Iona Isachsen

Project Manager

Iona is a project manager for the Smart Surfaces Coalition, where she supports communities in adopting Smart Surfaces for a sustainable and equitable future through data analysis, research, and science communication. Iona oversees SSC’s Peer Learning Network and Cool Roadways Partnership to advance the deployment of passive cooling and stormwater management technologies across urban communities.

Iona previously researched extremophilic algae and its many applications at the Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation, leading projects on wastewater treatment and production of high-value products via genetic engineering in Arizona and Saudi Arabia. Prior to this, Iona supported the work of an Arizona Corporation Commissioner on the Navajo Nation by researching best practices for equitable socioeconomic transitions of coal-based communities following coal plant closures.

Iona holds a B.S. in Conservation Biology & Ecology with a minor in Sustainability and a certificate in Energy Studies from Arizona State University, where she researched heavy metal recovery and management with extremophilic microalgae.