Supporting a Resilient and
Sustainable Rebuild:

Blue Ribbon Commission on

Climate Action and Fire-Safe Recovery

Announcing the initial recommendations and draft action plans — to inform and seed
policy and budget deliberations in real time. The Commission will continue to engage
with Palisades and Altadena community members, policymakers, and key stakeholders
to solicit feedback, questions, and ideas to help refine the final recommendations.

To support a more resilient and sustainable recovery from the 2025 LA County
Wildfires, Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath convened an independent Commission
made up of leading experts from diverse professional backgrounds who are
volunteering their time to develop recommendations for Los Angeles County’s
rebuilding effort. The recommendations are designed for broad applicability
across LA County, ensuring a thoughtful, cohesive, and region-wide approach
to rebuilding that prioritizes resiliency to natural hazards.

The University of California, Los Angeles, is supporting the Commission as a research partner, compiling a diverse set of experts from across the UCLA campus and leading research institutions across the Los Angeles region. UCLA’s Sustainable LA Grand Challenge and the Luskin Center for Innovation are providing research and administrative support to the Commission, drafting recommendations, and leading community engagement.

The Commission is developing recommendations to:

  • Build back homes, businesses, and infrastructure to be more resilient to fires and other climate shocks;

  • Retrofit existing homes, businesses, and infrastructure in at-risk communities, and

  • Catalyze regionwide climate resiliency measures and investments.

Fact Sheet

This fact sheet provides information
on the Commission, Commission
members, deliverables, and how
the community will be involved. The
document also shares what makes
the commission unique.


Press Release

February 13th, 2025 press release
highlighting the unprecedented
destruction of 18,000 structures, and
estimated $250 billion dollars in
economic losses, and 100,000
displaced residents. The press
release highlights the urgent need
for climate adaptation policies and
resilient rebuilding of these
communities in Los Angeles County.

Marissa Aho—Former Chief Resilience,
Officer for Los Angeles and Houston; Director
Executive Climate Office King County, WA.


Ben Stapleton—Executive Director, US
Green Building Council, California


Matt Petersen—Chair

CEO, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator; Former
Chief Sustainability Officer, City of Los Angeles

Marty Adams—General Manager (Ret.),
Los Angeles Department of Water and
Power

Cecilia V. Estolano—CEO and Founder,
Estolano Advisors

Russell Goldsmith—Former Chairman, City
National Bank; Chairman, Forest
Management Company

Rudy Ortega—Tribal President,
Fernandeño Tataviam Band of
Mission Indians

Tracy Quinn—CEO, Heal the Bay

Laurie Johnson—Former Chief Catastrophe Response and Resiliency Officer, California Earthquake Authority

Veronica Padilla—CEO, Pacoima Beautiful

Laurie Schoeman—Chief Impact Officer,
Partners for the Common Good; Former
White House Senior Housing Advisor

David Wilson—City Manager, City of West
Hollywood

Ted Bardacke—CEO, Clean Power Alliance


Mary Leslie—President, Los Angeles
Business Council

Jonathan Parfrey—CEO, Climate Resolve

Donna Shen Tripp—Partner, Craig Lawson
& Co.

Roy Wright—CEO, Insurance Institute for
Business and Home Safety

Fran Pavley—Vice Chair

State Senator (Ret.), Environmental Policy
Director, USC Schwarzenegger Center

  • The Commission is made up of volunteer community and technical experts including national climate resiliency and disaster
    response leaders; building and urban planning and design professionals; water and power engineers; and housing, insurance, and
    finance experts.

Commission Leadership

Ron Frierson—Director of Economic
Development, Amazon; Board Chair, LA
Economic Development Corporation

Mark Gold—Former California Deputy
Secretary for Oceans and Coastal Policy;
Director for Water Scarcity Solutions, NRDC.

Commission Members

Commission members at two-day kick-off retreat in late February 2025.

The recommendations are urgently needed to support fire-impacted homeowners and businesses, but the lessons learned will
be applicable to many at-risk communities across LA County. The Commission is working with UCLA to develop a community
engagement process that allows it to incorporate:

Community Engagement

Priorities and preferences from Palisades and Eaton Fire
impacted communities.

Opportunities for enhancing resilience cost-effectively
in similarly at-risk communities.

Innovative ideas proposed by businesses, residents, and
researchers and lessons from other communities
impacted by wildfires and other climate disasters.

Feedback from other community-driven processes
being developed to support fire recovery.

In June, the Commission will deliver concrete
recommendations for policymakers and impacted
community members on strategies to advance
sustainable and resilient rebuilding. By October, the
Commission will deliver further recommendations to
address resilient measures for at-risk communities,
including critical infrastructure investments, across
LA County. Research questions will include the
following themes:

Next Steps and
Immediate Deliverables

  • Resiliency measures and construction practices (e.g.
    materials, defensible space, plant palette) that are most
    impactful to keeping buildings and critical infrastructure safe.

  • Strategies to reduce cost and fast-track resilient rebuilds of
    homes and businesses.

  • Opportunities to reduce regulatory barriers to implementing
    resiliency measures.

  • Urban design, brush management, and landscape
    considerations to protect properties and infrastructure.

  • Water, power, and communications infrastructure hardening,
    resiliency, and redundancy.

  • Financing strategies to support private and public
    reconstruction goals, including support for legacy
    homeownership, combatting land speculation, and insurance
    coverage.

  • Approaches to rebuilding that elevate community priorities
    and advance economic, environmental, and social equity.

  • Effective retrofit measures to existing structures for enhanced
    resiliency.

UCLA is supporting the Commission with research, convenings, public engagement, and vetted recommendations. Convened by
Chancellor Julio Frenk and led by climate change adaptation policy expert and Luskin Center for Innovation Faculty Director
Megan Mullin. Institute for the Environment and Sustainability’s Director Alex Hall, a leading atmospheric science and wildfire
expert, is supporting the effort with his staff at the Sustainable LA Grand Challenge. Deputy Director for the Emmett Institute on
Climate Change and the Environment Julia Stein rounds out UCLA’s leadership team supporting the Commission. The multi-
disciplinary team will leverage expertise from world-class UCLA faculty from:

UCLA Research

Funding Sources

This effort is supported by a grant from the California Community Foundation and
in-kind support from UCLA, including from the Sustainable LA Grand Challenge and
Luskin Center for Innovation. Commission members are all volunteers.

Copyright © 2025 Blue Ribbon Commission, All Rights Reserved.