Josh Sawislak is the global director of resilience for the infrastructure services firm AECOM. In this role, he works across the entire enterprise of AECOM's offerings in planning, design, construction, finance, operations, and development to help develop and leverage resilient strategies projects and clients to address issues such as sustainability, climate change, disaster preparedness, and enterprise risk management. He provides thought leadership and strategic advice to corporations, national governments, municipalities, NGOs, and international organizations across the globe on issues related to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction, and the implementation of the UNFCCC Paris Agreement.
Prior to rejoining AECOM, he served in the Obama Administration, most recently as the Associate Director for Climate Preparedness at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where he developed U.S. federal policy on climate adaptation and resilience and worked with foreign governments and international organization on multilateral and bilateral efforts. He also served as a senior advisor to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) focused on infrastructure and resilience at HUD and across government. He led the development of the infrastructure recommendations for President Obama’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force.
Mr. Sawislak also served in state government, but spent most of his career in the private sector. He worked on signature projects such as the flood protection of lower Manhattan and the Second Avenue Subway in NYC, Boston’s Big Dig, and the 100 Resilient Cities program globally. He is an environmental and transportation planner and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and serves on the boards of directors for the National Institute of Coastal and Harbor Infrastructure and evacuteer.org and is an advisor to several other organizations and programs in support of resilience and sustainability.