Episode 17: Quick Hits - From Firestorms to Community Strength with Matt Gonser and Jonathan Parfrey

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How do we turn overwhelming climate risk into actionable hope?

In this Quick Hits episode, Sean caught up with Matt Gonser, Climate Resilience Officer for LA County, and Jonathan Parfrey, Executive Director of Climate Resolve. Together, we break down what resilience actually means and how it’s being put into action across Los Angeles.

Matt shares what it looks like to build climate resilience at the systems level, from extreme heat mitigation to coastal protections, and why government must center community well-being in its plans. 

Jonathan offers sharp insights from years of policy and project work, including surprising lessons from disaster recovery that reveal how communities can thrive through change—not just survive it.

From fires to floods, housing pressures to extreme heat, this conversation challenges assumptions about displacement, community capacity, and what’s possible when we lead with both planning and compassion.

✅ Listen in if you want a clearer, more hopeful way to think about resilience—grounded in real policy, real projects, and real people.

If this episode sparks new ideas for you, help us spread the word.

🟣 Subscribe to Shared Ground on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.

💬 Share this episode with someone who cares about building better futures, even in hard times.

And, as always, we’d love to hear your reflections—leave us a rating or drop a comment on Substack (seanknierim.substack.com)  

Shared Ground is produced by Sean Knierim and Allan Marks. Thanks to Cory Grabow, Kara Poltor, Corey Walles (from The Recording Studio) for your support in launching this effort.

For more stories of resilience & rebuilding, kindness & generosity: visit shared-ground.com and subscribe to Sean's substack. We invite you to share your own stories of resilience at the Shared Ground website - whether in response to the January fires in LA or other situations.

Follow us at seanknierim.substack.com, Instagram, or wherever you listen to podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc).

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for making time to talk here, so maybe we
start over here to my right,your left listener, so can you
tell me who you are, what you dofor a living?

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Sure.
Thanks, Sean.
My name is Matt Gonzer and Iserve as the Climate Resilience
Officer within the County of LosAngeles Chief Sustainability
Office.
This is a relatively newposition.
I've been with the county justabout nine months and I'm new to
the region as well.
I've been with the county justabout nine months and I'm new to
the region as well.
But this builds from a legacyof sustainability leadership
from the establishment of theoffice in 2016, the creation of

(00:31):
the first regionalsustainability plan in 2019, and
lots and lots of specificdepartment plans to address
their climate hazards and risks,whether it's drought or coastal
issues.
And our opportunity now is, inthe update of the Our County
Plan, more intentionally andpurposely weave in some of that
work that has been done, fillthe gaps that still haven't been

(00:53):
addressed, but also to helpcommunicate that story so that
we can all see that opportunityfor resilience as a regional
community moving forward.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
Thanks so much for being here sir, oh hi, my name
is Jonathan Parfrey.
I'm the executive director ofClimate Resolve.
We're a nonprofit organizationheadquartered in downtown Los
Angeles.
There's about 25 of usenthusiastic, entrepreneurial
souls that are part of ourorganization, and what we do

(01:23):
public policy in trying to movethe state of California, the
city of Los Angeles, the countyof Los Angeles to enact climate
resilience measures, and then welike to roll up our sleeves and
actually do projects as well.
We like to see things get builtand we've been busy both on the

(01:45):
policy side and on the projectside, and, sean, we'd love to
work more with you at Sideport.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
I hope we get a chance to do that.
Jonathan, you said climateresilience, but just resilience
in general.
How do you define that or howdo you think about that concept?

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Well, we're facing a lot of challenges right now.
The recent fires the biggestexample of them all, but there
are other ones that are a littlebit less dramatic.
So, for example, extreme heat.
Extreme heat actually puts morepeople in the hospital,
actually kills more people thanany other kind of climate impact

(02:24):
that there is, and by a widemargin, and so our organization
has been very active in tryingto help people related to
extreme heat, providing realoptions for them as a way of,
you know, just staying healthyin the face of these climate
challenges that we're facing.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Thanks.
And how about yourself, asyou're thinking about resiliency
, how do?

