Distinguished Visiting Fellow - University of Pennsylvania

Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Perry World House, University of Pennsylvania

2025–2026 Academic Year

Perry World House is Penn’s home for global policy engagement, bringing the university’s academic expertise to bear on some of the world’s most pressing challenges in climate, democracy, global justice and human rights, and security. Since 2016, its Visiting Fellows program has brought internationally renowned policy leaders, scholars, and practitioners to Philadelphia — from government, international institutions, NGOs, media, and the private sector — to work alongside Penn’s faculty and students and help bridge the divide between academic research and real-world policy.

Jason Edwards joined Perry World House as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow for the 2025–2026 academic year, contributing his decades of field experience as a National Geographic photographer to the House’s climate program. As a leader and mentor, Jason has spent years teaching photographers of all levels the art of storytelling — how to find an image and translate it into something that moves people. That same instinct for translation is now at the center of his work with Perry World House: helping researchers and policymakers communicate the realities of climate change through imagery, and guiding conversations on how visual storytelling shapes public understanding of the natural world.

Jason continues this work today in his ongoing collaboration with GERA, documenting climate change on a global scale.