Dr. Benjamin Leffel is bringing his expertise on climate change governance by cities and corporation to Councilmember Agran’s team. He earned his Ph.D. in the Department of Sociology at the University of California Irvine, and is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan.

He was appointed to Councilmember Agran’s team for his expertise in building strategies for emissions reduction and public-private partnerships. During his doctoral training at UC Irvine, he led a research team identifying opportunities for local environmentally conscious corporations to collaborate with the City of Irvine on climate action planning. He also unearthed and digitized Irvine’s history as the birthplace of ICLEI — Local Governments for Sustainability — the largest international organization of city governments for environmental governance.

Councilmember Agran said, “We are thrilled to have Ben Leffel join our team and help the City work on new climate action initiatives that put Irvine on the forefront of climate action planning.”