As National Lead of the Climate Hubs, Lynn Knight provides overall leadership, coordination and promotion of efforts to the existing network of regional and international USDA Climate Hubs. Lynn supports their efforts to develop and deliver science-based, region-specific information and technologies to agricultural and natural resource managers, and communities that enable climate-informed decision-making, and provides guidance to implement those decisions. In this role, Lynn supports the 10 USDA regional Climate Hubs and the International Climate Hub in providing regional, national and international level science synthesis, tool development/curation, education, outreach, and technical support to USDA agencies, external partners, USDA customers and the international community to enhance understanding of climate risks and increase climate-resilience on forested and agricultural landscapes. Lynn also provides leadership and coordination on the collaborative development and update of the Climate Hubs 5-year strategic plan and determination of annual hub priorities at the national level.
Lynn’s background includes serving for 10 years as a NRCS Co-Lead for the USDA Northeast Climate Hub, and 14 years with USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) as an economist providing conservation economic technical assistance and training to 22 States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Previously she worked with the USDA Office of the Assistant Secretary of Civil Rights conducting economic damage assessments, Senior Economist with USDA NRCS in Washington D.C. conducting regulatory economic impact analyses, and State Economist for NRCS in Vermont. She also worked as an economic and government policy consultant for American Farmland Trust, Winrock International, Farm Pilot Project Coordination Inc. and EnSave. Lynn holds a B.S. in Animal Science, and a M.S. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Vermont.
