WASHINGTON, DC, August 25, 2023 – The Atlantic Council announces that Kathy Baughman McLeod, the Senior Director of its Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (“Arsht-Rock Center”) and a Council Senior Vice President, has resigned from Arsht-Rock, effective today.

The Council appreciates Kathy’s vision, leadership, and service to the mission and work of its Arsht-Rock Center, a global leader in addressing the profound, deadly impacts of extreme heat, building on the Council’s climate-related work to date. This work was made possible by the vision and commitment to resilience from Atlantic Council Executive Vice Chair Adrienne Arsht, whose foundational gift established the Center in 2016, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

“Kathy’s vision has been important to the success of our Arsht-Rock Center and its work around the world,” said Frederick Kempe, president and CEO of the Atlantic Council. “We wish her well as she embarks on a new chapter in her professional journey.”

“I am grateful for the opportunity to build and grow the Arsht-Rock Center at the Atlantic Council with its global reach, strategic influence, and convening power that helped the Arsht-Rock Center build prominence and the enabling conditions for impacting millions of lives facing the effects of climate change,” said Baughman McLeod.

Relaunched in May 2019, the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center has built practical solutions for people in the face of climate change impacts, establishing for the Center a goal of reaching one billion people globally by 2030.

The Atlantic Council’s Arsht-Rock Center has pioneered the categorizing and naming of heat waves to better prepare citizens on several continents; mobilized the insurance sector to advance community-level climate risk reduction and adaptation solutions; and published new research on the impact of heat on women’s unpaid domestic work, paid employment, and health under current and projected climate conditions.

About the Atlantic Council

Driven by our mission of “shaping the global future together,” the Atlantic Council is a nonpartisan organization that galvanizes U.S. leadership and engagement in the world, in partnership with allies and partners, to shape solutions to global challenges. The Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center collaborates cross-disciplinary experts, a global network of partners, and policymakers at all levels, we enable individuals, communities, and institutions to prepare for, navigate, and recover from natural and human-caused shocks and stresses, both expected and those not yet imagined.

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