Paul Gallay J.D.

Pronouns: he/him/his
Senior Staff Associate III and Director, Resilient Coastal Communities Project, Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSUD), Columbia Climate School
Lecturer, Undergraduate Special Concentration and Major in Sustainable Development
Columbia Climate School - Center for Sustainable Urban Development 61 Claremont Avenue - Rm 520E New York, New York 10115 United States

BIOGRAPHY:

Paul Gallay is the Director of Columbia's Resilient Coastal Communities Project, which is a unique partnership between the Climate School's Center for Sustainable Urban Development and the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance dedicated to establishing actionable, equitable solutions to flood risks along with complementary benefits like habitat restoration, job creation and more empowered communities. He has also served as a Lecturer in the Columbia Climate School’s Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development since 2018.

Prior to joining Columbia full time and establishing the Resilient Coastal Communities Project in 2021, Paul served in legal and policy leadership positions with the New York State Attorney General and Department of Environmental Conservation, Hudson Riverkeeper and land conservation organizations in New York and Maine.

Paul is a 1981 graduate of Williams College, where he also served as Visiting Professor of Environmental Law from 2004 to 2008. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1984.

PROJECTS

Only select projects listed below

Name	Start Date	End Date
Resilient Coastal Communities Project	11/1/21

PUBLICATIONS

Journal Article: Advancing Equitable Partnerships - Frontline Community Visions for Coastal Resiliency Knowledge Co-production, Social Cohesion, and Environmental Justice (RCCP in Geoforum - June 2024).pdf

Project Report: Resilient Coastal Communities Project Update - February 2024

Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning - Annual Conference (October 2023) Advancing Equitable Partnerships: Frontline Community Visions for Coastal Resiliency Knowledge Co-Production, Social Cohesion, and Environmental Justice (draft; co-authors: Aya Morris, Bernadette Baird-Zars, Jacqueline M. Klopp, Annel Hernandez, Lexi Scanlon, and Hannah Su-An Lin (Columbia Climate School, Center for Sustainable Urban Development), Victoria Sanders (New York City Environmental Justice Alliance).

Columbia Climate School - At What Point Managed Retreat? Conference (June 2023) Towards A More Community-Driven Conversation About Risk And Relocation.

ICSI UN Convening: Accelerating Implementation of Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in Infrastructure (May 2023). Addressing The Wicked Problem of Coastal Flooding in the NYC Metropolitan Area.

Fordham University International Conference on Social and Environmental Justice (May 2023) Advancing Equitable Partnerships: Frontline Community Visions for Coastal Resiliency Knowledge Co-Production, Social Cohesion, and Environmental Justice (see above).

Columbia Climate School - Decarbonization, Climate Resilience & Climate Justice Conference (March 31, 2023) Coastal Resilience Planning in NYC: Seeking Safety, Finding Justice.

Horizontal & Urban-scale Coalitions to Address The Wicked Problem of Coastal Adaptation. Columbia World Projects - At the Water’s Edge Conference, October 2022.

Designing Community-led Plans to Strengthen Social Cohesion: What Neighborhoods Facing Climate-driven Flood Risks Want From Resilience Planning Resilient Coastal Communities Project Working Paper, June 2022.

Presentation: Towards A Justice-Oriented Engagement Strategy For The New York-New Jersey "Harbor and Tributary" Coastal Resilience Study

White Paper: ICSI UN Convening: Accelerating Implementation of Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in Infrastructure.

New York City Council, Committee on Waterfronts: RCCP Testimony on Nature-Based Solutions to Coastal Flooding Risks (December 1, 2022).

Statement: Advocates Celebrate Breakthrough in Campaign to Overhaul Flawed Army Corps Flooding Plan for NY-NJ Harbor (November 13, 2023)

Retreat/Refusal/Resilience. Williams College - Just Futures Roundtable, March 2022.

Teaming Up for Coastal Resilience and Climate Justice in NYC. State of the Planet, January 2022.

“How to Foster Science-Driven Public Policy” Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Bio-Paleo Lecture Series. November 2021.

"Doing less with less at EPA: Environmental enforcement has plummeted in the era of Trump. Here’s what we can do about it." American Bar Association Journal [online]. July/August 2019.

Guest Contributor, Huffington Post (2014 - 2018).

Harvard University - Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure. Valuing Green Infrastructure: Next Generation Planning Perspectives on Urban Water Management. Feb 2017.

Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs - Uehiro-Carnegie-Oxford Conference on Global Warming. Closing keynote: Community Advocacy and Climate Change. Oct. 2015.

Staff and Affiliates Directory

Paul Gallay J.D.

PROJECTS

PUBLICATIONS