Michael Wilson

Michael T. Wilson is a policy researcher at RAND, professor of policy analysis at Pardee RAND Graduate School, and former landscape architect serving as a member of the Boston Conservation Commission. Wilson is a strategic planner who works with local, state, and federal governments to create frameworks and tools to facilitate participatory decisionmaking under deep uncertainty. His recent efforts include risk assessment methods for the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority’s 2023 Master Plan, climate equity analyses for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities programs, and natural hazard exposure studies for the Departments of the Air Force, Army, and Navy. Through tabletop exercises, advanced spatial analytic techniques, and interactive data visualizations, Wilson has also led foresight exercises for FEMA, the U.S. Coast Guard, and International Joint Commission; energy resilience planning for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center; and green stormwater infrastructure in neighborhoods across Pittsburgh, PA. His prior professional experience ranges from large-scale economic development and urban infrastructure projects in Toronto, ON; St. Louis, MO; and Austin, TX to long-term planning in the New York-New Jersey region after Hurricane Sandy. He has also independently published peer-reviewed research on emergency management, resilient building standards, and flood insurance. In 2014 he was a summer fellow in the Boston Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, and since 2013 has held a mayoral appointment to the Boston Conservation Commission, which regulates the city’s urban development in the floodplain as well as wetland, riverine, and coastal ecosystems.