Connecticut planner Katie Schlick will help Massachusetts coordinate responses to extreme heat as temperatures rise.
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A former Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments planner who grew up in Connecticut has been appointed Massachusetts’ first statewide heat resilience officer, a new position created to coordinate agencies and municipalities preparing for rising temperatures.
Gov. Maura Healey announced the appointment of Katie Schlick on Thursday at Clark University in Worcester.
Massachusetts is the second state to establish a position dedicated to extreme heat, following Arizona, which appointed epidemiologist Eugene Livar as chief heat officer in 2024.
Schlick will report jointly to Massachusetts Climate Chief Melissa Hoffer and Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein, according to the governor’s office. The position is funded by The Boston Foundation rather than the state budget.
Hoffer described extreme heat as the deadliest weather hazard in the United States, saying it kills more Americans than hurricanes, floods, tornadoes and other hazards combined. She also said July 2026 was the hottest month ever recorded in the country.
Schlick began her career in Connecticut. She graduated from Yale University in 2022 with a degree in environmental studies and interned in U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s district office and with state environmental and budget agencies.
She joined the Waterbury-based Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments as an environmental planner in October 2022 and left in January 2023, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Most recently, she led the resilience portfolio at the U.S. Climate Alliance in Washington, D.C., a bipartisan coalition of governors, where she worked with states on heat and resilience strategies.
