Eleni Myrivili
She/Her/Hers
Dr. Eleni “Lenio” Myrivili is Global Chief Heat Officer for the Atlantic Council’s Arsht-Rock Resilience Center and the UN-Habitat. She is dedicated to fostering heat resilience in cities worldwide and was recognized among Nature’s 10 people who helped shape science in 2023 as well as Earth.Org Women Leading the Fight Against Climate Change.
She is a member of the EU Mission Board for Adaptation at the European Commission, a Heat Resilience Advisor to the Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM), serves on the Advisory Board for the WEF Global Risks Report, and a member of WEF’s Global Future Council for the Future Economics of Equitable Transition. She recently became an IUR Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was honored with the 2023 Lawrence C. Nussdorf Urban Leadership Prize.
In 2014 Myrivili was elected to city government and appointed as Athens’ Deputy Mayor for Urban Nature, Urban Resilience, and Climate Adaptation. During her tenure and then subsequently from a senior advisor position, she served as Athens’ Chief Resilience Officer and Chief Heat Officer, contributing to the city’s leading role in international urban climate adaptation efforts. Following her term in city government, she also became a resident Loeb Fellow 2020 at Harvard University, was contracted as a heat expert by the World Bank and co-chaired the Steering Committee of the Resilient Cities Network.
Dr. Myrivili’s climate resilience expertise has earned her international recognition, including a TED talk Global and an invitation to speak to the House of Commons in British Parliament, while she features in prominent media outlets like CNN and NHK World, the New York Times, Monocle, and Politico.eu where she was part of Politico’s 28 list for 2022 of most influential Europeans. Formerly, she was a tenured University Professor and holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University.
