Biography
Violet Wulf-Saena has served as an international climate change expert for over ten years working with the United Nations’ Least Developed Countries and Small Island States to protect communities from the impacts of climate change. As Samoa’s first climate change officer she completed Samoa’s first Greenhouse Gas Inventory, Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment, Initial National Communication to the Conference of the Parties, and Samoa’s National Adaptation Program of Action. Violet’s dedication to elevating community voices and responding to environmental injustice is rooted in her lived experiences in the South-Pacific. She now works in the Bay Area partnering with governments, research institutions, and community-based organizations to build community capacity to respond to climate change and sea-level rise. In 2020, she founded Climate Resilient Communities (CRC), an organization that supports under-resourced communities of color at the frontline of climate change and sea-level rise.
Aside from serving as CRC’s founder and executive director, Violet serves as the equity program manager for the Bay Area Climate Adaptation Network (BayCAN), an environmental justice advisor for the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), and as a community advisory council member to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD).
Violet earned her Bachelor’s degree in Environment Studies from the University of the South Pacific in Fiji and a Masters of Environmental Management from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment in North Carolina. She also holds a Postgraduate Diplomas in Environmental Management from Dresden University in Germany, in Climate Change Urban Management Tools from Erasmus University in the Netherlands, and in Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessments on Climate Change from Waikato University in New Zealand.
