Winrock International announces new director for climate and environment
Winrock International is pleased to announce that Colin Quinn has been selected as Winrock’s director for climate and environment, a role that focuses on expanding collaboration across all Winrock programs to strategically align climate initiatives and identifying opportunities to grow Winrock’s portfolio of already strong and broad climate change work.
“Climate work is a critical part of Winrock’s mission, impacting a wide range of our locally led programming including sustainable agriculture and water, safe migration and counter-trafficking, climate finance, net zero, carbon crediting and markets, ecosystems and clean energy,” said Winrock President and CEO Maqsoda Maqsodi. “We’re in a pivotal climate moment in history, and Colin has deep passion to improve society’s ability to address climate change by linking science to decision-making. I’m so excited that he is taking the lead on coordinating and enhancing this work.”
Quinn has nearly two decades of experience working in the U.S. and internationally in ecological research and climate change, collaborating with diverse teams to identify creative solutions to challenging problems, linking science to action and learning from others.
Prior to joining Winrock, he led the Climate Change Team in the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Africa Bureau, managing a team that integrated climate change and limited climate-related risks across USAID projects in sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, Quinn worked for USAID in Mozambique, where he oversaw a $20 million coastal city adaptation program and developed a project to limit climate risks to public health by using climate data, information and technology. He also worked for the Cadmus Group on both USAID and U.N. projects, on climate policy for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and has conducted ecological research for the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.
Quinn, who has a doctorate from Colorado State University in plant ecology and a biology degree from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, previously served as technical advisor for climate smart market systems in Winrock’s Agriculture, Resilience & Water program group. In his new role as part of Winrock’s Corporate Affairs & Strategy team, Quinn will strategically advance Winrock’s robust climate change work across programs to support climate thought leadership, proposals and projects, communications and donor outreach to strengthen the organization’s impact and presence in the climate change field.