Dr. Daniel Osgood leads the Financial Instruments Sector Team at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP), linking climate information to financial tools to improve livelihoods in developing countries. His team supports most index insurance projects that have gone to scale, with hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers purchasing index insurance contracts they have helped design through farmer-driven, science-based processes, leading to significant development impacts. His research topics include uncertainty in decision-making, environmental valuation, remote sensing proxies, information, and work specific to index insurance and economic development. He has been involved in global policy processes such as the UNFCCC, with projects he works on highlighted by Ban Ki-moon in the opening speech at the 2015 Paris COP. He has had press coverage in venues spanning Voice of America, Al Jazeera, the Guardian, Nature, New York Times, and Reuters.

Jonathan has over fifteen years of experience in qualitative and quantitative research with a deep emphasis on disaster field research and study design, implementation, management, and data architecture and analysis. He contributes to a broad multi-method disaster research portfolio, including natural hazards mapping, rural preparedness, mental health and psychosocial support, community coalition building, and child-focused community resilience. Jonathan has significant experience in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and their use in disaster preparedness and recovery, and has led NCDP’s Natural Hazards Index projects, including NHI v2.0 and the U.S. Natural Hazards Climate Change Projections project. He has also conducted research evaluating the unanticipated consequences of pandemic flu, determining racially and ethnically appropriate emergency messaging, and analyzing the long-term disaster resiliency and recovery issues of Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Jonathan developed and teaches the Disaster Research Methods course at the Columbia Climate School. He holds a master’s degree in public health from the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, where he is currently pursuing a doctorate of public health in Leadership in Global Health and Humanitarian Systems.

Josh DeVincenzo, Ed.D., is the Assistant Director for Education and Training and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Columbia Climate School, Columbia University. He recently received his doctorate from Columbia University Teachers College with his dissertation on “Enhancing Capacity in Adult Climate Literacy: Investigating Sustainability Mindsets in the U.S. Emergency Management Profession.”

Dr. DeVincenzo focuses on developing learning experiences associated with FEMA training projects that navigate housing, economic recovery, mass care and sheltering, pandemic planning, and climate literacy. He has developed instructor-led and web-based curricula regarding financial literacy, economic impact analysis, and community partnerships.

He hopes to create accessible and quality educational programming that benefits the common good at scale. He holds a master’s degree in Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and a Doctorate in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, focusing on Adult Learning and Cognitive Science. He has published his work on climate pedagogy and cognition in esteemed journals and outlets such as the Journal of International Affairs, Routledge, State of Planet, and The Hill.

Sarah (Sari) Lucille Blakeley is an Associate Research Scientist at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP). Formerly, she was part of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society at Columbia University. Her research focuses on understanding how global climate change impacts human and natural systems across multiple spatiotemporal scales, focusing on sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, this research focuses on food security, gendered impacts of climate shocks, financial risk management to natural disasters, climate variability, and climate change. Her research heavily focuses on application- finding solutions to real-world problems. Blakeley’s research examines how vulnerable populations make decisions under climate shocks and climate variability. She uses innovative technologies, spatial statistics, climate science, demography, and economic methods to analyze questions about food security, heat stress, and climate impacts. Blakeley received her PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara in Geography, her MA from Columbia University in Climate and Society, and her BS in Economics, Interdisciplinary Studies, and French from Michigan State University.

Lovees Ahfembombi Lueong is an environmental geographer and climate justice scholar whose work advances inclusive climate finance for vulnerable communities in Central Africa. His research explores how participatory, gamified digital platforms can democratize access to climate funding and amplify the voices of women, smallholder farmers, and forest-dependent groups typically excluded from adaptation planning. At Columbia’s Climate School, Lovees is investigating the Inclusive Design of Gamified Climate Finance Platforms under the mentorship of Professor Daniel Osgood. This work bridges climate science, governance, and equity by developing accessible, culturally sensitive tools that promote transparency, local governance, and community-led adaptation.

He holds a Ph.D. in Geography and Planning from the University of Bamenda, where he also served as a graduate teaching assistant. Lovees is a member of the Cameroon Academy of Young Scientists (CAYS). His academic work spans environmental justice, deforestation dynamics, climate governance, and gendered vulnerability. He is a recipient of the Conservation Action Research (CARN) Grant. Lovees is passionate about decolonizing climate knowledge and embedding equity into the architecture of global climate finance.

Das Dores Ngueussie Ngamini is a Staff Associate II at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP), where she applies her expertise in atmospheric sciences and climate modeling to support research and disaster preparedness initiatives. Her work focuses on evaluating climate risks and integrating predictive tools to strengthen resilience strategies.

Before joining NCDP, Das was a fellow in the Small Innovation Grants Program (SIGP), a NASA- and USAID-supported initiative under the SERVIR West Africa program. She collaborated with Columbia University and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)-Senegal to develop tools for reconciling satellite and model data with farmer-sourced climate information. Through this work, she led remote evaluations of climate risk monitoring tools, conducted field research in Senegal, and utilized mobile crowdsourcing technologies to enhance community-based climate strategies.

