People & Partners
Project Team
Holly is a thought leader on the nexus between climate change and plastics for the World Resources Institute (WRI) where she served as a Senior Fellow. She published one of the earliest articles on Why Plastics Are Also A Climate Issue, and was a member of the California Senate Bill 54 Implementation Working Group, a stakeholder group that helped craft the rules for this first-of-its-kind state plastic packaging reduction law. She is also a Nominator for Prince William's Earthshot Prize.
​
Holly founded and is President of Environment & Enterprise Strategies, providing strategic guidance to such organizations as the Union of Concerned Scientists, the National Science Foundation, the White House Council on Environmental Quality, The Elders, Pew Charitable Trusts, C40, the World Economic Forum, Conoco, Proctor & Gamble, the California Wind Energy Association, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and STAND.earth. She managed the climate change & national security portfolio at the U.S. Department of Defense as a President Clinton appointee, and was a strategic outreach expert on the UN climate treaty negotiations team at the State Department where she received a Superior Team Honor Award.
​
She has a B.S. with Highest Honors from the University of California at Berkeley, and was a Leadership Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School where she received an MPA in international environmental and economic studies. See her LinkedIn for more information.
Holly Kaufman
Co-founder & Director
Pamela is Founder & Chief Strategist at Amplify Eco, a communications and program management practice dedicated to advancing climate, sustainability, and human rights initiatives. She has led integrated communications and campaign strategies for mission-driven organizations for over three decades, including for Christensen Global, Solar AquaGrid, Health Care Without Harm, ClimateWorks, Greenpeace, the Center for Sustainable Energy, the California Public Utilities Commission, and the Rainforest Action Network. She is the board chair of Charge Across Town which increases equitable access to clean transportation. She has an MPA from New York University and a BA in Human Ecology from the College of the Atlantic.
See her LinkedIn for more information.​​
​
For Plastics & Climate Project media inquiries, contact: pwellner@amplifyeco.com.
Pamela Wellner
Communications Strategist
Mien Kaufman is a political science and pre-law student at Smith College, where she was awarded the college's highest academic scholarship, the Zollman scholarship. She is also a scholar in the STRIDE Program, which offers students with outstanding academic and personal qualifications mentorship from a Smith faculty member and a research assistant position. In that role, she conducts research for a forthcoming book on U.S.-China subnational diplomacy. Owing to her intention of becoming an immigration attorney with a focus on climate migration, she supports local refugee families through Smith's Refugee Initiative, and is an intern at Advocacy for Refugee & Immigrant Services for Empowerment (ARISE). She previously researched how climate change impacts migrant farm workers in California as an intern for State Senator Josh Becker. She speaks fluent Mandarin and is conversant in Spanish.
See her LinkedIn for more information.
Mien Kaufman
Associate
Advisory Board
The Plastics & Climate Project benefits from the input of advisory board members who ensure the scientific integrity of the Project's work and provide strategic advice. The Advisory Board also enables people and institutions engaged in complementary issues to add value to each other's work.
Co-Founder & Co-Director, The Descendants Project
Organization dedicated to preserving and improving the health, land, economy, and lives of the Black descendant community in Louisiana's "Cancer Alley."
Research professor of oceanography,
Sea Education Association
Research areas include ocean circulation, distribution of marine plastic debris, and degradation and fate of plastics in the ocean.
Oceanographer, research scientist, Center for Marine Debris and Hawaii Pacific University
One of the first scientists to discover that plastic emits greenhouse gases when exposed to sunlight.
Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources & Security, University of Wollongong
Key architect of the UN global plastics treaty research and proposal; co-author Climate Impact of Plastics, GRID-Arendal, 2024; contributing author of The Plastics & Climate Project's report.
Professor of environmental politics,
University of California Santa Barbara
Research includes climate change, renewable energy, water, and chemicals policy; named on TIME100 Next and as one of Business Insider’s top 30 global leaders working toward climate solutions.
Co-founder & former Science Director,
The Plastics & Climate Project,
Plastics pollution researcher at Canada's Memorial University, member of the UNEP/EC Working Group developing a toolkit to identify sources of plastic pollution.
Partners
​
Co-author of The Plastics & Climate Project report & policy advisors​
Membership
The Plastics & Climate Project is a proud member of these organizations and movements:
