Receiving Communities: A Workshop to Advance a Research & Policy Agenda

Thursday, February 6 | 10 am - 4 pm

Jacob Burns Moot Courtroom

As climate change continues to reshape our environment with sea-level rise and extreme weather events, the challenge of displacement grows more urgent. Many communities are already facing the need to relocate, yet the U.S. lacks a comprehensive strategy to manage internal displacement. These displaced populations often relocate to what are known as “receiving communities” or “climate havens,” which currently lack the coordinated policy support to absorb and integrate these new populations effectively.

Join us for a workshop that will discuss Adaptation Leader’s draft Research & Policy Agenda for Receiving Communities in the U.S., which proposes innovative approaches that could inform a national strategy including innovation zones, sister cities, city certification, and utilizing federal lands within constitutional bounds.

This interdisciplinary event will feature presentations from leading experts to facilitate robust discussions and valuable input to inform next steps. Attendees will include a diverse group of participants including government agencies, urban and regional planning officials, community representatives, journalists, academics, and NGOs.

Agenda

10 am – Welcome

Randall Abate, Assistant Dean for Environmental Law Studies, GW Law

10:10 am — Introduction and Rationale

Ira Feldman, Founder and Board Chair, Adaptation Leader

10:20 am — Keynote I: Receiving Communities – The Current State of Play

Hannah Teicher, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning, Harvard University Graduate School of Design

11 am — Roundtable Plenary Session

Developing a Research & Policy Agenda

Peter Soyka, Adaptation Leader
Josh Foster, Adaptation Leader
Meghan Sullivan, Adaptation Leader
Mary Ann Grena Manley, Adaptation Leader

11:45 am — Concurrent Plenary Session #1 (Burns)

“Other Mobility Initiatives"

Yulia Panfil, New America
Lindsay Brugger, ULI
David Lubell, ICLEI
Ira Feldman, Founder and Board Chair, Adaptation Leader (Moderator)

11:45 am — Concurrent Plenary Session #2 (FCC)

“Future Leaders” Insights

Fernando Munoz, LLM in International Environmental Law, GW Law
Nidhi Shashidhara, Master’s in Sustainable Urban Planning, George Washington University
Jacob York, Master’s student in Urban and Regional Planning, University of Florida
Breanna Crossman, BA candidate in International Affairs, George Washington University
Randall Abate, Assistant Dean for Environmental Law Studies, GW Law (Moderator)

12:30 - 1:30 pm – Networking Lunch (Burns Moot Court Room / Kelly Lounge)

Enjoy a networking lunch with all workshop participants.

1:30 pm — Keynote II: Constitutional Issues

James May, Richard S. Righter Distinguished Professor of Law, Washburn University School of Law

2:15 pm — Breakout Sessions - Round One

A: "Climate Havens" and Other Local Initiatives (Burns)
Facilitators: Keith Hirokawa, Albany Law School; Oliver Kroner, City of Cincinnati; Kelly St. John, City of Buffalo (invited)

B: Scenario Planning (FCC)
Facilitator: Joe Schilling, Urban Institute

C: Constitutional Issues and Federal Lands (Dean’s Conference Room)
Facilitator: James May, Washburn University School of Law

3 pm — Breakout Sessions - Round Two

D: Receiving Zones and Innovation Zones (Burns)
Facilitators: Korkut Onaran, Pel-Ona Architects & Urbanists

E: City Certification (FCC)
Facilitator: Scott Preston, PLACE Initiative

F: The Bigger Picture (Dean’s Conference Room)
Facilitator: Josh Foster, Adaptation Leader

3:45 pm — Wrap-up Session (Burns)

Reframing the Issues: Communicating in the Trump II Era
Facilitator: Jeff Peterson, ELI Fellow

4 - 5:30 pm — Reception (Kelly Lounge)

Enjoy a reception with all participants to close out the workshop.

James R. May

James R. May, Esq. is Richard S. Righter Distinguished Professor of Law at Washburn University, where he teaches environmental and constitutional law and human rights, and co-directs the program in environmental, energy, and resources law. Professor May joined Washburn in 2024 after decades in academia elsewhere, including at Widener University, and at law schools at Georgetown, Duquesne, Hawai’i, Pace, Pittsburgh, Utah, Vermont and elsewhere. He has published 20 casebooks and treatises and more than 120 book chapters and articles for Yale, Penn, Cambridge, Oxford, Edward Elgar, Routledge, Hein, UCLA, Case Western, and many others on topics bridging environmental law, human rights, climate change and sustainability.

Professor May is an award-winning teacher, human rights litigator, and author. As a teacher, he was awarded the Albert Young Fellowship in Constitutional Law and the Douglas E. Ray Award at Widener University (Delaware Law), the Robinson Environmental Law Award at Haub School of Law at Pace University, the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Kansas School of Law, and membership in the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. Professor May was appointed the founding Chief Sustainability Officer at Widener University, where he established the Faculty Executive Council and chaired the Sustainability Council, and chaired committees on hiring, faculty governance, faculty development, and tenure. He founded the award-winning institutes in environmental law and human dignity rights at Widener University Delaware Law School, where he serves as Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus. He holds a BS and JD from the University of Kansas and an LLM from Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University.

Hannah Teicher

Hannah Teicher is an Assistant Professor of Urban Planning at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Her research is broadly concerned with how adaptation to climate change is shaping urban transformations across scales. Her current research agenda centers on long-term planning for climate migration and collaborations that reach beyond the usual environmental suspects. Regarding climate migration, she is interested in how and why cities are identified as potential receiving communities, and the implications for policy and planning. She is also analyzing corporate climate migration and how that affects geographies of opportunity for individuals and communities seeking to reduce their own climate risk. She served in the leadership of the Climigration Network for five years and worked with a team there to guide development of Lead with Listening: a guidebook for community conversations on climate migration. She has published her research in journals including Climate Policy, the Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, Urban Climate, and the Journal of Planning Education and Research. She holds a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from MIT, a Master of Architecture from the University of British Columbia, and a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Swarthmore College.