Our Leadership
Adam Chambers, Ph.D., Volunteer Scientist and Co-Founder, Pinhead Climate Institute
Dr. Adam Chambers is a scientist who splits his time between Portland, Ore. and Telluride. In Telluride, he works closely with the Pinhead Climate Institute to educate young scientists and implement town-level climate actions that also encourage rural economic development. Over the past two decades Dr. Chambers’ project work has focused on the applied sciences and reducing atmospheric pollutants (air pollutants and greenhouse gases). He is currently working to implement conservation measures on managed agricultural lands that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance carbon sequestration, providing an emerging carbon market opportunity for US landowners and agricultural producers. He received his Doctorate from the Technical University of Vienna (Austria), Master of Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and his B.Sc. from Murray State University in Kentucky. NOTE: Dr. Chambers performs his work with PCI on a voluntary basis and without compensation.
Chris Arndt, Co-Founder, Pinhead Climate Institute
Chris Arndt began his career in 1992 as a Research Assistant at Environmental Risk Sciences, Inc., a consulting firm based in Washington D.C. In 1994, he moved to New York City and from 1995 to 2010 he was an equity analyst, portfolio manager, and a partner in the firm Select Equity Group, Inc. Mr. Arndt contributed to the significant growth of the firm over this fifteen-year period. As an equity analyst, he focused mostly on life science and healthcare companies. In 2010, Mr. Arndt left Select Equity Group, Inc., to turn his attention to public policy issues, such as accelerating the adoption of clean energy. He has served as Director of the New York Chapter of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), and currently serves on the board of the NRDC Action Fund. At Wesleyan University, he studied economics, history and political theory, graduating with honors in 1992. In 2016, Mr. Arndt wrote his first book the The Right’s Road to Serfdom.
Sarah Holbrooke, Executive Director
Sarah Holbrooke is the executive director of the Pinhead Institute. Before joining the organization in April 2014, she was a filmmaker and Peabody award-winning television producer, working for ABC News, CBS News and CNN. She collaborated with anchors such as Peter Jennings, Katie Couric and Larry King. As a television producer, Sarah specialized in particularly complicated and daunting field production, organizing shoots at the Museum of Natural History, the red carpet at the Oscars and filming in medical operating theaters. She also was a senior booker for several networks including CNN where she arranged on-air interviews with leading opinion makers, scientists, and celebrities. Sarah is a graduate of Wesleyan University, with a double major in English and Psychology with a concentration in BioPsych. After living in New York city for two decades, she now lives in Telluride, Colorado with her husband David, the Festival Director of Mountainfilm in Telluride, her three children and her two dogs. In her spare time she enjoys rock climbing, hiking, biking and relaxing with a good book.
Our Start
December 5, 2016 was the second celebration of World Soils Day, a campaign aimed at connecting people with soils and raising awareness of soil’s critical importance in our lives and the function of the planet. Its timing seemed ideal to propose that the Pinhead Institute expand to include a new climate change solutions mission area.
There is a strong connection between the health of our planet’s soils and the health of the planet’s atmosphere. Both have been severely degraded and both are in need of a broad educational campaigns. Soils are healthier and more productive when soil carbon is increased, and the atmosphere is healthier and more stable when carbon (in the form of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases) is removed.
Improving Climate Resilience and Soil Health is a topic that is emerging as a near-term climate solution, with proponents ranging from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization to non-governmental organizations like the Natural Resources Defense Council. For its part, the Pinhead Climate Institute focuses on educating rural Americans about the potential for moving existing carbon stocks out of the atmosphere and into carbon-depleted soils.
Telluride provides the Pinhead Climate Institute with the opportunity to interact closely with numerous Colorado-based entities including: Fort Lewis College; Colorado State University; the Rocky Mountain Institute; the National Center for Atmospheric Research; and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, among others.