Please join the Women in Energy initiative at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia SIPA for a student roundtable lunch and discussion with Mary Nichols, a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy. She will discuss her 45-year career as an environmental lawyer and share insights from her experiences working in both local and federal government.

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Registration is required. This roundtable is open only to currently enrolled Columbia University students. To register, you must sign in with your UNI.

This event will be hosted in person and capacity is limited. We ask that you register only if you can attend this event in its entirety. 

For more information about the event, please contact energypolicyevents@columbia.edu.

On Tuesday, October 8th, Women in Energy hosted Cathy Schreiber, founder and principal of Cathy Schreiber & Associates, a firm that supports climate and clean energy advocacy organizations, foundations, and climate tech startups with strategy, human capacity, and executive searches.

Cathy discussed strategies for getting recruited into energy and shared tips on what organizations are looking for and how to stand out. She shared best practices based on her experience in her consulting firm and more than 20 years of supporting leaders and teams in achieving ambitious goals.

Cathy Schreiber founded her consulting firm in 2017 after more than 20 years of success in the social sector – developing and executing plans that follow a clear North Star of justice and equity; raising money to power those plans; and supporting leaders and teams working to achieve ambitious goals. Her firm helps clients elevate their approaches and operations to be more impactful and leave this world better than we found it. The goal of their work is transformation – of strategies, structures, and systems.

Cathy has overseen every functional area of nonprofit businesses – governance, development, communications, programs, finance, and administration/operations. During her 15+ years with the Women’s Foundation of California, she led strategic planning, budgeting, evaluation and learning, business model analyses, and team restructures for this statewide public foundation, while serving as a primary liaison for high-profile strategic partnerships. She played a key role in raising more than $100 million and drove the evolution of donor-driven giving circles to become global models of inclusive feminist philanthropy.

Today, as a multi-faceted consultant with expertise in equity-centered approaches, Cathy’s work focuses on business strategy and human capacity, including executive search and coaching. Her clients include climate and clean energy advocacy organizations, foundations, and climate tech startups.

Climate change is a growing area of concern for many foundations and philanthropies, which can play an important role because of their ability to deploy capital quickly to areas of need. For many interested in working in climate finance and policy, climate philanthropy could be an exciting career option. The Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia SIPA’s Women in Energy initiative invites you to a student roundtable that will spotlight foundations working to advance climate and energy solutions. The roundtable will discuss how each foundation sees the sector evolving and how students can build careers in this space.

Moderator: 

• Martina Chow, Graduate Student, School of International and Public Affairs 

Speakers: 

• Farah Benahmed, Manager, Breakthrough Energy 
• Isabela Cigarroa, Program Assistant, Environment, Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust  
• Isabella Gee, Program Associate for the Energy and Environment Program, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
• Charlotte Tweedley, Manager, Program Strategy, The Rockefeller Foundation  

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Registration is required. This roundtable is open only to currently enrolled Columbia University students. To register, you must use the email address that contains your UNI. 

This event will be hosted in person and capacity is limited. We ask that you register only if you can attend this event in its entirety. 

For more information about the event, please contact energypolicyevents@columbia.edu.

The momentum for clean hydrogen has never been greater. With a landmark U.S. national strategy, policy and funding support in place, what’s needed next to ensure the technology’s potential is fully realized and meaningful climate, economic and community benefits are delivered?

Join Columbia University’s Women in Energy, Women+ in Hydrogen, Women in Green Hydrogen, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and FTI Consulting for this women-led panel discussion and networking event during Climate Week NYC.

The event will feature a women-led discussion with speakers from a variety of backgrounds, followed by structured speed-networking and informal conversations over drinks and hors d’oeuvres.

Speakers:

• Ivana Jemelkova, Senior Managing Director, Energy Transition & Sustainability, FTI Consulting
• Elina Teplinsky, Energy Industry Team Leader, Hydrogen Practice Co-Leader, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
• Tessa Weiss, Senior Associate, Rocky Mountain Institute
• Vennela Yadhati, Senior Manager, P2X North America, Ørsted

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Advance registration is required and free-of-charge. Upon registration, you will receive a confirmation email.

