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A Day of Connection and Growth: Recapping Our Inaugural Environmental Day of Learning

Day of Learning Attendees

This May, Great American Environmental hosted its annual in-person Day of Learning in Houston bringing together early-career brokers and underwriters for a full day of education, networking and hands-on engagement. Designed to provide a strong foundation in environmental insurance, the event delivered on its promise to inform, inspire and connect.

A Day of Expertise and Collaboration

Our Day of Learning events are curated for early-career environmental insurance professionals to gain insight from experienced colleagues across various skillsets and backgrounds. Additionally, we want to create an atmosphere that encourages collaboration, questions and the forging of long-term professional relationships. This year, the day brought a full agenda of sessions across underwriting, claims and risk engineering. Check out a preview of everything attendees discussed throughout the day:

  • The Environmental Market in Motion: An overview of current trends that are shaping risk, coverage and claims led by Heather Boyd.
  • Emerging Exposures: Austin Connell continued the conversation with specific underwriting and site trends.
  • Risk Engineering – Engineering for Resilience: Sarah Pong explored legionella and lead exposure risks, regulations and risk management within both cities and rural areas.
  • Litigation Trends: Class action lawsuits, social inflation and nuclear verdicts continue to shape the industry – Trish Shippee explained each and how they impact day-to-day work.
  • Where General Liability Stops & Pollution Coverage Steps in: Becky Biermann explained the difference between general liability and pollution coverage, along with when it’s important to obtain both.
  • Contracting Services: Bjorn Gundersen and Melissa Murdock explore underwriting trends and challenges within contracting work.
  • Contractor Risk through an Underwriting and Risk Engineering Lens: After learning contracting trends and challenges, Sarah Pong and Jillian Walsh analyzed a couple of our Riskopolis illustrations to uncover where things can go wrong while building a structure.
  • Claims in Action: Trish Shippee returned to tell us more about claims trends in 2026 and specific scenarios to consider while working on a submission.
  • Wrapping up: Grant Swenson and Lauren Coca closed by pulling it all together with a conversation on managing submissions using specific case studies.   

A Toast to the Future

To celebrate a successful day of learning and collaboration, our team hosted attendees and additional Houston- and Dallas-based brokers for a networking happy hour at the Four Season’s Top Golf Swing Suite and Bayou & Bottle bourbon bar. This provided an excellent opportunity for our all-day attendees to meet and network with tenured professionals and learn more about their work in the industry.

Thank you to everyone who joined us! We’re proud to support the next generation of environmental insurance professionals and look forward to continuing the conversation. Stay tuned for future events and resources designed to help you grow your expertise and expand your impact. 

 

Want to Join Us?

If you're interested in participating in future Day of Learning events, please reach out to our team.

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