Katie Schlick '22 is Massachusetts' Heat Resilience Officer

Katie Schlick was recently appointed by Governor Maura Healey as Massachusetts’ first statewide Heat Resilience Officer. Massachusetts is the second state in the nation after Arizona to establish a chief heat officer role. Katie will be leading coordination across state government and working closely with local partners to protect public health and reduce the impacts of extreme heat on the state’s communities, neighborhoods, infrastructure, natural environment, and economy.

At Yale, Katie earned her EVST BA with a concentration in policy and law. She served as co-president of the Yale Student Environmental Coalition, led sustainability policy for the Yale College Council, and worked for the Yale Office of Sustainability. Katie was also a Silliman FroCo—but most importantly, she served as an EVST peer mentor and absolutely loved learning about climate and environmental policy issues at Yale!

After graduating, Katie started as an environmental planner in regional CT government and then served for two years in the Biden-Harris administration as Special Assistant to the White House National Climate Advisor. She most recently worked on federal and external affairs and led the resilience policy portfolio at the U.S. Climate Alliance.

Katie is always open to chat about climate/energy/resilience, working in government and politics, or her love of New England—and is in search of Boston recs + cool ideas for heat resilience policy/governance, adaptation financing, and heat tech!