This two-day course is being offered for the second time as part of the Coastal Training Program's "Climate Adaptation Series." This training will help you:

• Apply the basic elements of an adaptation planning framework to organize future preparedness efforts;
  
• Translate climate science into impacts on local community assets;
  
• Practice a qualitative approach to scope and compile a vulnerability assessment, and describe how to apply the results;
  
• Identify, compare, and prioritize locally relevant adaptation strategies and actions;
  
• Describe implementation options for different strategies;
  
• Recognize the importance of stakeholder involvement in adaptation planning and demonstrate the applicability of engagement processes and tools.
  

Instructors:  Dani Boudreau is the Senior Resilience Specialist at GHD, where she is catalyzing strategic partnerships between nonprofits, academia, governments, and the private sector to implement innovative adaptation strategies. Specifically, Dani is leading interdisciplinary collaborations linking resilience planning to multi-beneficial projects that advance nature-based solutions. Over the last decade her work has led to cutting-edge approaches for integrating evolving climate science into actionable decision-making. Previously she worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve, where she founded and led the Resilience Initiative to link leaders, scientists, and communities to the best-available adaptation planning tools and management practices."

Gwen Shaughnessy brings a background in marine biology and non-traditional education to NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management (OCM), where she joined in February of 2011. In her current role as the Climate Adaptation Specialist in the OCM Engagement, Training, and Education Program, Ms. Shaughnessy is the national coordinator and lead trainer for a multi-day climate adaptation training course. Prior to joining NOAA, Ms. Shaughnessy worked with the Maryland Chesapeake & Coastal Program, where she helped staff the Adaptation and Response Working Group for the Maryland Commission on Climate Change and contributed to the State’s Climate Action Plan. Her responsibilities also included development of the CoastSmart Communities Initiative, a program designed to improve community resilience in the face of coastal hazards and climate change. Building capacity in local communities to better understand the risks, strategies, and choices for how to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate is a focus of Ms. Shaughnessy’s work.