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CRest Project Team

Maxine Burkett
CRest Principal Investigator (PI)
Associate Professor of Law
Contact: burkettm@hawaii.edu
(808) 956-2865
Maxine Burkett is an Associate Professor of Law at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaiʻi and has served as the inaugural Director of the Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy (ICAP) at the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program. She attended Williams College and Exeter College, Oxford University, and received her law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Burkett’s courses include Climate Change Law and Policy, Torts, Environmental Law, Race and American Law, and International Development. She has written in the area of Race, Reparations, and Environmental Justice. Currently, her work focuses on “Climate Justice,” writing on the disparate impact of climate change on poor and of-color communities. She has presented her research on Climate Justice throughout the United States and in West Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean.
India Heff
Project and Research Specialist
Contact: india@hawaii.edu
India Heff serves as LAMA’s Project and Research Specialist for the CRest project, which aims to cultivate strong community resilience networks to support and coordinate sound climate adaptation planning. Ms. Heff received her Masters in Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) with a focus in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance from the University of Hawai‘i. Through her previous role as the Community Resilience Coordinator for NOAA Pacific Services Center, she helped develop participatory processes for integrating natural hazard resilience and climate adaptation into existing plans and ordinances. Over the past ten years, Ms. Heff has enjoyed working to protect coastal resources and promote community interests through her work with the San Francisco Bay Area Conservation and Development Commission, the Golden Gate National Park Service, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation Service. She feels grateful that she was afforded the opportunity to learn about community engagement and empowerment directly from community leaders from the Waipio Valley community, the Pacific Risk Management Ohana (PRiMO) Ike Hui, and Olohana Foundation, and she has advocated for culture-based planning approaches at national and regional conferences.

Kem Lowry, Ph.D.

Kem Lowry is Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning (DURP) and currently serves as Director of the Program on Conflict Resolution. He first came to the University of Hawaiʻi in 1969 on an East-West Center grant. He earned a doctoral degree in political science, and joined what is now DURP in 1973. Before coming to Hawaiʻi, Dr. Lowry completed two years of graduate study in Washington, D.C. and three years with the Peace Corps in Malaysia. In addition to being a member of ICAP’s advisory board, he has been affiliated with the Hewlett Foundation-funded Program on Conflict Resolution since its inception. 

 

Douglas A. Codiga
Senior Attorney for the CRest Project
Contact: dcodiga@schlackito.co
Douglas A. Codiga serves as a senior advisor to the CRest project.  He is an energy and environmental attorney who regularly advises businesses, landowners, and community organizations on a wide range of environmental matters, with an emphasis on emerging clean energy, climate change, and green building law and policy. Mr. Codiga founded Hawaiʻi’s first Climate and Sustainability Law Practice Group in 2007 at the Honolulu law firm of Schlack Ito LLLC and frequently publishes and lectures on clean energy, climate change, and environmental law and policy in Hawaiʻi and the Asia Pacific region. Mr. Codiga is serving as the senior attorney for ICAP’s Sea-level Rise Policy Study project. He is a co-author of the Center’s 2011 publication, “Climate Change and Regulatory Takings in Coastal Hawaiʻi.”

 

Kylie Wager
Research Associate
Contact: kwager@hawaii.edu
Kylie Wager currently serves as a research associate for LAMA’s CRest Project. She joined LAMA in March 2011 and has since co-authored Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Land Use in Hawai‘i: A Policy Tool Kit for State and Local Governments with project senior attorney, Douglas Codiga. As a J.D. candidate in the part-time evening program at the William S. Richardson School of Law, Ms. Wager is also pursuing a certificate in environmental law. She has conducted pro bono legal research for the Surfrider Foundation O‘ahu Chapter, and is an active member of the Environmental Law Society. In addition to climate change and sea-level rise, Ms. Wager’s study interests also include energy law and sustainable agriculture. She graduated from Boston University with bachelor’s degrees in English and print journalism in 2006, and her connection with the Pacific stemmed from six months studying at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, as well as four years managing a local farmer’s market and writing for the Haleakala Times on Maui. She makes time to surf as much as possible.

Permanent link to this article: https://islandclimate.net/projects/crest/crest-project-team/