On Thursday, September 18, 2025, the Extreme Weather Resilience Hub led a successful event that convened a panel of experts from multiple levels of government and professional associations to discuss place-based solutions for increasing community resilience. As we’ve discussed in past posts, the importance of implementing place-based solutions to support climate adaptation and resilience is ever-increasing, particularly in the face of the shifting role of federal agencies.

The mission and vision of the Extreme Weather Resilience Hub align with the Academy’s broader focus on good government and promoting the values of effectiveness, efficiency, transparency, and accountability, as emphasized during the event’s opening remarks by President and CEO, James-Christian Blockwood. Dr. Louis Uccellini, Academy Fellow and former Director of the National Weather Service, set the stage by discussing the unprecedented weather events the country has experienced in the past year and the importance of pre-disaster investments to ensure community safety. He emphasized that the existing system is insufficient to create a climate-resilient nation and highlighted the need for transformational changes to the system.

Alice C. Hill, David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment at the Council on Foreign Relations, focused on the historic federal role in disaster response and recovery, as established in the Stafford Act. She discussed how the federal role in emergency response and disaster recovery had expanded over time, and how state and local governments have come to expect federal assistance, creating perverse incentives and disincentivizing risk mitigation at the state and local level, highlighting the need for reforming the system.

With the current Administration seeking to fundamentally change the federal role, state and local governments should expect and prepare for a period of uncertainty and take this opportunity to innovate and create new partnerships focused on promoting community resilience and adaptation. Further, local and state governments may have to find alternative sources of data on their future risks if the federal government ceases the national climate assessment and other future modeling tools.

Given the increasing frequency, severity, and cost of extreme weather events, and the shifting federal role, Academy Fellow Eric Leckey, Former Associate Administrator for Mission Support at FEMA, moderated the discussion of how state and local governments can prepare for these stressors and ways the federal role could be transformed in the future to incentivize resilience and adaptation. Eric was joined by an expert panel with experience in the climate resilience space, including:

• Dan Nees, Policy and Finance Director at Throwe Environmental
• Derrick Hiebert, Infrastructure and Resilience Practice Leader at AECOM
• Garrett Ingoglia, Vice President at Haggerty Consulting

The panelists discussed the importance of state and local governments prioritizing risk and resilience outcomes. The federal government can help facilitate this shift by incentivizing investment in innovative, place-based solutions. Ultimately, public administration needs to focus on delivering results.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the discussion:

• There is a need to reform the federal role. State and local governments should prepare for a potential scenario in which they do not receive any federal funding for resilience. The panelists emphasized the importance of preparing for the potential scenario of not receiving any federal funding, given the uncertainty surrounding many federal programs, such as FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and the Building Resilient Communities and Infrastructure (BRIC) initiative. Garrett Ingoglia pointed out that although federal programs like BRIC have helped build resilience efforts, local and state governments can implement different strategies in the absence of federal funding, including enforcing building codes and investing in pre-disaster preparedness.
• There is a growing need to enable and expand public-private partnerships. While the federal government has played and will continue to play a critical role, the panelists discussed the importance of the private sector and insurance companies in incentivizing resilience and adaptation at the local and state levels. As the federal government’s role evolves, local and state governments must innovate, build capacity, and ensure equity in resilience efforts. Our panelists agreed that engaging the private sector and leveraging public-private partnerships will be key to navigating the challenges ahead.

Dan Ness highlighted specific examples of public-private partnerships in addressing infrastructure risks, particularly as local governments heavily rely on property taxes and insurance companies. Models like the Fortified program in Louisiana and Alabama show how collaboration can address insurance crises and build resilience.

• Efforts to reform the disaster recovery and resilience system should adopt a program-oriented approach focused on delivering results and reducing administrative costs. The panelists discussed the need for reforming the disaster recovery and resilience system. Derrick Hiebert emphasized that states and localities need to shift from a project-by-project approach to a program-oriented approach that evaluates outcomes and aligns projects with those needs. Another issue the panelists highlighted was the high administrative cost of building new infrastructure, and how often administrators prioritize following federal rules and reviews over ensuring projects build resilience.

Ultimately, community resilience is about more than just surviving the next storm; it is about building systems and communities that can thrive in the face of adversity.

To see the full panel discussion, click here.

If you are interested in learning more about insurance, risk, and community resilience, join us on October 23 at 2 pm for our event with Leadership Connect!