Deborah Brosnan

Scientist, entrepreneur, and thought leader, Deborah Brosnan, Ph.D., works where humans and nature intersect. She is president and founder of Deborah Brosnan & Associates, an international scientific consulting company that provides smart solutions to environmental risks and climate change. Her company is known for successfully solving major national and international challenges for the private sector and government.

She believes a more resilient world is possible if we design solutions that support the environment, communities, and financial returns. Often acting as the bridge between real-world challenges and environmentally sound solutions, her work demonstrates this belief. Her commitment to this approach stems from experiencing the 1995 S. Soufrière volcanic eruption in Montserrat that destroyed the capital city and surrounding communities. Her ability to help with response and recovery solutions — including designing a new port and town and moving a coral reef — has inspired her work ever since.

With a distinguished career in academia and the private sector, she is an adjunct professor of biology at Virginia Tech University and has held positions and fellowships at several institutions, including the University of California, Davis; Stanford University; the Smithsonian Institution; and the University of Washington. She has testified in front of the U.S. Congress and advocated at the United Nations, helping move the needle on critical environmental debates. She has been published in major journals and media publications and co-edited two scholarly books.

She is a member of several boards, including Project AWARE, and is president and chair of the Board of Trustees for the Ireland America Science Forum, an organization building links between the Irish scientific Diaspora in the United States with Ireland. She is the recipient of a Red Cross humanitarian award for her life-saving efforts while onboard a 747 jet aircraft that crashed on takeoff in Asia, as well as Irish America Magazine’s Healthcare and Life Sciences 50 award.

She was born in Limerick, Ireland. She moved to Galway, where she received her B.Sc. honors and M.Sc. before relocating to the U.S. for her Ph.D. in Marine Ecology at Oregon State University.