The Salazar Center is proud to announce that Crystal Upperman, Senior Manager, Deloitte, will be joining us in Denver, Colorado for the fifth-annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact.
Dr. Crystal Romeo Upperman is a Senior Manager at Deloitte in the Government and Public Services practice helping to bring best-in-class sustainability, climate adaptation, and climate equity support to clients. In her role, she advises on the firm’s go-to-market strategy as part of the Sustainability, Climate, and Equity strategic growth offering. Presently she serves as a review editor for the 5th National Climate Assessment (NCA5)—which evaluates the impacts of global change across the United States—and she serves on the executive committee for the U.S. EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors in the Office of Research and Development.
Crystal was formerly Vice President at AECOM leading climate resilience, social performance, and ESG for the Americas where she established a new portfolio of business centered on addressing climate equity and environmental justice across all business lines. She worked in tech at a San Francisco startup leading business strategy for air quality monitoring and equity mapping at Aclima. While at Aclima, she spearheaded the development of a climate and economic justice screening tool, developed meth for the integration of environmental health characterization within the platform and led external business development with private and public sector clients.
Prior, she was a Research Associate at the World Resources Institute on the Global Commission on Adaptation—which demonstrated that adapting to climate change improves human well-being and results in better, more sustainable economic development and security for all. Previous professional experiences span several notable organizations and institutions including serving as a consultant at the World Bank conducting research on sustainable agricultural development in China, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Crystal spent 4 years with the Maryland Department of Health leading the U.S. CDC’s Building Resilience Against Climate Effects grant that identified climate impacts and associated health effects in Maryland communities. She also worked for the District of Columbia’s Department of Health regulating the safe use and transport of radiation emitting devices across the district.
Her other prior experiences include extensive laboratory research in environmental remediation and catalyst products with years of regulatory compliance in air and radiation protection at the state levels. She began her career at BASF researching catalyst coatings for reducing vehicle emissions. Crystal’s research focus is in environmental science, exposure science and spatial epidemiology. Her research background includes a national assessment of the impact of climate change on chronic respiratory disease prevalence, which was funded by the US EPA. She has engaged in research projects that entail health risk assessment of climate and weather hazards, exposure assessment of pollen and extreme heat, environmental science translational research to promote sustainability and positive environmental and public health policies.
Crystal is a Trustee for The Nature Conservancy’s Maryland/DC chapter, a board member for WE ACT, a member of the advisory board for APHA’s Center for Climate, Health, and Equity, and a Steering Committee Member for the Environmental Law Institute’s (ELI) Emerging Leaders Initiative. This past presidential election cycle, she served on the Biden-Harris Campaign’s Climate, Energy, Environment policy committee and contributed to the Resilience and Environmental Justice subcommittees.
She earned a PhD in Marine, Estuarine, and Environmental Science from the University of Maryland as a U.S. EPA STAR Fellow and a National Science Foundation LSAMP Fellow. She holds a MPA in Nonprofit Management from Kennesaw State University and a BS in Environmental Science from Spelman College. Crystal hails from Trenton, NJ and spent her early formative years in the Caribbean islands of Trinidad & Tobago.
Resources:
Climate equity – Discovering the next frontier in outcome measurement in government