Architecture-East Building, 305-C

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Specialization Area: Environment and Health, Climate Change

Dr. Jairo Garcia is an expert in sustainable urban development, carbon mitigation, and assessments of climate vulnerabilities and resiliency. Dr. Garcia's main area of research is focused on elements of spatial data analysis for ecological assessments and to identify climate vulnerabilities and climate risk analysis including public health and food systems.

As the former Director of Climate Policies and Renewables with the City of Atlanta, Dr. Garcia developed the first Climate Action Plan and led a coalition of stakeholders to craft the application for Rockefeller’s 100 Resilient Cities program, which the City of Atlanta was awarded in 2016.  He represented the City of Atlanta at the COP23 Climate Summit of Local and Regional  Leaders in Bonn, Germany, and participated as a U.S. Subject Matter Expert for the IPCC pre-scoping Special Report on Climate Change.

Dr. Garcia received the Individual Climate Leadership Award from the EPA in 2017, the Green Ring Award by Former Vice-President Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project in 2018, and the Excellence in Climate Leadership Award by the American Public Health Association Center for Climate, Health, and Equity in 2023 for his demonstrated an exceptional commitment to climate change research, communications, and activism.

Dr. Garcia holds an engineering degree, an MSc in Management of Information Technologies from Syracuse University, an MSc in Sustainability Management from Columbia University, and a Doctoral degree in Educational Technology and Sustainability from Pepperdine University. He has held research and academic positions with the Earth Institute at Columbia University, UCLA, and presently teaches classes at Georgia Tech in Sustainable Urban Development, Urban Planning, Global Cities, Sustainable Systems, and Climate Change Policies.