September 30, 2023. Río Piedras, Puerto Rico.

Dear Colleagues and Partners,

I have been acting as the USDA Climate Hubs National Lead since June 2022 and I will be returning to be the Director of the Caribbean Climate Hub with the start of the new federal fiscal year the first week of October. The Climate Hubs National Lead position will rotate to NRCS for the next two years. It has been an honor to serve as the National Lead.

I would like to thank Dr. Nora Alvarez Berrios for an outstanding job leading the Caribbean Climate Hub during this time. The team has grown along with many new collaborators and excellent activities, tools, and products. Dr. Alvarez will continue leading our research efforts and serving as a great mentor to all the team and a great collaborator with our partners in USDA and beyond.

We will have a lot of new activities in the next fiscal year, including a research project with Leidos Inc. using remotely-sensed nighttime light to assess energy vulnerability to hurricanes in rural communities, support for working with Dr. LaVerne Ragster to increase our capacity to develop and share information with the U.S. Virgin Islands, a new USGS supported habitat mapping effort to update the Puerto Rico Gap Landcover, collaboration with the Migrant Clinicians Network, a national project of the Climate Hubs with NRCS to increase communication and awareness of agriculture and forestry practices that provide climate mitigation benefits, and many more activities.

I would like to thank everyone for their work in fiscal year 2023 and we look forward to continued collaboration in the next fiscal year.

Sincerely,

William Gould