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. That, clearly, is bad news. If there is a silver lining, it is that more and more people, including policy-makers and those within the philanthropic
Fall 2021
Climate Science for Change
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