Valérie Lechêne
Human-Earth Systems Builder
I work where climate and human systems meet, helping people and organizations turn complexity into capacity.  I design and lead impact programs, build digital civic products, and drive policy change.  

I am endlessly curious about how things travel between worlds: ways of knowing, ways of doing, and what gets lost or found in the crossing.  I was previously based in New York City, now in San Francisco.
Experience
The New School
Urban Systems Lab
The Architecture Lobby
Collaborative Earth / Earthshot Labs
NEW INC / New Museum
OMA
Writing
Routledge, 2024
Journal of Arch Education, 2022
Log, 2022
Science for the People, 2020
Speaking
Harvard GSD, 2025
Cal Poly, 2025
Woodbury University, 2025
NYC Climate Week, 2024
Recognition
UN ITU Innovate for Impact, 2026
Venice Biennale, 2025
Earth System Governance Fellow, 2023
Contact
Impact Strategy & Operations
Grounding ambitious initiatives in an actionable theory of change, then building the program strategy, operational structure, and management systems that hold them accountable to their goals.
NYC Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) public communications campaign, 2025.
Civic & Geospatial Product
Conceiving tools modulating the spatial interactions between social, ecological, and technological domains to build a lasting capacity for equity and resilience.
A2I, civic tech platform building community agency for urban climate impact, 2026.
Policy Advocacy & Organizing
Mapping where policy leverage condenses across institutions and geographies, and building the collective power that lets people shape the conditions that govern our lives.
Documentary film building an ecosystem of change for the architecture profession, 2026.