Culminating a partnership with UCLA, the Blue Ribbon Commission on Climate Action and Fire-Safe Recovery has published its final report and policy recommendations to chart a path toward climate-resilient rebuilding and long-term fire preparedness. The recommendations are paired with a summary of context and considerations provided by leading UCLA experts.
The Commission’s work was guided by a research effort led by UCLA’s Luskin Center of Innovation, Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the Sustainable LA Grand Challenge, that brought together more than 40 leading scholars and subject matter experts from across the UCLA campus, as well as from other universities and research institutions.
UCLA also spearheaded the community engagement effort by attending 23 government-hosted meetings, participating in 14 community events, conducting 17 private interviews, and convening four meetings between Commissioners and affected community members.
The report is divided into two parts:
Part II of the report, UCLA Research Context and Considerations: Informing Resilient Rebuilding from the January 2025 Los Angeles Fires, summarizes the curated, consolidated knowledge that UCLA provided to the Commission.
Part II of the report:
- Foregrounds the distinctive characteristics of the fire-impacted communities.
- Outlines the broader backdrop of the region’s fire vulnerability, existing policies, and opportunities for building resilience.
- Offers lessons from other fire recovery experiences and examines the design of governing entities that could lead rebuilding and fire resilience efforts.
- Reports on the goals, concerns, and priorities shared by fire survivors.
- Lays out areas of scientific consensus, areas where ongoing debates are underway, gaps in research, and questions on which policies must balance distinct priorities.
The UCLA-led Research Team:
The UCLA team is led by Megan Mullin, Director of the Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI), in consultation with Julia Stein, Deputy Director for the Emmett Institute on Climate Change & the Environment and partnership with Alex Hall, Director of the Sustainable LA Grand Challenge (SLAGC), leveraging the SLAGC team to organize a coalition of researchers and experts to support the Commission by bringing objective insights and innovative options to the process. Sophie Katz, Associate Director of Research Development with SLAGC was instrumental in providing project management and research support.
The UCLA team leveraged expertise from across campus and from other institutions:
UCLA
Luskin School of Public Affairs
Luskin Center for Innovation
Center for Neighborhood Knowledge
School of Law
Emmett Institute on Climate Change & the Environment
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
Sustainable LA Grand Challenge
Samueli School of Engineering
Labor Center
Latino Policy & Politics Institute
Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
School of Architecture and Urban Design
School of Nursing
Fielding School of Public Health
Institute of Transportation Studies
Labor Occupational Safety & Health Program
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources
Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, UCSB
Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University
Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service
Laurie Johnson Consulting
Insurance for Good
RAND
Sierra Nevada Research Institute, UC Merced
Urban Institute
Urban Science Lab, UC Davis
Centre for Applied Ecological Remediation
Resnick Sustainability Institute, Caltech
Dornsife Equity Research Institute, USC
Department of Government, Claremont McKenna College
The Commission:
The Commission is chaired by Matt Petersen, CEO of the Los Angeles CleanTech Incubator. Former State Senator Fran Pavley, Environmental Policy Director of USC's Schwarzenegger Institute, serves as vice-chair. The Commission is made up of 18 additional volunteer resilience experts and civic leaders.
- Marty Adams—General Manager (Ret.), Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
- Marissa Aho—Director, Executive Climate Office, King County, WA; Former Chief Resilience Officer, Los Angeles and Houston
- Ted Bardacke—CEO, Clean Power Alliance
- Cecilia V. Estolano—CEO and Founder, Estolano Advisors
- Ron Frierson—Director of Economic Development, Amazon; Board Chair, Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation
- Mark Gold—Director of Water Scarcity Solutions, Natural Resources Defense Council; Former California Deputy Secretary for Oceans and Coastal Policy
- Russell Goldsmith—Chairman, Forest Management Company; Former Chairman, City National Bank
- Laurie Johnson—Principal, Laurie Johnson Consulting; Former Chief Catastrophe Response and Resiliency Officer, California Earthquake Authority
- Mary Leslie—President, Los Angeles Business Council
- Rudy Ortega Jr.—Tribal President, Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians
- Veronica Padilla-Campos—CEO, Pacoima Beautiful
- Jonathan Parfrey—Executive Director, Climate Resolve
- Tracy Quinn—CEO, Heal the Bay
- Laurie Schoeman—Chief Investment and Impact Officer, Partners for the Common Good; Former White House Senior Housing Policy Advisor
- Donna Shen Tripp—Partner, Craig Lawson & Co.
- Ben Stapleton—Executive Director, U.S. Green Building Council, California
- David Wilson—City Manager, City of West Hollywood
- Roy Wright—CEO, Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety
The report is the product of a partnership created in the wake of the devastating LA fires. In February 2025, LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath convened the Commission to develop recommendations for rebuilding and resiliency, informed by UCLA-led research and by the perspectives of fire survivors. In the coming months, the Commission will continue to promote and encourage the adoption and implementation of the recommendations, and UCLA will continue its actionable research to inform equitable regional recovery and long-term resilience.
This effort was supported by a grant from the California Community Foundation and in-kind support from UCLA.