Speaker 2 (02:45):
you define that, yeah , and I do want to bring it back
to climate resilience, justbecause that is the title with
which I have the privilege toserve in this role, and for us,
though we're not shying awayfrom the other impacts of
economic resilience, resilienceitself comes from psychology and
humans' ability to sort of movebeyond trauma with support

(03:06):
networks.
It also then evolved intoecological resilience and these
systems that provide us thesegreat free benefits that we too
often take for granted, but nowmore so into disaster resilience
and climate resilience, wherethese changing conditions that
John has then spoke about caneither be a stress to the system
we know it's getting hotteroutside but it also can manifest

(03:29):
in something like a heat wave,so that's a shock to the system.
The other hazards of sea levelrise can mean winter waves are
that much higher.
Increasing temperatures andprolonged drought are things
that can feed into wildfire risk.
So for us, it's reallyimportant to understand the
amplification of these risks asa result of burning fossil fuels

(03:51):
and excess heat in our systemand to think about how we are
directly addressing those risksfor people in places inside and
outside of homes, theenvironment of those communities
, those things that I mentionedthat provide us some of those
direct benefits, but also asense of place and a connection
with place.
But also, what is governmentdoing to ensure that existing, a

(04:13):
new infrastructure continues toprovide conditions for thriving
, healthy, connected communities?
And that's the vision that wehope to put forth through the
update of the Our CountySustainability Plan.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
So you're grappling with some really complex,
dynamic challenges that areleading to tough things, like
what we've been talking aboutwith the fires in LA throughout
the day-to-day.
What's bringing you hope?
I mean, I imagine I hope for me.
My hope for you is that you'reseeing as many beacons of hope

(04:43):
as you are challenges to address.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
I will answer the hope, but I want to drill home
the point that climate change isoverwhelming and abstract and
if we don't talk about it indirect, simple terms, we'll
continue to make it overwhelmingand abstract and make it too
difficult for people to engagedirectly.
Not that it's easy to do, butthere really are only so many
ways to address some of theseclimate hazards and

(05:07):
unfortunately sometimes they canhave cascading or compounding
effects.
But we know there's.
You know, if you want to keepsomeone safe from heat, you
provide cooling.
You don't let it get hot, youstop polluting and causing
climate change.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
There are no responses to the discrete
challenges.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
There are no responses to the discrete
challenges.
So that actually does give mehope as people continue to share
their thoughts on what arecommunity improvements that they
also want that also start tosync up with the kinds of things
that address this climate risk.
Because I come from planning, Ithink our ability to bring

(05:46):
climate resilience to communityis just basic community and
environmental planning andlong-range thinking with those
hazards and risks that we knowwe're confronted with.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Excellent, Jonathan.
Hope Bring some hope, Jonathan.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Our organization sprung into analyzing the
Woolsey fire that affected somany people in Malibu.
We started with a thesis, andthe thesis was that the
communities that were receivingpeople would be negatively
impacted, that there wouldn't beenough housing, they would feel

(06:20):
crowded, that the people whowere the receiving communities
would suffer economically.
And you know what we found?
The exact opposite.
The people who took people inended up benefiting financially.
You can take a small townoutside of Paradise, california.
It's called Chico.

(06:41):
The city of Chico has ended upwith a financial surplus in
their city because there wasmore economic activity happening
within their city, and there'salso federal dollars that flow
in for education, and so theschool districts were being
funded because they had morepupils.

(07:03):
The thing that is an amazingrealization is that we have this
idea that people who aredisplaced are going to be a
burden, but guess what?
It's the opposite.
They end up contributing to thecommunity.
So here we are in SouthernCalifornia.
We're seeing federal actionthat is really bringing so much

(07:24):
burden to immigrant communities.
We've got to change ourthinking around that the people
who are coming here can providegreat benefit to Southern
California as they areeconomically.
But we should, rather thanthinking that we have to put up
with people who are immigratinghere that they're actually
providing a benefit, and sothat's what gives me hope is

(07:47):
that if we pay attention, wewill learn great lessons, and I
think one of the best lessons isthat we don't need to be afraid
of the changes from climatechange if we actually have an
open heart and open arms and wecan actually work with the
people that need help.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
It'll become our benefit to work with them.
Thank you both for talking withme.
Thank you also for the serviceyou're providing to this region
now, but also for a long, longtime into the past and,
hopefully, the future.
So thanks, guys, thank you,thanks, jonathan.