Ms Mae Valdez-Irong serves as the Regional Program Manager of ICLEI Southeast Asia. She is an Expert Certified Development Project Management Professional (CDPM® Level II) with over a decade of experience in environment-related projects, focusing on climate action and governance at the national and local level. Her most recent experiences include working with key Philippine cities in rolling out the updated Climate and Disaster Risk Assessment and providing recommendations on its implementation to relevant national agencies; supporting projects on city-level GHG mitigation strategies; and mainstreaming inclusivity approaches to local climate action planning in Southeast Asian cities. She is also a recipient of a Three Cairns Scholarship for Urban Climate Leadership at Yale School of the Environment.