Anne Coglianese
MPA ’21
Chief resilience officer for the City of Jacksonville, FL
Years in government: 8
In October 2023, Anne Coglianese launched Jacksonville’s first ever resilience strategy, which outlines 45 actions and 90 subactions to implement over the next 50 years.
Jacksonville’s Resilience Strategy: I try to expect the unexpected and identify Jacksonville’s gaps today and vulnerabilities in the future. Resilience looks different across Jacksonville. It includes both shocks, like hurricanes or wildfires, and long-term stressors, like sea level rise or extreme heat. We are a city of 1 million people across a massive land area. We have the largest city by land area and the most linear miles of shoreline in the continental United States. So we grounded our strategy in a sense of place and tailored our actions to the unique people, ecosystems, geographies, and communities that make up Jacksonville. Our data analysis helped determine what risks a person faces depending on where they live within our city which allows us to tailor approaches to different zip codes, neighborhoods, and communities. Then we made it implementable by identifying the short- medium- and long-term actions that we can start on right away. We are already checking things off the list!
On political transitions:
The strategy was developed under two different political administrations, and I was fortunate that both mayors were willing to let data and science drive this process, which has helped us make more equitable decisions. Science and data allow us to see our blind spots better by providing a more objective understanding of our most concentrated and urgent risk areas."
Anne Coglianese
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