Jane Gilbert: Creating Miami-Dade’s climate heat health action plan

Jane Gilbert became Miami-Dade’s first-ever interim Chief Heat Officer in June 2021. Since then, she has been overseeing efforts in raising awareness about heat dangers, getting to know existing heat initiatives to assist with opportunities of funding, and creating interventions led by the county or through Resilient 305 and other partners to mitigate the effects of extreme heat. 

But there is still much to do, beginning with creation of a Climate Heat Health Action Plan. Ms. Gilbert, is optimistic about the future and is inspired by the leadership of Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. “It is inspiring to work for an elected leader who has strong vision about how to move our county forward in a sustainable, prosperous way for all and engage our citizens,” she said. “She holds us accountable [and] she keeps us pushing,” Ms. Gilbert said. 

Earlier, Ms. Gilbert was Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Miami, when Miami-Dade County, the City of Miami and the City of Miami Beach became part of the 100 Resilient Cities Program. She worked with the Miami Foundation, leading its civic leadership agenda around sea level rise, and helped pull those three governments together in their application to 100 Resilient Cities. 

Ms. Gilbert also had an over eight-year career in the private sector, addressing environmental and social responsibility issues, and a little over 15 years with nonprofits, working on education, environmental and community development initiatives in Miami. 

“I love bringing diverse populations together to solve complex problems and [the] ability to learn every day from my peers both internally with in the county and externally, and together work toward building a more resilient and more sustainable community is inspiring to me.” she said. “I am a builder of new initiatives. I’m the creator of new initiatives. I’m a catalyst for accelerated action,” she said of her type of leadership. 

Ms. Gilbert spoke with Miami Today reporter Gabriela Henriquez Stoikow.

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