For more information about the event, please contact energypolicyevents@columbia.edu.

The 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, is rapidly approaching. In order for COP27 to successfully address the scale of the climate crisis, attending nations must consider the gender balance of their delegations and hosted speakers. Women’s political leadership is integral to climate change, political awareness, and government action.

The Center on Global Energy Policy hosted a panel of experts to discuss the contribution of women to climate diplomacy and the important role of a gender framework in promoting successful climate action. The panel featured Catherine McKenna, who launched Women Leading on Climate at COP26 in Glasgow, and Amy Myers Jaffe, who recently released a commentary on women and gender in climate diplomacy.

Welcome Remarks:

• Jessica Weis, Program Director, Women In Energy, Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA

Moderator:

• Amy Myers Jaffe, Research Professor and Managing Director, Climate Policy Lab, The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and Co-chair of the Women in Energy Steering Committee, Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA

Panelists:

• Irina Lazzerini, Principal Specialist, Clean Energy, SEforAll
• Catherine McKenna, Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA and Founder and Principal, Climate and Nature Solutions

Please join the Center on Global Energy Policy for a student-only virtual roundtable discussion with Dr. Leah Stokes, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Dr. Stokes will address the agenda for federal climate policy and her efforts to engage with the public and policy-makers on climate change. She will also discuss key themes from her book, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/short-circuiting-policy-97801900…” target=”_blank”>Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States.

Biography

Dr. Leah Stokes is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and affiliated with the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and the Environmental Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Her research examines public policy, public opinion and political behavior, with a focus on energy, environment and climate change. Her recent book Short Circuiting Policy (Oxford University Press) examines how interest groups have tried to weaken clean energy laws across the American states. Other ongoing projects include examining protests against energy infrastructure, political staff in Congress, environmentalists’ electoral participation, violence against environmental activists, and effective water conservation policy in California. Prior to academia, Dr. Stokes worked at the Parliament of Canada and Resources for the Future. She is also the co-Chair of the Scholars Strategy Network’s Working Group on Energy & Climate, and a Fellow at the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy at John Hopkins SAIS and the University of Calgary School of Public Policy. She completed her doctoral degree in Public Policy in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning’s Environmental Policy & Planning group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received a Master of Science degree from MIT's Political Science Department. Before that, she completed a Master of Public Administration degree in Environmental Science & Policy at SIPA and the Earth Institute at Columbia University. She also has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and East Asian Studies from the University of Toronto.

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Registration is required. This event is open only to currently-enrolled Columbia University students.

For more information contact <a href="mailto:energypolicyevents@columbia.edu” target=”_blank”>energypolicyevents@columbia.edu.

Carbon capture has emerged over the past two years as both an essential part of a climate response strategy and a new market for investors. In large part, this is due to new US policies that helps align markets to CO2 reduction and removal. One of the most important policies is a change to the US tax code, section 45Q, which creates a tax credit awarded to the capture and long-term internment of CO2. This new law has implications for US industry, innovation, clean power, and global competitiveness, and is already influencing banks, equity, and institutional investors as the next clean energy market opportunity. Understanding the law, its interpretation, and associated regulations will be critical to successful deployment of carbon capture projects in US electricity and industrial sectors.  Please join CGEP’s Carbon Management Research Initiative and Women in Energy program for this exceptional panel of leaders and experts to discuss 45Q and other policies for carbon capture. Speakers: Judi Greenwald is a Fellow at Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. She is also the Principal of Greenwald Consulting LLC, providing energy and environmental expert advice, strategic planning, and policy analysis to clients. Until 2017, Ms. Greenwald was the Deputy Director for Climate, Environment, and Energy Efficiency in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis. Ms. Greenwald also served as a Senior Advisor to the Secretary for Climate Change. Romany Webb is a Senior Fellow  with the Columbia University Sabin Center for Climate Changer Law. Prior to joining the Sabin Center, Ms. Webb worked at the University of California Berkeley Energy and Climate Institute. Ms. Webb also completed a fellowship with the Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law, and Business at the University of Texas at Austin, where she researched energy policy. The fellowship followed several years working in private practice in Sydney, Australia. Julio Friedmann (Moderator) is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. He served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Fossil Energy at the Department of Energy. Dr. Friedmann also held positions at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, including Senior Advisor for Energy Innovation and Chief Energy Technologist. He is also the CEO of Carbon Wrangler, LLC, is a Distinguished Associate at the Energy Futures Initiative, and serves as a special advisor to the Global CCS Institute. He was recently named as a Senior Fellow to the Breakthrough Institute and the Climate Leadership Council. — Guests unable to attend in person can register to view a livestream of the event by accessing the registration link above. This event is open to press. Media should register for this event. Media inquiries or requests for interviews should be directed to Artealia Gilliard (ag4144@sipa.columbia.edu) or Genna Morton (gam2164@sipa.columbia.edu). Please note: RSVP to this event does not guarantee entry. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis until capacity is reached for both the public and press. Flash photography and video recording are prohibited. For more information contact: energypolicy@columbia.edu.

