Well this is who I am and what I do apparently!

….and that is a very uncomfortably large picture of my face……….what a blessing forgiving black and white is!

Clare Harris is an internationally recognised leader in integrating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) into crisis response, disaster risk management, and climate resilience. With over two decades of global experience, Clare combines deep technical knowledge with on-the-ground humanitarian insight to create innovative, people-centred solutions.

She holds advanced degrees in International Disaster Engineering and Management, and in Geophysical Hazards, and has built a uniquely multi-sectoral career spanning humanitarian operations, scientific analysis, local governance, and crisis financing. This cross-disciplinary expertise enables Clare to approach challenges from multiple perspectives, embedding systems thinking and inclusive design into everything she leads.

Clare champions a human-centred approach to crisis and disaster solutions, ensuring even the most technical interventions remain firmly focused on the needs of those most at risk. Her work consistently supports the development of sustainable, accountable, and locally owned and driven disaster management systems.

At Start Network, Clare served as the technical lead and Head of the Global Disaster Risk Financing and Anticipation team, where she played a pivotal role in developing and launching Start Ready—the world’s first global humanitarian risk pool designed for early warning-based emergency action. Spanning a now growing 10 countries, this mechanism reimagines disaster financing by leveraging cutting-edge risk and early warning science to build end-to-end anticipatory crisis management systems—locally led yet globally connected. Clare and her team broke the ground on proving practical system change at scale could be done.

Clare is widely published, with influential pieces such as "Impact before Instruments" (2018), "Disaster Risk Financing in Concert: A Way to Save More Lives" (2018), and "Scientific Due Diligence for Humanitarian Disaster Risk Financing"(2019)—a practical guide for data scientists and humanitarian practitioners. Most recently, she led the UNDRR Global Guidelines for National Disaster Risk Assessment, launched at the UN Global Platform in Geneva in June 2025. This landmark guidance is seen as a breakthrough in the application of science to risk assessment and emergency management. 

Her professional interests span systems thinking, science communication, leadership of interdisciplinary and intercultural teams, and the creative intersections between STEM, the arts, and neuro and culturally diverse thinking. Clare is passionate about supporting young women in STEM globally, challenging outdated paradigms, and promoting equity and power shifts in disaster, climate and global governance.

Now working independently, Clare advises senior levels of the UN, development banks and global consultancies. She also supports national and local governments and agencies directly on disaster and climate policy and emergency preparedness operations across the global north and south. Clare founded Dauntless Group, alongside her co founder Yohana Tesfamariam Tekeste in 2024, an initiative in partnership with the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences Research and Information Centre. Dauntless is building an International Association of Experts in Disaster and Climate Management, STEM and the Arts, to foster interdisciplinary and inter cultural leadership and drive bold, creative science and knowledge exchange and communication. 

Clare values balancing her professional life with her personal roles as a mother of three, wife, daughter, sister, friend, and colleague.

When time permits, Clare is also developing a catalogue of art work and writing (including her first book Emergence-y) focusing on the intersection of planet, imagination, science, feminism, crisis.    

…and generally anything that I fancy and that I can communicate better through art! I’m also taking commissions from January 2026! Check out what I come up with. Generally keeps me sane-ish!

Her professional philosophy is rooted in integrity, humour, and resilience: “Take your work and your impact seriously—take yourself lightly”

“Be honest, be bold, and don’t be afraid to build the van while hurtling down the motorway, it keeps you sharp, but know it’s probably going to hurt a bit.”