Kristen Schepel is a detailee from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) serving as the Climate Innovation Advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In this role, she advises USPTO leadership on climate-related initiatives, including the Climate Change Mitigation Pilot Program for patents. Additionally, Ms. Schepel helps the USPTO promote the importance of protecting intellectual property (IP) and the role of IP in encouraging knowledge sharing and follow-on innovation in the climate space through collaborations with other agencies and participation in national and international conferences.
At NOAA, Ms. Schepel works at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), where she writes scientific policy, facilitates the research and development transition process, and evaluates the impacts and accomplishments of scientific programs and projects at the lab. Prior to working at GFDL, Ms. Schepel served as a program analyst at NOAA headquarters, a meteorologist at the NOAA National Weather Service forecasting office in Cleveland, Ohio, and a research fellow at the Environmental Protection Agency Region 3 office.
Ms. Schepel received a Bachelor of Science in atmospheric science from Cornell University and a Master of Science in atmospheric science from the University of Utah.