Violet Saena
Executive Director, Climate Resilient Communities
Violet Saena
Violet Saena is the founder and executive director of Climate Resilient Communities, an organization that supports under-resourced communities of color at the frontline of climate change and sea-level rise. Her dedication to elevating community voices and responding to environmental injustice is rooted in her lived experience in the South Pacific. She has served as an international climate change expert with the United Nations’ Least Developed Countries and Small Island States to protect communities from the impacts of climate change. She now works in the Bay Area partnering with governments, research institutions, and community-based organizations to build community capacity to respond to climate change and sea-level rise. Violet also serves as the equity program manager for the Bay Area Climate Adaptation Network, an environmental justice advisor for the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, and a community advisory council member to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. Violet has a master’s degree in environmental management from Duke University, a bachelor’s in environmental studies from the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, and postgraduate diplomas in environmental and climate change management from Dresden University in Germany, Erasmus University in the Netherlands, and Waikato University in New Zealand. Currently, Violet is a Distinguished Visitor at Stanford University and her residency is on Environmental Sustainability.
