About

I am the Anton Vonk Associate Professor of Environmental Politics in the Department of Political Science. I’m also affiliated with the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and the Environmental Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). For the 2023-2024 academic year, I am on leave at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Fellowship, working on a new book about federal climate policy.

I work on energy, climate and environmental politics. Within American Politics, my work focuses on representation and public opinion; voting behavior; and public policy. Within environmental politics, I research climate change, renewable energy, water and chemicals policy. In 2022, I was named an advocate on TIME100 Next, and as one of Business Insider’s top 30 global leaders working toward climate solutions.

My book, Short Circuiting Policy, examines the role that utilities have played in promoting climate denial and rolling back clean energy laws. It was named the Best Energy Book of 2020 by the American Energy Society, listed as a top 5 climate book from 2020 by The New York Times, and won 3 awards from the American Political Science Association. I also contributed to the anthology All We Can Save, which is a New York Times bestselling collection of essays written by influential women in the climate space. I am a Senior Policy Counsel at Rewiring America and co-host the podcast “A Matter of Degrees.”  

My academic research has been published in top journals including the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, British Journal of Political Science, Nature Energy, Energy Policy, and Environmental Science & Technology. I have also published articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, CNN and elsewhere. I am frequently quoted in national media.

I completed my PhD in Public Policy in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning’s Environmental Policy & Planning group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). I also received a masters from MIT's Political Science Department. Before that, I completed an MPA in Environmental Science & Policy at the School of International & Public Affairs (SIPA) and the Earth Institute at Columbia University. I also have a BSc in Psychology and East Asian Studies from the University of Toronto. Prior to academia, I worked at the Parliament of Canada and Resources for the Future.