Stefanie develops technical guidance, policy recommendations and tools to help decision-makers around the world plan for, integrate and implement climate adaptation and resilience solutions, from the national to the local level. She is also WRI's lead on Locally Led Adaptation: a new approach in which communities and local actors decide how and when to adapt. Additionally, she is passionate about finding ways to utilize behavior change science to enhance climate adaptation efforts.

More specifically, Stefanie is currently involved in the stakeholder-centered development of the online climate risk tool, AgriAdapt, enhancing countries' climate finance transparency via Civil Society Organizations through the Global Partnership for Social Accountability, and assisting countries achieve their Paris Agreement commitments as part of USAID's Comprehensive Action for Climate Change Initiative (CACCI). Above all, she is a skilled project manager and researcher who has authored numerous publications. She's led analyses of long-term adaptation planning strategies in Latin America and the Caribbean, written case studies illustrating how to integrate adaptation into countries' coastal resilience and health systems, and helped redesign the PREPdata platform.

Prior to WRI, Stefanie worked on climate and land rights issues at the global Indigenous grassroots organization, Land is Life. She earned an M.A. in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University, specializing in climate resilience, and a B.A. from New York University in Politics, Human Rights & Economic Development with a minor in Latin American Studies. She also holds a certificate in Sustainability & Behavior Change.

Stefanie grew up in Mexico and is an advocate of conservation and advancing sustainability. She's also an avid baker and reader.