Dartmouth Events

Meeting the Climate Moment: Rebuilding our Middle Class & Accelerating American Manufacturing and Innovation.

White House Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi will be in conversation with Dr. Melody B. Burkins, Director of the Institute of Arctic Studies, and Tiernan Sittenfeld '96, Senior Vice President of the League of Conservation Voters.

Free and open to the public and livestreamed online. To register for the livestream, please click here.

Co-sponsored by the Institute of Arctic Studies at the Dickey Center for International Understanding, The Department of Environmental Studies, and The Dartmouth Climate Futures Initiative.

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Ali Zaidi serves as Assistant to the President and National Climate Advisor. In this role, he leads the White House Climate Policy Office, which coordinates policy development and President Biden’s all-of-government approach to tackle the climate crisis, create good-paying, union jobs, and advance environmental justice. Zaidi is a longtime advisor to President Biden, having provided counsel and leadership on climate policy development, legislation, and executive action from day one of the Administration and on the Biden presidential transition and campaign.  Before his current role, he served as Deputy National Climate Advisor.

During his time in the Biden-Harris Administration, Zaidi has led on efforts to re-establish U.S. climate leadership, set a national target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52 percent by 2030; deliver robust executive actions, including regulatory, investment, and procurement-based initiatives; and secure the largest legislative wins on climate in U.S. history, through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act.  

Zaidi immigrated from Pakistan and grew up outside Erie, Pennsylvania. He received an A.B. from Harvard University and J.D. from Georgetown University.

Tiernan Sittenfeld is the Senior Vice President for Government Affairs at the League of Conservation Voters. She directs LCV's policy and lobbying efforts with Congress and the executive branch on a range of issues, including climate change, energy, public lands, water, and chemical policy reform. She works on LCV’s legislative accountability campaigns and oversees the National Environmental Scorecard. She also leads the LCV Action Fund Coordinated Team, overseeing all candidate endorsements and endorsement communications, direct contributions, and coordinated field programs. Before joining LCV in 2005, she worked for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) as the Preservation Advocate, specializing in public lands and oceans issues.  Prior to that, she worked for OSPIRG and CALPIRG. Ms. Sittenfeld is a graduate of Dartmouth College.  She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and two sonns.