Associate Professor Susie Ho is Senior Academic Director at Monash University, Monash’s UNFCCC Contact Point and Head of Delegations, and a global leader working at the intersection of higher education, climate action and sustainable development. At Monash, she leads a transformative portfolio of global, industry, research-translation, entrepreneurial and civic experiences, connecting students with start-ups, non-profits, corporations, governments and UN agencies to translate knowledge into action and advance the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Susie’s international work focuses on mobilising higher education, research, industry and young people to accelerate global climate action, with a particular focus on the UNFCCC Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) agenda. She has supported 15 global youth delegations to UN climate processes and co-led multiple pavilions at COPs, creating platforms for young people, researchers and partners to contribute directly to international climate dialogue.

She has contributed to UNFCCC ACE dialogues, workshops and initiatives, including research to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation of climate communication and education, and co-leading capacity-building workshops for national ACE focal points and negotiators. She was also an invited expert at the inaugural UNFCCC Expert Dialogue on the disproportionate impacts of climate change on children and youth. Susie works across major global climate and higher education networks, including the International Universities Climate Alliance, the COP Alliance, the Youth Alliance for Higher Education, and the Monitoring and Evaluating Climate Communication and Education (MECCE) Project.

An environmental scientist and educator, and former Associate Dean of Science, Susie is Editor-in-Chief of Sustainable Earth Reviews and a Lead Contributing Author to UNEP’s seventh Global Environment Outlook (GEO-7). Across her work, she brings together research, education, policy, industry and international partnerships to build the capacity of institutions and the next generation to drive evidence-informed, inclusive and ambitious climate action at scale.

Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen is Associate Professor with the Public Administration and Policy Group of Wageningen University. She has a PhD in political science from Linköping University, Sweden and did her postdoc at Yale University, USA. For the past 25 years she has researched global public governance of the environment and particularly analysed the varying possibilities to hold states to account for the moral and legal obligations they take on in such governance. Her main research focus has been global climate, energy and biodiveristy governance and she has followed the UNFCCC process for close to 20 years, attending numerous COPs and other negotiation meetings. Sylvia is a member of the IPBES Task Force on Scenarios and Models as well as Climate Strategies, an NGO focusing on policy relevant research for addressing climate change.

Axel Michaelowa has a PhD in Economics and has worked on international climate policy instruments and the UNFCCC process since 1994. He is part-time researcher at the Institute of Political Science of the University of Zurich, research director at the research institute Perspectives Climate Research and senior founding partner of the consultancy Perspectives. Axel is a founding member of the RINGO constituency in 2003. He was lead author for the chapter on mitigation policies in the 4th and 5th Assessment Report of the IPCC. Axel consults private and public entities and has written more than 400 research articles and studies on the design of domestic climate policy instruments and international market mechanisms for mitigation. Axel is a member of the Executive Committee of the Adaptation Benefits Mechanism (ABM). Between 2006 and 2013, he served on the CDM Registration and Issuance Team of the CDM Executive Board; he was member of the board of the Swiss Climate Cent Foundation between 2005 and 2009. Axel has done capacity building on mitigation policy instruments in over 40 developing countries, ranging from Algeria to Yemen. He has supported the presidencies of the COPs in Qatar (2012) and Mexico (2010) and various country delegations in UNFCCC negotiations. He has been involved in work on national climate policy strategies in Algeria, Ethiopia, India, Morocco, Peru, Rwanda, Senegal, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Richard ’64 and Gail Stradling Executive Director of the Center for the Environment, St. Lawrence University (NY)

Before coming to the North Country in summer 2024, she was at Moravian University where she served as founding dean for the School of Natural and Health Sciences at Moravian University, chair of Biological Sciences, and director for the Environmental programs. She has taught courses on biochemistry, environmental science, conservation biology, sustainability, environmental health, global climate change, and future wildfire risk. She is involved with ecological monitoring for climate change impacts along forested mountain landscapes in the portion of the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania and in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem/Rocky Mountains. Of particular interest is her work at the science-policy interface and work with diverse students at this interface within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030) and the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). She has brought delegations of students and faculty to the U.N. climate meetings in various countries on 5 continents since 2009 to develop global citizens who will help address our greatest challenges. She serves as a member of the steering committee for the Research and Independent NGOs constituency group and on several activity groups for UNFCCC Technology Executive Committee, focusing on the water-energy-food nexus, early warning systems, climate innovation and incubators, and climate resilience food systems. Locally, she works with nature centers and non-profits to develop informal education programming on a wide range of environmental and community resilience issues and finding unique ways to effectively communicate science to general audiences to engage them in science and policy.

