The Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock) supports cities in taking immediate, scalable action to reduce the threat and deadly effects extreme heat poses to their most vulnerable communities.  

Join Arsht-Rock for a conversation with the world’s first three appointed Chief Heat Officers (CHOs) of City Champions for Heat Action, representing Miami-Dade County, Athens, and Freetown. 

Chief Heat Officers are city officials who wake up every day with the mission of reducing the harms of extreme heat for their city’s most vulnerable residents. They raise awareness of extreme heat risk, coordinate across stakeholders to initiate improved planning and response to heat waves, and facilitate the implementation of long-term heat risk-reduction projects. Arsht-Rock and the Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance worked with Mayors of Miami-Dade County, Athens, Greece and Freetown, Sierra Leone to appoint CHOs, which has led other cities to follow suit. In this event, the CHOs will share their strategies and discuss the challenges they face in advancing the extreme heat agenda within and outside City Hall. 

Opening remarks

Adrienne Arsht
Executive Vice Chair
Founder, Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center  and Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center
Atlantic Council

Mauricio Rodas
Former Mayor
Quito, Ecuador;
Co-chair, World Economic Forum’s Global Commission on BiodiverCities by 2030;
Senior Fellow, Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center
Atlantic Council

Speaker remarks

Eleni (Lenio) Myrivili
Chief Heat Officer
Athens, Greece

Jane Gilbert
Chief Heat Officer
Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States

Eugenia Kargbo
Chief Heat Officer
Freetown, Sierra Leone

Moderator

Kathy Baughman McLeod
Director and SVP, Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center
Atlantic Council

Closing remarks

Kathy Baughman McLeod
Director and SVP, Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center
Atlantic Council 

The Adrienne Arsht – Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center will reach one billion people with resilience solutions to climate change, migration, and human security challenges by 2030.