About
Leah Kessler is a policy and program strategist with experience in housing, community development, disaster recovery, and climate resilience. Through her service in the Presidential Management Fellowship program, Leah worked with both the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where she led and supported high-impact initiatives across government systems. At HUD, Leah managed over $1 billion in CDBG-Disaster Recovery funding for New York State, advising on housing and infrastructure implementation, regulatory compliance, and long-term climate resilience. At NOAA, she served as Equity Advisor to the Deputy Administrator, where she led the agency’s Equitable Grantmaking initiative, focused on improving access to federal climate funding for underserved communities. She also helped develop NOAA’s first-ever Equity Framework and Organizational Values—Inclusion, Innovation, and Integrity—as part of a broader effort to ensure the agency became more accessible, values-driven, and responsive to the communities it serves.
Leah brings experience working across local, state, Tribal, and international contexts—including advancing housing policy in Anaheim, CA; supporting sustainable agriculture with farmers in Ohio; highlighting Tribally led climate adaptation strategies in Interior Alaska for philanthropic and private investment; and training global climate negotiators from under-resourced nations for COP28 in Dubai. She holds a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, where she focused on social and urban policy and community-led resilience strategies. Across her work, Leah has focused on translating complex policy into clear, actionable strategies that meet people where they are.