Emily is a Senior Research Fellow in the ODI Global Risks and Resilience Programme and Director of the Resilient and Sustainable Islands Initiative (RESI). She has 25 years’ experience as a researcher, analyst, journalist, lecturer and adviser to government, providing critical analysis and leading debate on climate and disaster risk governance and financing.

Emily is a specialist in Small-Island Developing States (SIDS), where she focuses on climate policy, access to finance and opportunities for long-term development in an era of accelerating climate change. She serves as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Climate Resilience Agency for Dominica (CREAD), supporting the nation’s ambition to become the world’s first climate resilient nation, and is an adviser of the Alliance for Small Island States (AOSIS) on adaptation.

Emily has led major research and learning programmes for the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) and the Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters Programme (BRACED), and worked previously as a researcher at El Colegio de México, leading the first independent evaluation of Mexico’s National Disaster Fund, FONDEN.

Emily holds a PhD in Human Geography from University College London.