OUR TEAM

OUR TEAM

WE ARE SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS DEDICATED TO ENHANCING COMMUNITY RESILIENCE.

Our team at re:focus brings together expertise in engineering, design, public policy, and finance to craft resilient infrastructure solutions—including water, waste, and energy projects—and build new public-private partnerships that better align public funds and leverage greater private investment to protect and improve the lives of vulnerable communities around the world.

WE ARE SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS DEDICATED TO ENHANCING COMMUNITY RESILIENCE.

Our team at re:focus brings together expertise in engineering, design, public policy, and finance to craft resilient infrastructure solutions—including water, waste, and energy projects—and build new public-private partnerships that better align public funds and leverage greater private investment to protect and improve the lives of vulnerable communities around the world.

SHALINI VAJJHALA, PHD
FOUNDER & CEO

Shalini is a nationally recognized infrastructure expert with nearly two decades of experience designing and financing community-centered resilient infrastructure solutions. Before starting re:focus, Shalini served as Special Representative in the Office of Administrator Lisa Jackson at the Environmental Protection Agency. In this position, she led the US-Brazil Joint Initiative on Urban Sustainability (JIUS) announced in March 2011 by Presidents Obama and Rousseff. Previously, Shalini served as Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Office of International & Tribal Affairs at the US EPA and as Deputy Associate Director for Energy and Climate at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. She joined the Obama Administration from Resources for the Future, where she was awarded a patent for her work on the Adaptation Atlas.

Shalini received her PhD in Engineering & Public Policy and B.Arch in Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University. She was also a visiting associate professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies from 2013-2014, where she designed and taught courses on Case Studies in Sustainable Development, and a nonresident senior fellow with The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program.

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BEN SHOROFSKY, PE
DIRECTOR, PREDEVELOPMENT

Benjamin Shorofsky is Director of Predevelopment at re:focus partners and founder of Stepwell Strategies, LLC. Ben brings over a decade of experience in multi-benefit green infrastructure, conservation finance, and coalition building. Ben has advised foundations on innovative conservation investments, worked with municipalities to leverage federal dollars, and worked on the ground in some of the most divested communities in the country. Ben has extensive experience building new nonprofits and start-ups and was a Fulbright Scholar in India where he studied textile wastewater treatment. He brings a trust based approach to community-centered design, a knack for project development, and a thorough project management approach to the re:focus team.

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JAMIE RHODES, PHD
DIRECTOR, INSURANCE-LINKED FINANCE

Jamie Rhodes is an expert in risk mitigation strategies that fall at the intersection of policy, technology, and project development. He is the Director of Insurance-Linked Finance at re:focus partners, co-founder of the TRT Group, and a Co-Principal Investigator of the RE.bound Program. Jamie also serves as President of the Embori Group LLC, which includes several firms engaged in developing near-term approaches to reduce CO2 emissions and mitigate associated climate risks. Jamie’s work in these fields spans 16 years and includes roles in academia, in the private sector, and as a grantee on projects designed to advance the public interest. He is an entrepreneur who holds multiple patents and has founded and built multiple successful enterprises across diverse industry segments. Jamie earned a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, and worked as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and then as a Staff Researcher at U.C. Davis.

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