Jenny Brennan
Senior Policy Analyst
Climate change adaptation and resilience are Jenny’s specialties as a science and policy analyst. At SELC, she supports existing priorities while identifying emerging issues.
Jenny helps implement the Climate Change Initiative, which targets policies throughout the South and involves local, state, and federal partnerships. Jenny works across the Coast and Wetlands, Land and Community, and Water teams at SELC, and with the Environmental Justice Initiative. She recently started a cross-program Wastewater Infrastructure group because failing septic and underinvested wastewater systems bring additional climate and environmental justice challenges to the South.
Jenny drafts new local and state policies that further SELC priorities, and she coordinates with partners to pass and implement these policies. With SELC federal affairs staff, she advocates for corresponding federal policy improvements.
She also cultivates a network of researchers, academics, state and federal resource professionals, community-based organizations, scientific and policy-focused stakeholder groups working with SELC’s partner organizations.
A native South Carolinian, Jenny holds “a deep love for and connection to the southeast,” she says. “I want to help our communities and ecosystems adapt to climate change in a way that addresses inequities and protects what makes this area so special.”
Jenny is proud of helping draft the South Carolina Disaster Relief and Resilience Act that became law in 2020. She also supported the Phillips Community, a historic heirs’ property community outside Charleston, in defeating a proposed highway expansion.
The people and natural beauty of the South Carolina Lowcountry mean a lot to Jenny. “Some of my favorite spots feature live oaks swooping over the marsh edge, or blackwater meandering through cypress swamps,” she says.
- M.E.M., Duke University, Nicholas School of the Environment
- B.S., College of Charleston Honors College