Alda Center Empowers The New York Climate Exchanges’ Climate Stories Project with Workshop

The Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University led a communication workshop on July 29, bringing together more than 20 partners of The New York Climate Exchange, including researchers, practitioners and community leaders. Participants learned to communicate about climate change through compelling personal narratives. 

Held on Governors Island, the session was taught by facilitators from the Alda Center, whose mission is to bridge the gap between scientific expertise and public understanding. The facilitators led partners through practical exercises to strengthen communication strategies, emphasizing that clarity and empathy transform complex topics into compelling calls to action.

“To start conversations about climate — the risks, the impacts, the science, all of it — we have to engage empathetically if want people to grasp the reality of what we’re facing,” said Laura Lindenfeld, dean of the School of Communication and Journalism and executive director at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. “That means understanding where people are coming from and sharing information in ways that resonate with their lived experiences.”

With this foundation in clear and empathic communication, the workshop had a clear mission: to train more than a dozen participants to become climate story ambassadors. These participants will be equipped with crucial skills to elevate, record and share a diverse narrative about climate change, particularly those linking human health to climate. As newly trained ambassadors, they will launch The Exchange’s Climate Stories Project during NYC Climate Week at the end of September. 

“This is really a project about centering real people’s stories about climate,” said Shaina Horowitz, director of programming innovation and acceleration at The New York Climate Exchange. “So not just talking about scientific facts and information, but really creating a space for people to ground the talk of climate in their own personal experience and bring these abstract issues down to a human level. Personal stories matter because they change mindsets. They inspire people to action. They inspire a sense of empathy and connection,” she added.

The ability to facilitate this kind of transformative communication stems from the unique partnership between the Alda Center and the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University.

“I think we have this amazing opportunity with the School and the Center to help research matter more and to actually ground research in understanding what people need,” Lindenfeld said. “And that requires state of the art communication — that’s what both the Center and our School bring to the table within and beyond the academy and to industry.”

Harlow Brumett-Dunn, urban resilience fellow at The Exchange, noted the workshop began by helping participants “get comfortable with being uncomfortable” through improv exercises designed to encourage connection. Jessie Bard, oceans, policy, and partnerships fellow, valued the opportunity to “build awareness and focus on how to be present while communicating with community members by adding a personal touch to our messaging,” she said.

The project emphasizes that the “climate crisis is a human health crisis,” yet its impacts are often discussed in abstract terms rather than through the lived experiences of individuals. Aja Two Crows, community initiatives associate at The Exchange, said the Climate Story Project will capture personal narratives (in the form of short audio recordings) that illustrate the connection between climate change and health and offer a forum for people to share climate solutions that offer a sense of hope and optimism

“We started the storytelling project because we were seeing a lot of interest in the space of how communication can really support climate action,” Two Crows said. “For this project, the way in which we’re really thinking a lot about collaboration is through our partners at The Exchange. We are founded through partnership, and we work through partnership — including one of the most important partnerships: Stony Brook University.”

The Climate Story Project aims to create a growing digital archive of voices, which will serve as a building block for climate literacy to help to shape policy and action. The project is envisioned to have a permanent presence at The Exchange’s forthcoming climate hub on Governors Island, opening in 2029. 

Founded at Stony Brook University in 2009, the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science works to improve public understanding of science and health by training scientists and health professionals to communicate clearly with those outside their fields, including the public, policymakers and media. Working in partnership with the School of Communication and Journalism, the Alda Center forms an integrated model that bridges academic scholarship with hands-on application.