Rebecca Laberenne

Rebecca Laberenne is principal for Climate Risk and Resilience at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), leading the development and execution of the organization’s strategy to increase the relevance and impact of USGBC’s risk and resilience-related activities. She has over two decades of experience focused on improving the quality and safety of the built environment with particular focus on housing, social infrastructure, and building standards in communities with high hazard risk in the United States and internationally.

Laberenne worked for over a decade as a practicing structural engineer at Guy Nordenson and Associates in New York before joining the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative, leading the organization’s partnerships and pilot projects on urban built environment resilience. She then spent five years as Senior Consultant to the World Bank, supporting the Global Program for Safer Schools and the Building Regulation for Resilience Program, as well as working as an independent consultant to a variety of organizations such as Local Governments for Sustainability, Build Change, Applied Technology Council and the Rockefeller Foundation on disaster risk reduction, resilience, and climate adaptation.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in civil and environmental engineering and a certificate in architecture from Princeton University; a Master of Science in structural engineering, mechanics and materials from University of California, Berkeley; and a Master of Public Administration from New York University. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.