Ko Barrett

Biographie: Ms. Barrett currently serves as the NOAA Senior Advisor for Climate. She is widely recognized globally as an expert on climate policy, particularly on issues related to climate impacts and strategies to help society adapt to a changing world. Ms. Barrett provides strategic advice and scientific leadership for climate research, applications, and services to coordinate and integrate activities across NOAA’s portfolio of climate-related programs to enhance the effectiveness of NOAA in meeting climate mission goals. She is also currently serving as a Vice Chair for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a role she has held since 2015. Prior to her current role, Ms. Barrett served as the NOAA Research Deputy Assistant Administrator for Programs and Administration, where she supervised daily operations and administration of several major NOAA research programs, including the Climate Program Office, Ocean Acidification Program, and National Sea Grant College Program. Ms. Barrett has also served as deputy director of NOAA Research’s Climate Program Office. In addition, for over fifteen years, she served as a member of U.S. delegations charged with reviewing and adopting scientific assessments undertaken by the IPCC, and as the lead U.S. climate adaptation negotiator to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Ms. Barrett was instrumental in negotiating the Global Framework for Climate Services under the World Meteorological Organization and was NOAA’s climate representative to its Executive Committee and Congress for many years. Before joining NOAA, she was the Global Climate Change Program director at the United States Agency for International Development.