Beth Martin is a Teaching Professor in Environmental Studies and a scholar in the Center for the Environment at Washington University in St. Louis. She serves as the co-focal point for the Research and Independent Constituency to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and is regarded as an expert in the UNFCCC process. She provides guidance to researchers worldwide who want to engage with the UNFCCC and herself focuses on transparency and observer engagement in multilateral environmental agreement (MEA) processes with a focus on climate change.

Beth teaches courses at the intersection of science, engineering, law, and policy and has taught in three separate schools at the University (law, engineering and arts and sciences). Beth’s courses prioritize understanding of place, progression of environmental decisioning and interdisciplinary engagement and include IPCC: Governance, Policy and Science,Multiparty-Environmental Decision Making, A Sense of Place: Exploring the Environment of St. Louis and the International Climate Negotiation Seminar. As part of the seminar, Beth travels with and leads student delegations to the UNFCCC COP each year. Consistent in Beth’s teaching is a desire for students to understand the value of different disciplines and to see and understand how who they are as individuals and what they are learning has relevance and meaning in the world outside of the classroom.

Beth is also an active undergraduate advisor serving as a 4-year advisor to the cohort of students in the Pathfinder Fellows in Environmental Leadership program and a major and minor advisor for students in Environmental Studies.

Beth, a registered professional engineer, received her Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering and Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Math from Birmingham-Southern College.

Melissa Low is a Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions and Head of the Sustainability Academy under the university’s Sustainable Futures initiative. Under her stewardship, the Centre’s sustainability-related continuing education training programmes have benefited over 500 government officers and private sector individuals. She previously worked at the Energy Studies Institute, NUS where she carried out research projects on a range of energy and climate issues of concern to Singapore and the region. She has participated in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties (COP) for over a decade and is an active sustainability thought leader, authoring, publishing and presenting at various forums.

She is the Designated Contact Point for NUS’s accreditation to the UNFCCC and currently serves as interim co-focal point on the Steering Committee of the Research and Independent Non-Governmental Organisation (RINGO) Constituency under the UNFCCC. Melissa holds an LLM in Climate Change Law and Policy (with distinction) from the University of Strathclyde, MSc in Environmental Management and BSocSci (Hons) in Geography from NUS. For her Master’s thesis on past and contemporary proposals on equity and differentiation in shaping the 2015 climate agreement, Melissa was awarded the Shell Best Dissertation Award 2013. She is currently pursuing a PhD focused on transparency and accountability of the carbon markets at the NUS Department of Geography.

In 2021, Melissa was conferred the NEA EcoFriend Award and the Public Service Medal (Pingat Bakti Masyarakat) for her contributions towards environmental sustainability, climate change awareness and impact on youth. She serves as Chair of the Climate Action SG Alliance and Advisor to the #GreenHacks Youth Panel. In April 2024, she was appointed to the Ministry of Education Headquarters (MOE HQ) Syllabus Development Committee for Lower Secondary Geography. In March 2023, Melissa was appointed to the Paris Agreement’s Article 6.4 mechanism Roster of experts as “Climate Policy Expert” for two years. Melissa is a member of the Editorial Board of Sustainable Earth Reviews.

Melissa currently serves on the Mandai Wildlife Group’s Sustainability Advisory Panel and the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) Panel of Experts. From 2021 to 2024, Melissa was Council Member of the 16th and 17th National Youth Council and Advisory Committee Member for the MSE SG Eco Fund. She was formerly Chief Curator of the National Youth Council’s Young ChangeMakers Programme, Committee Member of the Speak Good English Movement, panellist on the Speak Good English Movement Programmes Evaluation Panel and a Member of the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) Long Term Aspirational Goal Task Group (LTAG-TG).

Outside of work, Melissa started an eco-friendly/ social book swop movement in Singapore, called Books and Beer, which has been featured in The Straits Times, The Business Times, Bangkok Post and The Wall Street Journal’s Scene Asia Blog.

Karishma Ansaram is a Lecturer in Climate Finance and Investment at the University of Edinburgh Business School, where her research focuses on enhancing access to climate finance for local communities. She has previously represented the Children and Youth Constituency (YOUNGO) and coordinated the Finance & Markets Working Group (2021–2022) and served as its climate finance contact point, co-authoring the constituency’s first Youth Stocktake of UNFCCC Processes alongside the Global Stocktake. She has attended COP26 through COP29, including supporting the UN High-Level Climate Champions’ Finance Team at COP28.

Karishma teaches International Climate Finance, a course encompassing UNFCCC processes, and has delivered teaching and supervised research on sustainable and climate finance for the University of Oxford (short courses), Rotterdam School of Management, and IESEG School of Management. She is keen to bridge the gap between academia and the policy space, working to translate climate finance research into practical impact for negotiators and practitioners.