Concerns about the impacts of climate change and the pace and scale of our efforts to reduce emissions have prompted a resurgence of interest and attention on how we can remove carbon from the environment, store it and use it for practical purposes using CCUS (carbon capture, use, and storage) technology. Policy shifts at the state and federal level have created new markets for this clean energy technology, inspiring the launch of new projects in both the industrial and power sectors, extending into new enterprises (like direct air capture or CarbonTech). Despite this interest, few non-experts are familiar with the technology, the market potential, or the political viability of CCUS deployment in the United States or abroad.  Join us on March 26 for the first public event of the Center’s Carbon Management Research Initiative. Come hear leading experts at the front lines of policy, technology, and governance discuss this critical path technology for a just and vibrant energy transition. This event is co-hosted by CGEP’s Women in Energy program.  The panel of experts will include: Erin Burns – Associate Director, Policy – Carbon180  Sarah Forbes – Scientist, Office of Fossil Energy – US Department of Energy Sallie Greenberg – Associate Director, Energy & Minerals – Illinois State Geological Survey Julio Friedmann – Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy (Moderator) Guests unable to attend in person can view a livestream of the event at energypolicy.columbia.edu/livestream. This event is open to press. Media attending the event should register using the registration link below. Media inquiries or requests for interviews should be directed to Artealia Gilliard (ag4144@sipa.columbia.edu). For more information contact: energypolicy@columbia.edu.

Please join the Center on Global Energy Policy for a Women in Energy lunch and roundtable discussion with Dr. Pratima Rangarajan, the Chief Executive Officer of the newly-formed investment company, OGCI Climate Investments and Rhea Hamilton, Ventures Director of OGCI Climate Investments. Dr. Rangarajanand and Ms. Hamilton will discuss their job history, career paths, and perspectives on what it means to be a female leader in the energy industry. About OGCI Investments  Jointly funded by 10 Oil and Gas majors, OGCI Climate Investments (CI) intends to invest $1 billion over the next ten years to develop and demonstrate innovative technologies that have the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. CI plans to enhance the impact of the investments via strategic partnerships and with others working on low emissions technologies and solutions. Biographies Dr. Pratima Rangarajan Before joining OGCI Climate Investments, Dr. Rangarajan was the General Manager for GE’s Onshore Wind Product Line and the General Manager for GE’s Energy Storage startup. She had previously held the role of Deputy Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President, Emerging Technology and Research at Vestas Wind Systems. Pratima has a PhD in chemical engineering from Princeton University and a BS in chemical engineering from MIT. She is based in London.  Rhea Hamilton Previously, Ms. Hamilton was a Managing Director for a European family office heading private equity/venture capital direct investments in clean technology and renewable energy. Prior to this, she was an Investment Director at RobecoSAM Private Equity, formerly part of the greater Rabobank Group. Ms. Hamilton started her career with Royal Dutch Shell, where she held various positions including CFO of Shell Hydrogen. Rhea holds a Geological Engineering degree with a specialisation in Geophysics, from the University of British Columbia, and an MBA from IESE in Barcelona, Spain. This event is open only to current female grad students.  Space is limited therefore please register only if you can commit to attending the roundtable. Lunch will be provided.  If you have any questions, please contact: jem2245@sipa.columbia.edu