Dr Mari-Vaughn Johnson, Regional Administrator of the United States Geological Survey’s Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center (USGS-PICASC), is a trained plant ecologist. She brings a human-centric, systems-oriented perspective, informed by her experiences in international diplomacy, multi-functional land-use solutions and policy impact assessments. She firmly believes strong relationships between people and place are key to developing sustainable climate change adaptation strategies. She strives to foster connections locally, regionally and internationally such that USGS-PICASC can best meet the needs at the intersection of climate change, ecosystems and communities across the Pacific Islands in support of all the human and non-human peoples enmeshed in these systems.
Prior to joining USGS, Dr Johnson developed large river basin-scale conservation impact assessments with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, and served as Science Advisor in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the US Department of State, and co-chaired the Global Young Academy.
