We are delighted to announce that Dr Katherine Maxwell has been appointed as a Visiting Fellow of Kellogg College and will be based at the GCHU where she will contribute to the centre’s reports, publications and events, and represent the GCHU and Kellogg at seminars, workshops and panel sessions.
Dr Katherine Maxwell currently works as an Associate at WSP where she leads the Net Zero Cities team, advising cities across the world on their net zero strategies. In August, she was nominated as a COP26 Climate Resilience Fellow by the COP Universities Network and Cambridge Zero and she is representing GCHU at COP26 in Glasgow. Katherine also currently works for an innovative data driven start-up, Kooling, as their Chief Climate Scientist, which aims to help companies reduce their transport emissions.
Previously, Katherine was Senior Manager, Climate Action Planning, at C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. In this role, she provided expert technical assistance across the climate action planning process directly to cities in Africa, China, Latin American and South East Asia ensuring plans align with the Paris Agreement objectives. She represented C40 Cities on the UN-HABITAT’s Climate Action Planning board and was previously on the board of the Global Centre on Healthcare and Urbanisation.
Prior to joining C40, Katherine was Innovation Manager for the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (University of Edinburgh) where she was responsible for the management of a variety of European funded climate-related projects working with directly with organisations and cities. She was an invited Researcher at the London School of Economics on the New Climate Economy report, has run her own consultancy ‘Urban Transitions’ that provided low carbon urban development and innovation. Katherine has held Visiting Researcher positions at UC in Chile, working with municipalities on their disaster risk reduction planning.
Katherine holds a B.Sc. in Geography and an M.Sc. in Environmental Sustainability from the University of Edinburgh and was the first person to successful complete her DPhil in Sustainable Urban Development from the University of Oxford.
As part of the Visiting Fellowship, I am looking forward to proactively contributing towards the academic excellence at GCHU, delivering impactful research and encouraging academic discussions on critical urban challenges through seminars, workshops and panel sessions. Working closely between academia and government, my research will provide insight for city leaders on how they can both design and implement climate policies and plans that deliver sustainable urban development and improve health and well-being post-COVID. In addition I’m thrilled to be representing GCHU at COP26 in Glasgow this year and will be sharing the urban and health related highlights over the next two weeks!
Dr. Katherine Maxwell, Visiting Fellow of Kellogg College