Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a scientist, policy expert, writer, and teacher working to help create the best possible climate future. She is co-founder of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank for the future of coastal cities, and is the Roux Distinguished Scholar at Bowdoin College. She authored the forthcoming book What If We Get it Right?: Visions of Climate Futures, co-edited the bestselling climate anthology All We Can Save, co-founded The All We Can Save Project, and co-created the Spotify/Gimlet climate solutions podcast How to Save a Planet.

Recently, Dr. Johnson co-authored the Blue New Deal, a roadmap for including the ocean in climate policy. Previously, as executive director of the Waitt Institute, she co-founded the Blue Halo Initiative and led the Caribbean’s first successful island-wide ocean zoning effort. She also developed U.S. federal ocean policy at the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

Dr. Johnson earned a BA from Harvard University in environmental science and public policy, and a Ph.D. from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in marine biology, with a dissertation on the ecology, socio-economics, and policy of sustainably managing coral reefs. The fish trap she invented to reduce bycatch won the first Rare/National Geographic Solution Search. 

Dr. Johnson serves on the board of directors for Patagonia and GreenWave, on the advisory board of the Environmental Voter Project, and the steering committee for the Ocean Justice Forum. Recent recognitions include the Schneider Award for climate communication and the Time 100 Next List.

Her writing has been published widely, including in The New York Times, Washington Post, and Scientific American. Dr. Johnson’s forthcoming book has the working title What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futurism. 

She is the proud daughter of a teacher/farmer and an architect/potter. She is in love with climate solutions.