Karishma also serves as Academic Co-Lead for the Finance Theme at Scotland Beyond Net Zero, connecting academics, financial institutions, and policymakers to advance sustainable finance initiatives across Scottish universities. She has held fellowships as a Finance Youth Fellow with the UN High-Level Climate Champions (2023) and as a Fellow for NDC Financing in Africa with the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management (2020–2023).

Karishma holds a PhD in Climate Finance and Carbon Pricing from Université de Lille (France) and an MSc in Carbon Finance from the University of Edinburgh (UK).

Miriah M. Russo Kelly, Ph.D. is an environmental social scientist, educator, and researcher whose work focuses on the human dimensions of ocean and coastal climate change. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environment, Geography, and Marine Sciences at Southern Connecticut State University USA, where she studies how people understand, experience, communicate about, and make decisions concerning complex environmental and marine challenges. Her interdisciplinary scholarship brings together environmental science, social science, communication, environmental education, and collaborative approaches to environmental management.

Dr Kelly has participated in United Nations climate processes since 2010 and has brought social science perspectives on human-ocean relationships into international discussions of ocean and climate change. She convened, and currently leads the RINGO Ocean thematic group, and over the past four years has supported this group through meeting organization, side event presentations, collaborative organizing, and co-authored publications. Dr. Kelly has contributed to UNFCCC discussions emphasizing the importance of integrating social and natural sciences and recognizing the cultural, social, and emotional dimensions of humanity’s relationship with the ocean, and broader environment. Her work is predicated on the idea that effective climate and ocean policy should account for how people experience and value marine environments and must create meaningful opportunities for communities and knowledge systems to participate in decision-making.

A central component of Dr. Kelly’s current research is her work on ocean identity, an emerging concept that examines the ways individuals understand their relationships with the ocean through their values, emotions, experiences, and sense of self. This research agenda seeks to provide a scientifically grounded way of understanding human connections with ocean environments and to develop tools that can ultimately be used to evaluate ocean education, outreach, and engagement programs. Dr. Kelly is committed to making environmental science accessible and actionable. Her approach to translational environmental science emphasizes communicating research beyond academic audiences and creating opportunities for communities, educators, policymakers, practitioners, and organizations to use scientific knowledge in meaningful ways.

In sum Dr Kelly seeks to integrate community into the science-policy nexus. Through her research, teaching, and engagement with the United Nations and other international and regional organizations, Dr. Kelly works to elevate the role of social science in addressing global ocean and climate challenges. Her scholarship ultimately seeks to strengthen the connection between people and ocean environments while supporting more collaborative, inclusive, and socially just approaches to ocean sustainability.

Dr. Matti Goldberg works as Director of International Policy at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Massachusetts. His work is focused on connecting Woodwell’s climate science with global policy conversations, in particular the UNFCCC, to enhance the scientific basis of policymaking. He previously worked for 15 years at the UNFCCC, supporting the global negotiations to develop landmark climate policy instruments such as the Paris Agreement, and operating the adaptation communication and reporting arrangements under the UNFCCC. His consultancy work has focused on climate-security, adaptation, and carbon border adjustments. He completed his PhD in 2022, and his book “Climate Security: the Role of Knowledge and Scientific Resources in the Making of a Nexus” is available on Routledge Inc.. He holds a master’s degree in international relations, anthropology, and Chinese studies from the Ludwig-Maximilian-University of Munich.

Anna McGinn is a member of the RINGO steering committee in her capacity as a member of the University of Maine School of Policy and International Affairs advisory board. Anna first engaged with RINGO as an undergraduate student at Dickinson College and then as a graduate researcher at the University of Maine studying post-Paris Agreement negotiations on the Adaptation Fund. Anna then worked at the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), a nonpartisan, nonprofit based in Washington D.C., where she led the organization’s engagement with the UNFCCC. This effort focused on creating educational resources for federal policymakers and the public to track and learn about international climate governance. Anna is also a co-lead of the American Society of Adaptation Professional’s policy practice group.

Marilyn Averill is a retired environmental attorney. Following law school, she clerked for the Colorado Supreme Court, worked in private practice, and served as an attorney advisor for the United States Department of the Interior (working primarily with the National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service). She left the government in 1999 to pursue graduate studies at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she became interested in climate change. Marilyn currently serves on the American Meteorological Society Council, and is a Senior Fellow with the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment at the University of Colorado Law School.

Marilyn attended her first COP in 2000. In 2008 she became a member of the RINGO steering committee and served as RINGO Chair from 2013 through 2015. She moved to Emerita status in 2025. Her current interests focus on international environmental governance, science and technology policy, the politics of science, and the ethical implications of environmental issues, primarily in the context of global climate change. She also is interested in how different professions manage and communicate about uncertainty.

Marilyn holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Wellesley College, an M.P.A from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a J.D. and an M.A. in Research and Evaluation Methods in Education from the University of Colorado at Boulder.