Shana Udvardy

Shana Udvardy is a senior climate resilience policy analyst with the Climate & Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. She conducts research and policy analysis to help inform and build support to increase resilience to climate change impacts. In her role, she advocates for actions at the federal and state levels to advance just and equitable adaptation measures to help safeguard communities from climate change-related risks and impacts. She has expertise in developing regulatory and legislative comments, testimony, and policy proposals relating to climate impacts such as extreme heat, flooding, and wildfires, as well as climate-ready infrastructure, climate science, and military resilience.

Prior to joining UCS, Ms. Udvardy provided consulting services on climate adaptation and flood risk management policy. She was also the climate adaptation policy analyst at the Center for Clean Air Policy, director of flood management policy for American Rivers, and water program manager at the Georgia Conservancy. Ms. Udvardy also worked at the Smithsonian Institution’s Monitoring and Assessment of Biodiversity Program and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua.

Ms. Udvardy is a Certified Floodplain Manager, and holds a M.S. in conservation ecology and sustainable development from the University of Georgia’s Odum School of Ecology, and a B.A. from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School.

Ms. Udvardy is frequently called upon to speak on climate adaptation and flood risk management, by organizations including the American Academy of Actuaries, American Institute of Architects, American Shore and Beach forum, Fort Benning Heat Center, Mortgage Bankers Association, REOMAC, Tampa City Council and two State Department speaking tours in Bangkok and Manila, and in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos.

She has been quoted widely in outlets including Bloomberg News, Business Insider, Grist, The Hill, Insurance Journal, NBC, Newsweek, the New York Times, Politico, Scientific American, and South Florida Sun Sentinel. She has also appeared on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, and has been aired on NPR and Healthy Living Healthy Planet, among other outlets.