Dr. Amy Breen is an expert in Arctic vegetation ecology, short- and long-term effects of climate change and disturbance on vegetation. Her research interests include field studies and modeling to understand and forecast changes in Arctic terrestrial ecosystems, particularly the response of vegetation to disturbance and climate change.

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Dr. Jeremy Littell is a Research Ecologist with the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center (CASC). He conducts research on the role of climate and ecological drought in Alaska and other forested ecosystems. He also facilitates the use of climate information in planning, adaptation, and vulnerability assessment.

Littell’s background is the ecoclimatology of western North America's forests. His doctoral work at the University of Washington focused on ecological and climatic controls on wildfire in the western US and the role of climate in Douglas-fir tree growth across its climatic range. He also worked as a research scientist at the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group, collaborating with resource managers in federal and state agencies to better understand and use climate information in planning and adaptation.

At the Alaska CASC, his current work addresses two main themes:

• Development, coordination, and translation of climate science products for Alaska
• Observing and Understanding the Impacts of climate on Alaskan Forests

Jeremy also serves as an author on the Alaska chapter of the National Climate Assessment (NCA).

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Dr. Nancy Fresco is a Research Assistant Professor at UAF's International Arctic Research Center, and has been the Network Coordinator for the Scenarios Network for Alaska + Arctic Planning since its start in 2007. Her background is in biology, landscape ecology, and forestry.

She has worked on a wide range of interdisciplinary collaborative projects with partners ranging from small communities and non-profits to state, federal, and international agencies. Dr. Fresco’s work focuses on connecting northern climate data and model projections to the real-world needs, concerns, and questions of those who live and work here.

Nancy works closely with SNAP’s programmers, spatial analysts, and communications experts to create resources to aid in adaptation planning.

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Dr. Sergey Marchenko works at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. Sergey does research in numerical modeling of permafrost dynamics, climate-permafrost interactions, and the influence of permafrost on landform and landscape development in Arctic and sub-Arctic as well as across alpine environments of mid-latitude.

Other research interests include altitudinal permafrost formation, distribution and evolution in the mountain regions during the quaternary, present and future; and spatial analysis & development of scientific models on a high performance computing platform.

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Dr. Scott Rupp is Deputy Director of the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He is also SNAP Director, and serves as the University Director for the US Department of Interior’s Alaska CASC.

Dr. Rupp has more than 27 years of experience in ecosystem modeling and climate change/climate impacts science. Recent work has focused on modeling the response of subarctic and arctic ecosystems to changes in global climate and disturbance regimes. Dr. Rupp served as a member (2016–2017) of the Federal Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science.

Scott received a BS (1993) in Forest Management from Pennsylvania State University and a PhD (1998) in Forest Ecology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He is Professor of Forestry and has been a faculty member at UAF since 2001.

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Dr. John Walsh is an expert in Arctic climate, weather, climate change adaptation and sea ice who has worked at the University of Alaska Fairbanks International Arctic Research Center for decades.

Specialties include climate modeling, addressing regional vulnerabilities, downscaling models and more. His research has long focused on Arctic sea ice, and he worked to establish the Historical Sea Ice Atlas, a long-term database of sea ice levels back to the 1850s.

Among many other awards, Dr. Walsh was the winner of the 2022 Mohn Prize for his outstanding research in the Arctic. In addition to extensive scientific publications, Walsh has regularly served as an author or editor of official climate reports such as the Arctic Extreme Events chapter of AMAP's Climate Update report (2021) and a new Report Card section on Arctic Precipitation in the BAMS State of the Climate (2022).

The official assessment efforts to which John has contributed serve to evaluate, integrate, and communicate recent science research, primarily for public leaders and decision makers. He has aimed to provide a balanced perspective on Alaska’s recent changes in the face of both growing interest and comparatively sparse data resources in the region.

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