Nicolás (Nico) Esguerra is an M.A. candidate at the Yale Jackson Institute and is interested in climate change adaptation policy. He is from Leesburg, Virginia. He graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University in 2014 with a degree in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies. As an undergraduate, he received a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship for his studies of Kiswahili and East Africa. Since graduation, Nico has worked primarily in disaster relief and communications for advocacy organizations. He worked as a logistics coordinator for a disaster relief nonprofit in Houston after Hurricane Harvey and later led the organization’s operations in eastern Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. As a communications professional in New York, he helped plan policy convenings on climate change and African affairs for the UN, the U.S. federal government, and major philanthropic organizations. Most recently, he was a digital communications strategist for grassroots advocacy organizations in New Orleans. He speaks Spanish and is proficient in Portuguese.