Event

The Water Center at Penn is pleased to present our second annual Spring Water Policy Forum, which will be held in person on the University of Pennsylvania's campus.

The theme for this year will be Navigating Turbulent Waters: Managing the Compounding Water System Challenges Facing Local Leaders in the Northeast Mega Region and the Forum will consist of a morning of keynote and setting the stage presentations followed by remarks from a panel or commenters.

Following the presentations and commenter discussions, the Forum will move into a networking lunch where students will have the opportunity engage with leaders from across the water sector.

Register Here

Speakers

This page will be continually updated as speakers and commenters are confirmed. Below are confirmed speakers to date.

Keynote Speaker

Paul Bodnar, Director of Sustainable Finance,Industry,and Diplomacy at Bezos Earth Fund and Visiting Fellow at Perry World House

Paul Bodnar is the Director of Sustainable Finance, Industry, and Diplomacy at the Bezos Earth Fund. He most recently served as Global Head of Sustainable Investing at BlackRock, where he helped build the firm's $500 billion sustainable funds business, and also served as Head of Sustainability Policy and Engagement.

Prior to joining BlackRock, Paul held a variety of leadership positions in finance, government, and civil society. He was Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Council member at RMI (formerly Rocky Mountain Institute), where he founded the Center for Climate-Aligned Finance. Paul served in the Obama White House as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Energy and Climate Change at the National Security Council. Prior to that, Paul served at the State Department as U.S. lead negotiator for climate finance.

Earlier in his career, Paul was Director for Carbon Finance at Climate Change Capital's $1.2 billion carbon fund, where he structured the fund's largest investments. He was also co-founder and partner at Vertis Environmental Finance, a leading European environmental commodity brokerage. Paul holds a BA from Stanford and an MA from Harvard.

Setting the Stage Panelists

Rohit "Rit" Aggarwala, Commissioner, New York City Department of Environmental Protection

Rohit T. “Rit” Aggarwala was appointed Commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and the City’s Chief Climate Officer in February 2022. Under his leadership, DEP has been at the forefront of both stormwater and coastal resilience, streamlined its procurement processes to be able to invest more money in infrastructure each year, and improved DEP’s water revenues by reducing accounts receivable. As Chief Climate Officer, he also led the development of New York City’s most recent sustainability plan, PlaNYC.

Prior to the Adams administration, Aggarwala served as the first Director of the New York City Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, where he led the creation of the first PlaNYC. He later founded the environmental grantmaking program at Bloomberg Philanthropies and served as president of the Board of Directors of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. He was part of the founding team at Sidewalk Labs—Google’s urban technology startup—and more recently was a senior urban tech fellow at the Jacobs Cornell-Technion Institute. He has co-chaired the Regional Plan Association’s Fourth Regional Plan for the New York metropolitan area and is an adjunct professor at Columbia University. Aggarwala holds a PhD, MBA, and BA from Columbia University and an MA from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

Hilary Harp Falk, President and CEO, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Hilary Harp Falk is President and CEO of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), leading the largest nonprofit conservation organization dedicated solely to preserving, protecting, and restoring the Chesapeake Bay. She has spent her career building strong, authentic partnerships, and is a proven expert in large-scale ecosystem restoration and leading organizational change.

Falk’s national conservation leadership includes several executive roles at the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) culminating in Chief Program Officer. She created and directed the Choose Clean Water Coalition, bringing together more than 200 advocacy organizations working together to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay. During her time at the Federation, she led programs including wildlife conservation, coastal resiliency, water policy, greenhouse gas reduction, and environmental education.

Throughout her career, Falk has championed women’s leadership and advancing equity in the conservation movement. She was a 2016-2017 fellow with the International Women's Forum and co-chaired the National Wildlife Federation’s Women in Conservation Leadership Advisory Council. She led the implementation of NWF’s foundational 2018 strategic plan and was a champion for a more equitable and inclusive workplace.

Shawn LaTourette, Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

Appointed by Governor Philip D. Murphy, Shawn M. LaTourette became New Jersey’s Commissioner of Environmental Protection on June 14, 2021. He had served as Acting Commissioner since January 16, 2021. Commissioner LaTourette is responsible for formulating statewide environmental policy while directing programs that protect public health and ensure the quality of New Jersey’s air, land, water, and natural and historic resources.

A lawyer and policymaker with more than 20 years of experience in environmental protection, Commissioner LaTourette began his career defending victims of toxic exposure, including organizing and advocating for the needs of vulnerable New Jersey communities whose drinking water was contaminated by petrochemicals. Throughout a career shaping environmental law and policy, he has served in executive roles and as a trusted adviser to governments, community and non-profit organizations, and leaders in industry and infrastructure, while also litigating high-stakes lawsuits involving environmental, energy and public health concerns.

Commissioner LaTourette first joined the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) as the chief legal and regulatory policy adviser to then-Commissioner Catherine R. McCabe in 2018. He was elevated to DEP Chief of Staff in 2019 and to Deputy Commissioner in 2020. Since 2019, he has been responsible for running DEP’s operations while formulating policy and regulatory reforms to advance Governor Murphy’s environmental, climate change and clean energy priorities. Commissioner LaTourette has developed and led initiatives that prioritize environmental justice while facilitating greenhouse gas emissions reductions, climate change resilience and adaptation, renewable energy deployment, water infrastructure enhancement, brownfields redevelopment, community renewal, and natural resource conservation and restoration.

Reflections from Commenters

• Nicole Brown, Area Growth Lead, Water, Gannett Fleming
• Liesel Gross, Chief Executive Officer, Lehigh County Authority
• Patrick McDonnell, President and CEO, PennFuture
• Mae Stevens, Partner, Banner Public Affairs
• Fernando Trevino, Special Deputy Secretary for Environmental Justice, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
• Jessica Evans, Senior Manager, Government Affairs and Sustainability Policy, Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies
• Jerome Shabazz, Executive Director, Overbrook Environmental Education Center (tentative)