Owen Gow is the deputy director for the extreme heat resilience pillar at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht–Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock). In this role, he leads Arsht-Rock’s heat-related initiatives and strategy, as well as the development of heat adaptation solutions and related city partnerships. Gow also manages the Heat Action Platform, an engagement-oriented tool for city officials, practitioners, and financial institutions to find guidance, existing resources, and solutions for reducing the human and economic impacts of extreme heat at the regional or municipal level.

While Gow’s expertise lies in extreme-heat planning and capacity building, he has held previous positions at several humanitarian organizations and think tanks prior to Arsht-Rock. Before Arsht-Rock, Gow held positions at the Migration Policy Institute, Mercy Corps, and the International Rescue Committee. Before that, he worked on several political campaigns in Oregon. Gow joined the Arsht-Rock team in early 2020 and assisted with the launch of the Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance, the broader expansion of the Extreme Heat Initiative, as well as Arsht-Rock’s Humanitarian Initiative.

Gow has contributed to publications on extreme heat for the Atlantic Council, the Migration Policy Institute, and Scientific Reports.

Originally from Seattle, Washington, Gow holds a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.