Tamara Coger, a 2016 graduate of Brown’s Master of Public Affairs (MPA) program, works as the policy director of the Global Restoration Initiative at the World Resources Institute, where she has spent the past eight years helping shape international approaches to climate resilience, ecosystem restoration and locally led adaptation. Her work spans forests, finance and resilience of frontline communities. It is technical, global, and urgent.
And beneath the policy frameworks and strategy documents is something else: a deep love of nature, a commitment to climate justice, a belief in progress for good, and a conviction that solutions are within reach — values which were sharpened during her time at Brown.
At Watson, Coger found intellectual flexibility and training that crossed traditional academic boundaries, which enabled her to turn her environmental concern into a career.
Before attending Brown, she studied at American University, where she majored in international relations and affairs. After completing her undergraduate degree, she worked in Washington, D.C., in international development. She joined USAID-funded projects and worked across sectors, including health and agriculture. It was valuable early-career experience that, over time, paved the way to a clearer calling.
“As I was exploring different areas, I realized that I really wanted to focus on climate change and environmental spheres,” said Coger. To make that pivot, she turned to graduate schools that could provide the policy grounding needed to transition into climate work.
What first attracted her to Brown was practicality. Watson’s accelerated one-year structure meant she could deepen her expertise without stepping away from her career for two full years. Just as important was the program’s flexibility. Though not branded as an environmental policy degree, Watson offered something Coger valued more: the freedom to shape the curriculum around her own goals.
“It was something that I could tailor to align with my interests,” she said.
At Brown, some of the most influential classes were not what she expected. A course on environmental impact assessment sounded, at first glance, highly procedural — a class about learning how to conduct technical reviews. Instead, it centered on justice, examining how environmental assessments could be used to promote fairer outcomes, especially for communities that bear disproportionate burdens from pollution, climate disruption and underinvestment.
“It was very different than what I expected,” she said, “and way more useful.”
This course and others like it became foundational to how she thinks about policy design today, and foreshadowed the direction of her later work.
Beyond explicitly climate-focused coursework, Brown provided Coger proficiency in adjacent disciplines. Economics classes, statistics and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) training expanded her toolkit and taught her how to communicate across specialties.
“I know I’m never going to be an economist or a GIS expert, but having that foundation and being conversant in those topics has been really useful.”
Through her MPA project and a faculty connection, she secured an opportunity at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, where she supported research on synergies and trade-offs between climate adaptation and mitigation policies in agriculture. It was exactly the kind of work she hoped to do.
She described the experience as unique and influential, as she saw how policy recommendations develop, learned inside a multilateral institution, and worked alongside representatives from countries across the OECD.
“It was an opportunity I have always been grateful for,” she said.
The experience remains meaningful years later. She is still in touch with her former supervisor and has crossed paths with the organization multiple times since. Equally important were the friendships she formed at Brown. Because the Watson program moves at an intense pace, students bond quickly.
“It’s sort of a bonding experience to go through that together,” she said. “It’s a close cohort, and you’re doing this intensive program together; the structure is conducive to fast friendships.”
After Brown, Coger joined the World Resources Institute. She began on the monitoring, evaluation and learning team, working across the organization on strategic planning and program assessments. In many ways, it was a direct application of skills developed at Brown. She analyzed impact, synthesized information and helped teams improve outcomes. From there, she moved into climate resilience and adaptation.
One major focus was shifting international climate policy conversations to elevate adaptation funding alongside mitigation. For years, much of the climate agenda centered on reducing emissions — essential work, but only part of the equation. Communities are already experiencing climate disruption. They also need resources to adapt. That led to one of the initiatives that Coger is most proud of: locally led adaptation.
The concept is straightforward and powerful. Communities closest to climate impacts should have meaningful authority over decisions affecting their future, along with direct access to funding and support.
“It’s easy to agree with in theory,” she said. “But what does that actually look like in practice?”
Her work helped answer that question through frameworks, principles and examples for governments and institutions. The approach gained traction internationally, with endorsements from major organizations and references in the Biden administration’s climate policy. Although she is careful not to overstate policy wins, she believes changing narratives matters as “it helps shift toward a more bottom-up and localized approach.”
Today, as policy director of WRI’s Global Restoration Initiative, she focuses on ecosystems — particularly forests — and leads policy efforts tied to restoration.
