SE CSC Welcomes New Tribal Climate Science Liaison

The Southeast Climate Science Center is pleased to announce the hire of a new staff member, Casey C. Thornbrugh, as the Tribal Climate Science Liaison for the Southeast and Northeast Climate Science Centers.
Casey acts the liaison between Tribes in the Northeast and the Southeast, the United South and Eastern Tribes Inc. (USET), the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and climate science researchers. Based out of the Northeast CSC at UMass-Amherst, he will provide current climate science information to Tribal Nations on the East Coast and in Gulf Coast states, as well as identify climate research needs and priorities, and provide climate adaptation planning support for the Tribes.

Background and Research Interests

Casey C. Thornbrugh is a Mashpee Wampanoag tribal member from Massachusetts.  From 2015-2017, he served as the Director of the Mashpee Wampanoag Natural Resources Department.  He received his PhD in Geography in 2013 at University of Arizona, completing a dissertation focused on climate change with special emphases on Tribal Nations, Climate Education, and Climate-Related Research with Indigenous Communities. From 2008-2015 he worked at Tohono O’odham Community College, a Tribal College on the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona, teaching climate change courses and directing sustainability programs. Casey also served with the Indigenous Peoples Climate Change Working Groups based at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas.

More about the Position

The Tribal Climate Science Liaison will serve as a technical expert on climate change issues, resource vulnerability, and climate adaptation actions to Tribal nations in the USET region, and more broadly in the combined region comprising the Department of Interior’s Northeast Climate Science Center and Southeast Climate Science Center. He will be responsible to develop and implement a communication, education and outreach program; identify climate research needs and priorities; and provide climate adaptation planning support to Tribal nations.
Casey will participate in a network of Tribal climate science liaisons within the Climate Science Center network; and a national workgroup of Tribal organizations, Tribal colleges, and other partners to address policy and resource issues associated with Tribal climate resilience.
View Casey’s Staff Profile page here.