Dave Kramer

As Program Director for Planet Texas 2050, Dave works to coordinate interdisciplinary efforts to confront the threat of climate change in Texas and beyond. The first of three current UT "grand challenges," Planet Texas 2050 brings together researchers from 14 colleges, schools, and units across campus. It is a large, ambitious, and extremely multidisciplinary effort meant to amplify existing research strengths around one or more “moonshot” projects. Prior to joining UT, Dave worked in various roles related to climate change, sustainability, international development, social innovation, and education. His career has included new product development (linked to a standard assessment framework for productive tropical landscapes - on the LandScale team at Verra); staff and team coaching and facilitation (to design effective, impactful, and highly participatory conservation projects - especially at EcoLogic Development Fund); strategic planning and learning for organizational change initiatives; coordination of networks and communities of practice; and classroom teaching in the US and Colombia. Dave holds a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School and a BA in English from Dartmouth College. He is a Switzer Environmental Fellow, serves on the Dartmouth Swimming Advisory Board, is a member of the Austin Cosmopolitan Rotary Club, and is the founder of the Recalcitrant Runners social running club. Dave is fluent in Spanish, having lived abroad in Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia. He has lived in Austin since moving from Boston in 2016, and when not working on PT2050, he spends his time running on Austin's trails and swimming in its springs; driving his family to soccer and lacrosse games; volunteering with Rotary; couch surfing and streaming movies; or working with a group of friends and former students to imagine new approaches to ecotourism as a post-conflict recovery pathway in rural Colombia through The Colombia Rising Project.