Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry has picked a candidate for Chief Resiliency Officer, a new position that’s charged with helping the city prepare for the impacts of climate change.
The Jacksonville City Council voted in December to create the position of Chief Resiliency Officer (CRO) at the recommendation of the council’s Special Committee on Resiliency and Mayor Curry included funding for the role in this year’s city budget.
After a nationwide search, Mayor Curry announced Tuesday that Anne Coglianese is his pick for CRO.
“Anne has worked at the highest levels of the federal government. She led the Coastal Resiliency Program for the city of New Orleans, served on the coastal advisory team for the state of Louisiana's coastal master plan and worked on the climate preparedness and resiliency team at the White House Council on Environmental Quality,” Mayor Curry said. “Anne is a welcome addition to the city of Jacksonville and I look forward to working with her.”
Coglianese is expected to begin her new role on July 19, but she still needs to be confirmed by the City Council.
Her appointment will mean Jacksonville is no longer the only major city in Florida without a CRO.
The CRO will report to the Director of Planning and Development.
Jacksonville was on track to have a CRO in 2016 thanks to funding from the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative. However, shortly after Curry took office, the city dropped out of the program, which awarded cities around the world $1 million to address extreme weather, crime and sea level rise.
Brendan Rivers can be reached at brivers@wjct.org, 904-358-6396 or on Twitter at @BrendanRivers.