Das holds a Master’s in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Yaoundé I, where she studied extreme weather forecasting using the Weather Research and Forecasting model. She later pursued a Master’s in Mathematical Sciences at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) Rwanda, where she specialized in climate modeling, including simulations of tropical cyclone Batsirai over Madagascar. Her academic and professional experiences have equipped her with strong analytical skills in climate science, disaster resilience, and predictive applications.

Passionate about bridging technical expertise with practical applications, Das is committed to developing innovative solutions for climate adaptation and disaster preparedness.

Amina Diop is a Student Worker at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP), where she provides training and desk support to anticipatory action programs. Her work contributes to the development of forecast-based drought triggers in 6 African countries, including Chad and Djibouti, in collaboration with national meteorological agencies, WFP, and OCHA.

Before joining NCDP, Amina worked with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), where she supported program management, capacity building, and regional coordination on climate resilience and sustainable development initiatives. She contributed to agroforestry governance and carbon credit certification projects in West Africa during her consulting work with Lindt & Sprüngli.

She also worked at Amazon. At Amazon, she advanced the company’s sustainability program by leading employee engagement activities, providing training on corporate sustainability standards, and supporting initiatives that integrated human rights and environmental considerations into operations. She also expanded the Amazon COVID-19 relief donation program to West Africa, promoting SRHR by donating over 1 million women’s hygiene items to girls in schools and women in jails, while delivering WASH workshops.

Amina recently graduated with a Master’s in Climate & Society at Columbia Climate School. She also holds a Master’s in Political Science from Brooklyn College, CUNY. With more than 18 years of experience in program management across human rights, gender equality, and climate action, she is committed to advancing proactive solutions in disaster risk preparedness and reduction, climate finance, and food security for vulnerable communities.

Alaty Adel Almejhed is a Research Intern at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP), where she supports the FIFA World Cup 2026 Heat Mitigation Project, contributing to emergency management research and heat risk assessment for large-scale sporting events. She is also a Communications and Social Media Intern at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, where she helps communicate research on climate law and policy to broader audiences.

Her research focuses on climate adaptation, vernacular architecture, nature-based solutions, and Lo-TEK design, with particular interests in food security, drought risk management, and just energy transitions in the Global South. Previously, she conducted her dissertation research on Saudi earthen architecture as a climate-resilient and culturally grounded housing solution, and led a coastal resilience fieldwork project in Oban, Scotland exploring community adaptation frameworks for storm resilience. Currently, Alaty is working with fellow students to co-found the Sustainable Food Systems student organization at the Columbia Climate School. Alaty holds a BSc in Sustainable Development from the University of St Andrews and is currently pursuing an MSc in Climate Science with an advanced certificatate in Climate and Disaster Risk Management at the Columbia Climate School.

Louise is currently getting their Master of Science in Climate with an advanced certificate in Climate and Food Systems at Columbia University. Their academic and research interests focus on different modes of action for integrated pest management on grasslands and agroecosystems to support our food system in the midst of a changing climate, maximizing carbon sink capacity in forest ecosystems, and bolstering biodiversity in cities and our food system to make them more resilient against climate shocks. Louise is also interested in behavioral psychology and religion, and how these anthropogenic aspects intertwine with knowledge transfer, action, and communications between science and policy related to climate change and climate justice.

They have 6 years of experience in environmental consulting, with 3 of those years dedicated to GIS/AutoCAD mapmaking. Louise also has a background in environmental communication, beekeeping, and grassland conservation. They have also collaborated to start a Sustainable Food Systems student organization at the Climate School. Louise received their B.S. in Sustainable Development from Appalachian State University.

Reva Bhardwaj is pursuing a Master’s in Climate Finance at Columbia University. She is interested in leveraging AI to unlock scalable solutions. At the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, she is building on the Disaster Genome Project, and at the Columbia Business School, she is building on the open climate curriculum.

Prior to Columbia University, she worked as a management consultant in Sustainability and ESG Business Advisory at PwC and BDO, advising multi-national clients across manufacturing, oil and gas, health tech, pharmaceuticals, ship management, and IT services. Her work spans across GHG accounting (Scope 1, 2, 3), decarbonization strategy, climate risk assessments, ESG ratings, sustainability reporting, integrated reporting, and due diligence.

Reva has a background in Biotechnology Engineering, with early work focused on carbon capture, storage, and conversion into industrially viable products such as methanol. This foundation continues to shape her interest in bridging technology, finance, and scalable climate solutions.

Zack is a Graduate Student Research Assistant at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, working on the Disaster Risk Communications: Enhancing Adult Climate Literacy research project. Building on prior federally funded and peer-reviewed research, this project explores the cognitive, social, and communication factors that influence climate literacy, with particular attention to disaster preparedness, emergency management, and climate resilience.

Here, Zack contributes to extending existing research frameworks into new fields, supporting ongoing manuscript development, and designing an independent Enhancing Adult Climate Literacy study under faculty advisement. He assists with qualitative research design, conducts interviews, supports literature reviews, contributes to academic writing, and conducts qualitative analysis. Zack holds a B.S. in Environmental Sustainability Science from Cornell University, and is currently pursuing an M.S. in Climate at Columbia University, where he is completing an Advanced Certificate in Climate and Disaster Management.