Shalini Vajjhala is founder & CEO of re:focus partners, a design firm dedicated to developing integrated resilient infrastructure solutions and innovative public-private partnerships for vulnerable communities around the world. She is also a nonresident senior fellow with the Metropolitan Policy Program at The Brookings Institution. In addition, she is the co-founder of The Atlas, an online community for local governments to find, source, and procure innovative urban solutions. 

Previously, Shalini held multiple positions in the Obama Administration, including special representative in the Office of Administrator Lisa Jackson at the US EPA, where she led the US-Brazil Joint Initiative on Urban Sustainability; deputy assistant administrator in the Office of International & Tribal Affairs at EPA; and deputy associate director for Energy & Climate at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. She joined the Obama Administration from Resources for the Future, where she was awarded a patent for her adaptation mapping work. 

Shalini received her Ph.D. in Engineering & Public Policy and B.Arch in Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University, and was also a visiting associate professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, where she designed and taught a series of courses on Case Studies in Sustainable Development.