Jen Eldridge is the Senior Climate/Environment Officer in the State Department’s Bureau of International Organizations.  In this role, she coordinates and promotes U.S. policies and objectives on climate and environment-related issues at a wide range of international organizations, including the UN Environmental Program, the UN General Assembly, and the World Meteorological Organization.  She also serves as the bureau’s primary representative with regard to key treaties and international instruments including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Montreal Protocol. 

In over 16 years with the State Department, Jen has worked in many areas of foreign policy, including multilateral diplomacy, countering terrorism and illicit financing, and post-conflict stabilization.  She helped launch the Center for the Study of the Conduct of Diplomacy, a “lessons learned” center housed at the Foreign Service Institute, before serving as its first deputy director.  Jen also served as deputy director of the office that handles the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Jen was born and raised in the Washington, DC, area.  She earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Master of Public Affairs degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.  She lives in Maryland outside of Washington, DC, with her husband and three children.

Stefania Piffanelli is currently the Director of the United Nations Information Center (UNIC) in Washington. Ms. Piffanelli brings to the job over 20 years of experience with the UN, academia and the private sector. Before joining UNIC Washington, she was part of the team investigating those responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Previously, Ms. Piffanelli managed the work of the UN Peacebuilding Commission and the Peacebuilding Fund in Sierra Leone both out of New York and Freetown. She served as the Special Assistant to the UN Deputy Secretary-General and in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General under Secretaries-General Ban Ki-Moon and Kofi Annan. She also held a number of positions in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs in the areas of development and gender equality.
Earlier in her career, Ms. Piffanelli worked as a consultant for the UNDP Bureau for Eastern Europe and Central Asia and for UNDP Lebanon. Prior to her work with international organizations, she worked as a junior fund manager in Italy.

She holds a PhD in Economics from New York University and a graduate degree in Economics from the University of Bologna, Italy. She speaks English, Italian and French and has some knowledge of Spanish. She is an Italian citizen.

Keyon Rostamnezhad is an international climate policy advocate and recent graduate of Northeastern University. During his time at Northeastern, Keyon spearheaded a University delegation to the United Nations’ COP23, COP24, and COP25 conferences, where he engaged with diplomats, private sector leaders, and other advocates on critical climate solutions. On behalf of UNA-USA at COP25, Keyon conducted a climate policy interview with current Wisconsin Senate candidate Mandela Barnes, hosted by Facebook. After founding UNA-USA’s Northeastern University chapter, Keyon organized an inaugural Earth Day event, which aligned sustainability organizations on campus together in a central mission. Locally, Keyon served as the Director of Policy & Communications on Alan Khazei’s 2020 U.S Congressional Campaign in the Massachusetts Fourth Congressional District, where he designed and elucidated the candidate’s climate, economic, healthcare, and other major policies, and brought public and private stakeholders together to produce local action plans for legislation to implement the candidate’s priorities.

Independent climate groups rated Alan Khazei’s climate action plan as the most impactful and progressive of the race. Through this experience, Keyon brings an understanding of domestic and international policy solutions to every climate action conversation. Keyon graduated from Northeastern University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and a minor in International Affairs and Political Science. He intends to explore themes of international law, economic development, and sustainability. He is based in Boston, Massachusetts.