The bench for the West Coast climate and clean energy movement just got deeper! Climate Solutions is pleased to announce that we have hired Kristen Sheeran as our new Oregon Director.

Kristen brings an extensive background working on climate change. Most recently she served as the Vice President of Knowledge Systems at Ecotrust, leading a 15-member team including economists, policy specialists, data analysts, software developers, and GIS analysts.

She is also the founder and executive director of the Economics for Equity and Environment Network, a network of more than 300 economists from across the country that are organized and committed to applying their expertise to inform environmental policy development and advocacy.

Kristen has a doctorate in economics, and completed her dissertation on equity and efficiency in mitigating climate change. She was a professor of economics for seven years at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and has written and spoken extensively about climate change and clean energy in a number of high-profile settings.

Kristen will oversee our talented team in Oregon. That team will continue to include Ann Gravatt, who has served as Oregon Director for the past three years. Ann has transitioned into a policy advisor role, where she will focus her time on legislative and regulatory issues.
 
Kristen will lead our Oregon staff in helping us to achieve our priority organizational goals in the next several years:

1. Winning landmark climate policies in Washington and Oregon to create a West Coast climate leadership bloc stretching from California to British Columbia, leading to substantial emission reductions and fuels momentum for climate action at the national and global levels. Our priority policy objectives are: limiting climate pollution by capping and pricing carbon; winning commitments to phase out all coal from the electricity sector; and a Clean Fuel Standard to address climate pollution in transportation. 
2. Creating replicable models for reducing and storing carbon that demonstrate practical pathways to a low-carbon future, through cutting-edge programs like New Energy Cities.
3. Stopping all proposed coal exports through the Northwest. 

Want to meet Kristen? A great opportunity to do so will be our upcoming Annual Dinner in Portland, on November 20^th (register here).