Jessica Dator-Bercilla

Senior Fellow | Climate and Disaster Resilience (especially for coastal cities and small islands); Co-beneficial Ecosystems and Nature-based Approaches; Risk Governance

Jessica served in the University of the Philippines in the Visayas as a member of the faculty working on development and policy studies for over a decade, before working with partnerships aimed at addressing root causes of poverty and policy research and advocacy work in the Philippines and Asia and the Middle East with Christian Aid. As part of the global climate change advocacy team of ACT Alliance, a coming-together of over 130 faith-based groups globally, she embarked on ensuring spaces of articulation for community-based policy concerns in national, regional, and global decision-making platforms. She has also worked with the Ateneo School of Government and Manila Observatory to develop approaches in and strengthen science-policy-practice nexus for risk governance.

Jessica has contributed to and continues to engage in developing transdisciplinary climate and disaster resilience approaches, including applications to COVID-19 and other development challenges with the Coastal Cities at Risk Ph, the National Resilience Council, Red Cross and Red Crescent Climate Center, various local, national, international non-government organizations, and local and national governments and regional platforms. Co-beneficial ecosystems and nature-based approaches is a field of work she is currently engaged in as an approach to risk and development governance in multiple applications. She is currently a returning faculty of the University of the Philippines in the Visayas under the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences' Institute of Fisheries Policy Development Studies.