I’m so honored to introduce myself as the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication’s new Managing Director. YPCCC has been enormously transformative to the field of climate change communication since its inception in 2007, and alongside our director Anthony Leiserowitz, our researchers & practitioners, our journalism colleagues at Yale Climate Connections, and our partners, I am thrilled to help lead this program to new heights.
Below, I’d like to share a note I’ve written to better introduce myself – I hope you’ll take a moment to read and consider reaching out to say hello! I look forward to helping YPCCC continue to rise to greater heights.
Some of the most important lessons in my life began before sunrise.
As a teenage volunteer with the American Red Cross beginning in 1994, I often received calls before school telling me to meet another volunteer and head to a family whose life had changed overnight. Sometimes it was a house fire. Sometimes flooding. Sometimes another local disaster that had left people standing in front of what had been their home only hours before.
I wasn’t thinking about climate change then.
I was learning something even more fundamental.
I was learning that disasters are never simply about damaged buildings or disrupted infrastructure. They are about people. They are about relationships, trust, dignity, and the remarkable resilience of communities when neighbors choose to show up for one another. Those early experiences sparked what has become a lifelong commitment to humanitarian service, eventually taking me across the United States and around the world, where I witnessed firsthand how climate change is disproportionately affecting frontline communities long before many of us had the language to describe what we were seeing.
Those experiences shaped not only my career — they shaped my belief that solving climate change requires more than science alone. It requires understanding people. It requires listening. It requires building trust. And it requires helping people see themselves as part of a future worth creating together.
That is why joining the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication is such an extraordinary honor.
For nearly twenty years, under the visionary leadership of Dr. Anthony Leiserowitz and Lisa Fernandez, YPCCC has fundamentally transformed the field of climate change communication. The program has helped millions better understand not only what people think about climate change, but how we can communicate in ways that build understanding, agency, and collective action. Through survey research like Climate Change in the American Mind, interactive tools like the Yale Climate Opinion Maps, vital journalism from Yale Climate Connections, groundbreaking research, and partnerships around the world, YPCCC has become an indispensable resource for everyone working to create a healthier, more resilient future.
Like so many others, I admired this work long before I ever imagined I might become part of it. To now have the privilege of helping steward its next chapter is both deeply humbling and profoundly exciting.
I especially want to express my deepest gratitude to Lisa Fernandez. Her leadership, generosity, and unwavering commitment helped build not only one of the world’s leading climate communication organizations, but also a culture of excellence, kindness, and purpose. We are all beneficiaries of the foundation she and Tony have built together.
I look forward to continuing the long tradition of climate research and communication YPCCC represents. Feel free to reach out anytime to introduce yourself, share a story about how YPCCC has impacted your work/world, or any questions you may have! You can email me anytime at jono.anzalone@yale.edu, or call at +1.203.432.5055
Jono