Dr. Virginia Burkett

Virginia Burkett is Chief Scientist for Climate and Land Use Change at the United States Geological Survey. She has published roughly 100 journal articles, book chapters and reports that focus on wetlands, climate change, and low-lying coastal systems. She was a Lead Author of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third, Fourth and Fifth Assessment Reports and the IPCC Technical Paper on Water. She was also a Lead Author of the First, Second and Third US National Climate Assessments. She has served as Chair of the $2.6 billion US Global Change Research Program and USGS Associate Director. Prior to her work at USGS, Burkett was Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, where she formerly served as Deputy Secretary.

Burkett has been appointed to over 70 Commissions, Committees, Science Panels and Boards during her career. She currently represents the US Department of the Interior on the National Academies’ Climate Security Roundtable and is a member of the Louisiana Governor’s Climate Initiatives Task Force. She co-chairs the International Activities Working Group of the US Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and is a US Delegate to international GEO, which consists of representatives from 115 countries.