Alumna Profile: Julie Greenwalt

From the UNEP to the Cities Alliance, Julie Greenwalt GSAPP’08 has had a career always focused on urban sustainability and climate adaptation. Originally from Baltimore, Greenwalt studied international relations, Spanish, and philosophy at Tulane University for her undergraduate degree. 

After graduating, Greenwalt joined Teach for America in New Orleans, where she was during the devastating Hurricane Katrina. While Greenwalt originally believed education was a “great equalizer,” she told me that the experience exposed her to other systemic inequalities in the education system and the city. This led to Greenwalt’s interest in urban planning, as she recognized that many issues her students faced were due to community planning. Eager to learn more, Greenwalt enrolled in a master’s program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP).

At Columbia, Greenwalt initially focused on housing and gentrification, working with a professor studying the impacts in Harlem. It was in a SIPA class, however, that Greenwalt began to think about international development and the environment. “I had a professor who really encouraged me to look at the UN,” Greenwalt told me. “I originally wasn’t going to intern with them, because the UN infamously doesn’t pay their interns but she very nicely put me touch with somebody who allowed me to do a part time internship with the UNDP, and then I was able to do a part time internship with a housing and community development organization in Bushwick.”  

After graduating from Columbia, Greenwalt was offered a consultancy in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), working on environmental issues. After a year, she got a position with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), working in a climate mitigation program focused on developing countries, where she spent five years working in Nairobi. While a valuable experience, Greenwalt became uncomfortable with the programmee’s focus on mitigation in developing countries rather than addressing historical inequities.

After leaving UNEP, Greenwalt worked with UN-Habitat on mapping provincial capitals in Afghanistan, gaining on-the-ground experience in urban environmental challenges. She has also worked for organizations like the Cities Alliance, focusing on urban poverty, informality, and climate resilience.

In recent years, Greenwalt has started her own company, “Go Green for Climate,” allowing her more flexibility to pursue projects aligned with her interests in climate adaptation, nature-based solutions, and community engagement, particularly in informal urban settlements. She has been a technical advisor on National Adaption Plans (NAPs) for Ghana and Malawi. NAPs were created at COP16 in 2010 to help developing countries adapt to climate change. Greenwalt has also written reports on climate and equity for The Nature Conservancy and Oxfam.

Throughout her diverse career, Greenwalt has emphasized the importance of building trust through sustained engagement with local communities, co-producing knowledge, and ensuring the perspectives of those most impacted by climate change are centered. To hold herself accountable to these principles, Greenwalt told me that she would only write a book chapter or policy brief on a specific geographic region or community if someone from that community were her co-author.

When I asked Greenwalt what advice she’d give young professionals in the climate space, she emphasized the importance of investing in personal development and not pigeonholing yourself. “What surprises me now versus fifteen years ago, is that so many different types of organizations are working on sustainability and environment,” Greenwalt told me. “This doesn’t mean they are all working on environmental justice, or equity, but people are better trained in it in a way that wasn’t happening before. And eventually that will change the game."