SIPA: School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University

SIPA Faculty

Irene Boland Nielson
Lecturer of International and Public Affairs
ib2121@columbia.edu

Biography:
Irene Boland Nielson is the climate change coordinator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regional office serving New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

She joined EPA as a Presidential Management Fellow and has worked on issues ranging from the agency’s strategic plan, a memorandum of agreement with Department of Defense for a sustainable Guam, and in recent years, on climate change.

In 2007, Nielson published a children’s book about the history of wind power in China, Persia, Europe and the U.S. She co-chairs the EPA Region 2 Climate Change Workgroup, administers Climate Showcase Community grants and works to promote sustainability in communities in the U.S.

Neilson serves as chair of the board for ioby, or In Our Backyards, a nonprofit crowd resourcing platform dedicated to funding environmental projects in New York City.

Nielson received her Bachelors of Urban and Environmental Planning at the University of Virginia, School of Architecture and her Master of Public Administration from SIPA.