Our Team
Pankaj Bhatia
Global Director, GHG Protocol
Deputy Director, Climate Program, World Resources Institute
Pankaj Bhatia is the Deputy Director of WRI’s Climate Program and Director of GHG Protocol. As Deputy Director, he helps manage one of WRI’s largest programs and oversees the TRAC Signature Initiative as well as the GHG Protocol. In addition, Pankaj is one of the leading experts and authority on the GHG Protocol standards and tools, particularly in the areas of corporate, scope 3, mitigation action, and city accounting.
Cynthia Cummis
Director of Private Sector Climate Mitigation, World Resources Institute
Email | (202) 729-7846
Cynthia Cummis is the Director of Private Sector Climate Mitigation in WRI's Business Center. In this role she leads the institute’s work with businesses to reduce GHG emissions, including the Science Based Targets initiative, which she co-founded, and GHG Protocol’s suite of corporate GHG accounting and reporting standards. Cynthia was formerly Deputy Director of GHG Protocol and led the development of the Corporate Scope 3 (Value Chain) Accounting and Reporting Standard and the Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard.
Ms. Cummis is a well-known expert in GHG accounting and brings more than 18 years of experience working on the issue of global climate change. Prior to WRI, Cynthia was the Director of Carbon Management at Clear Carbon Consulting where she managed carbon quantification and management projects for multiple Fortune 500 clients as well as large public institutions.
Julia Cannata
Associate of Climate Taxonomy, World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Julia Cannata is the Associate of Climate Taxonomy in the Climate and Energy team at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). She has an undergraduate and master's degree in urban planning, specialized in climate action planning and climate vulnerability assessments. Prior to her role in Climate Taxonomy at WBCSD, she worked in climate science and business sustainability communications.
Mollie Freeman
Social Media Specialist, Climate Program
Mollie Freeman is a Social Media Specialist in the Climate Program. She works to develop WRI Climate, Climate Watch and GHG Protocol's online engagement strategies through creation of social media, email marketing, website content and more. Mollie first joined WRI as a Digital Specialist in the Food and Forests Programs working on digital communications for Champions 12.3, Cool Food, and Global Forest Watch.
Kevin Kurkul
Data Lead, Climate Action & Data, World Resources Institute
Email | 202-729-7667
Kevin Kurkul is the Data Lead for Climate Action & Data for WRI United States. He supports WRI United States’ work with the Global Covenant of Mayors, leading efforts to develop city-level inventory data for an online portal.
Before joining WRI, Kevin worked on GHG mitigation and sustainability projects at ICF. He developed the CLEER Tool and Protocol, an online data tool and GHG accounting protocol to help the U.S. Agency for International Development estimate the GHG impacts of their clean energy support around the world. He also contributed to the development of the U.S. national GHG inventory for the EPA.
Matt Ramlow
Research Associate, Climate Program, World Resources Institute
Matt is a Research Associate in WRI’s Climate program. He supports the Greenhouse Gas Protocol team in developing guidance for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions and carbon removals from land use, land use change and forestry, bioenergy and carbon capture and storage.
Prior to joining WRI in 2019, Matt led capacity-building workshops supporting national greenhouse gas inventories in Kenya, Uganda, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Guyana with the Coalition for Rainforest Nations. He also served as a program officer with Verra, reviewing methodologies and project documentation for international voluntary carbon markets.
David Rich
Senior Associate, GHG Protocol, World Resources Institute
Email | (202) 729-7744
David Rich is a Senior Associate in the Climate Program at the World Resources Institute. He focuses on greenhouse gas emissions measurement and reporting, including developing Greenhouse Gas Protocol standards for climate change policies, mitigation goals, corporate value chain (scope 3) emissions, and guidance for NDC accounting, sustainable development impact assessment, and mandatory GHG reporting.
Prior to joining WRI, David worked at Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM) where he worked on the development of the Climate Registry and state GHG emissions inventories.
Amir Safaei
Manager of Climate Taxonomy, World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Amir Safaei is the manager of Climate Taxonomy in the Climate and Energy team at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). His expertise lies in life cycle assessment methodology and climate taxonomy, and their application to products, services and organizations. Amir is a part of secretariat of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, currently developing the new Guidance on Carbon removals and Land sector. He also leads the methodology working group of WBCSD Value Chain Carbon Transparency Partnership.
Neelam Singh
Senior Associate, Major Emerging Economies, World Resources Institute
Email | (202) 729-7689
Neelam Singh is a Senior Associate with WRI’s Major Emerging Economies Team. She is currently working on the Measurement and Performance Tracking (MAPT) project, specifically on capacity building of businesses in developing countries on greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting and reporting in countries such as India and South Africa. In the past, she has worked with the GHG Protocol team on promoting best GHG emissions accounting and reporting practices in developing countries, focusing on China and India. She is also involved in research on facility level reporting systems, and on understanding linkages between corporate/facility and national inventory systems.
Richard Waite
Senior Research Associate, Food Program, World Resources Institute
Email | (202) 729-7734
Rich is a Senior Research Associate in WRI's Food Program. He is an author of the World Resources Report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future, which focuses on solutions to feed 10 billion people by 2050, including boosting agricultural productivity, reducing food loss and waste, shifting toward plant-rich diets, and protecting and restoring forests and other natural ecosystems.
Jessica Zionts
Research Analyst, Food Program and Greenhouse Gas Protocol
Jessica Zionts is a Research Analyst for the Food Program and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. Her work on both teams centers around assessing the land and carbon impacts of human activities through the development of accounting frameworks. For the Food Program, Jess is involved with building upon solutions from the 2019 Sustainable Food Futures Report to apply to specific countries and land-based industries. With the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, she assists in the development of the Land Sector and Carbon Removals accounting guidelines.