Jesse M. Keenan is the Favrot II Associate Professor of Sustainable Real Estate and Urban Planning and Director of the Center on Climate Change and Urbanism at Tulane University. Keenan’s research focuses on the intersection of climate change and the built environment, including aspects of applied science, policy, and planning. Keenan has served as a member of the IPCC and three consecutive National Climate Assessments; led climate research teams at the Federal Reserve and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; served as an advisor on climate policy for the Governors of California and Massachusetts; testified and briefed Congress on various climate-related issues; served as Chair of the U.S. Community Resilience Panel for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems under the Obama White House; and has served various federal details, including as a Senior Economist at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers where he supported interagency climate and national security activities, including the development of the National Resilience Strategy and the U.S. National Adaptation Plan under the UNFCCC. Keenan’s books include Blue Dunes: Climate Change By Design (Columbia University Press, 2017), Climate Adaptation Finance and Investment in California (Routledge, 2018), and North: The Future of Post-Climate America (Oxford University Press, 2025).
