About Omar Carrillo Tinajero, Assistant Director of Programs, Connect Capital at Center for Community Investment

Omar Carrillo Tinajero is Assistant Director of Programs, Connect Capital at the Center for Community Investment. At Cogan Owens Greene, LLC, he helped develop approaches to engage diverse community members in planning initiatives across several cities in Oregon. As Housing Policy Manager at Neighborhood Partnerships, he collaborated with leaders in the private and public sectors to change state housing policies and elevate affordable housing as a state budget priority. Omar has a Master in Urban Planning from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and an AB from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Complex Climate Problems Call for Multi-Sector Solutions

It is increasingly clear that climate resilience cannot, and should not, be divorced from economic resilience. The siloed sectors that have worked to solve environmental problems in the past will not be enough to tackle our existential climate change challenges, which are intertwined with our racial and economic inequality. In Seattle, the team is supporting the development of a community-governed entity that will direct and leverage public, philanthropic, and private investments to create climate justice and economic opportunity while mitigating displacement. They are already advancing a pipeline of projects, including parks, housing, and neighborhood facilities, that will serve as a proof of concept for following a different process that centers community priorities.