People

Joshua Kruskal (he/him) brings a background in sustainable development and nonprofit operations management to his role as Operations and Finance Director at GEM. Previously, he worked as a Program Manager with the University of Chicago’s Office of Civic Engagement and as a Bartlett Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory. Through his prior work with global NGOs and domestic nonprofits, he has pursued dual interests in community development and environmental sustainability. He received his master’s degree in environmental science and policy from the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy, and his bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College. He joined Global Energy Monitor in 2020.

Diana Luepke (she/her) is an Operations Specialist at Global Energy Monitor. She has an extensive background in operations and administration, and she loves to build effective, healthy systems. Immediately prior to her role at GEM, she worked as a freelance operations consultant for eight years, managing and streamlining operations for mission-driven organizations. Diana holds an undergraduate degree from Beloit College in English, and a graduate certificate from Edgewood College in Sustainability Leadership.

Liz Mason (she/her) is the Human Resources Manager at GEM and brings an extensive background in supporting non-profit and government organizations and their employees. Previously, she worked at Appalachian State University in the Office of Equity Diversity and Compliance/Office of Title IX Compliance. She also taught classes in Appalachian’s Social Work Department on social welfare policy and working with community-based organizations. Liz holds an undergraduate degree in Non-Profit Business & World Religions from Luther College and a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota in Social Work with a concentration on community practice focusing on improving the effectiveness and responsiveness of systems to serve as a catalyst for sustainable development and social justice. She is also an AmeriCorps VISTA alumna.

Ted Nace (he/him) is the founder and Executive Director of Global Energy Monitor. He is the co-founder of computer book publisher Peachpit Press and is the author of Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy and Climate Hope: On the Front Lines of the Fight Against Coal. He served as staff director of the Dakota Resource Council and as a columnist for Publish! magazine. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and a master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

James Browning (he/him) has worked to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable as a writer, researcher, lobbyist, and game designer. Prior to Global Energy Monitor he worked for ten years as a state and regional director for Common Cause and wrote “Deep Drilling, Deep Pockets”, a series of reports about the fracking industry that was featured on MSNBC, NPR, and in several documentary films. He is the author of The Fracking King, a novel that was named one of the Best 100 Books of 2014 by Amazon. In 2017, he published “Last Chance” in Orion Magazine, a set of cards that introduces air pollution, floods, drought, fracking, and other environmental problems into the game of Monopoly.

Carolina (she/her) is a media activist whose work has centered around environmental and social justice issues concerning immigration, mass consumption, and human rights abuses in the global south. At GEM she focuses on developing long-term narrative components to complement existing research & work.

Prior to joining GEM, Carolina worked with a variety of nonprofits both in the U.S. and abroad, including RAICES where she led the organization’s digital advocacy efforts as the Director of Social Media. She holds two degrees — a BA in Media Production, Management, and Technology from the University of Florida, and an MSc in Digital Humanities from la Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. Her thesis, Defender, focused on the intersections between activism, interdisciplinary research and digital strategies to tell the stories of 3 human rights defenders in Colombia in the midst of a failing peace treaty. She is fluent in Spanish.

Before joining Global Energy Monitor in 2022, David worked for a number of years with grassroots groups in eastern Europe as the Communications Director for Bankwatch, a network of non-profits holding international finance to account. His work there appeared in publications including the Financial Times, Guardian and the New York Times, among others. He hold degrees in anthropology and economics from the University of Vermont and is conversant in Czech and German.

Mason Inman (he/him) joined GEM in 2019, and has worked on climate and energy issues as a policy analyst, data scientist, and science journalist for more than a decade. Previously he was the lead analyst and programmer for Near Zero, a climate policy nonprofit. Mason also worked for about a decade as a freelance science journalist writing for Science, Nature, National Geographic News, and other outlets. Many of his technical articles and news stories are on his Google Scholar page. He also wrote The Oracle of Oil, the first biography of maverick geologist M. King Hubbert. He received his bachelor’s in physics from the University of California Santa Barbara, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California Santa Cruz.

Satomi (she/her) brings her interdisciplinary science research background as a Data Scientist at GEM. She has engaged in wide breadths of research ranging from applying Machine Learning to Robotic Motion Planning problems, modeling infectious disease transmission using tools in Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics, to investigating Self-Organized Criticality in tropical convection. Aside from science and physics, she is passionate about education, DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), and social justice. Her publications and outreach activities can be found here. She has a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of New Mexico, an MS in Physics with a focus on Atmospheric Physics from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, a BA in Physics from Lewis & Clark College. She did her postdoc research in Computer Science at the University of New Mexico.

Bob Burton (he/him) is the Editor of CoalWire, Global Energy Monitor’s weekly bulletin on global coal industry developments. He has been researching and writing on energy and the mining industry for over thirty years and is a regular contributor to the RenewEconomy and EndCoal websites. In 1992 he was entered on the United Nations Environment Program Global 500 Roll of Honour for an outstanding contribution to the protection of the environment. With Guy Pearse and David McKnight he co-authored Big Coal: Australia’s Dirtiest Habit. He is also the author of Inside Spin: The Dark Underbelly of the PR Industry and co-authored Secrets and Lies: The Anatomy of an Anti-Environmental PR Campaign.

Flora Champenois (she/her) is a Research Analyst for coal at Global Energy Monitor and brings over a decade of experience working on environmental, energy, and social justice issues. Previously, she was a Senior Research and Policy Analyst at Earthjustice, a nonprofit public interest environmental law organization. During her seven years there, Flora primarily worked alongside Coal Program attorneys to secure, strengthen, and defend federal standards, ensure compliance, and prevent the industry from shifting the costs of uneconomic plants onto customers. Her role included leading toxic coal ash data analysis efforts and collaborating with international partners. She holds a degree in Environmental Sciences and GIS from the University of California, Berkeley. She is fluent in French and studied Mandarin.

Yun (Wynn) Feng joined Global Energy Monitor in 2020. She previously worked as a financial manager for a venture capital corporation and a solar energy company in China. She has also worked in research and accounting roles at environmental organizations including Conservation International, International Rivers, and Pacific Environment. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political economy from the East China University of Technology and Science.

Lucy Hummer (they/them) is a Researcher at Global Energy Monitor and is focused on the Global Coal Plant Tracker. Lucy graduated from the George Washington University with a Master’s degree in Environmental Resource Policy in 2021. Before GEM, they worked as a research assistant on an ongoing energy justice project in Washington, DC. Lucy has backgrounds in community organizing and developing metrics for understanding energy systems. They are also interested in studying food justice, groundwater sustainability, and the intersections of all of these topics.

Xiaojun (James) Peng joined Global Energy Monitor in 2021 as a Researcher. He worked as a documentary director and senior reporter in China for 16 years, focusing on China’s culture and history. He received his doctoral degree at the Communication University of China and studied film production at Vancouver Film School.

Christine Shearer is the Program Director for Coal at Global Energy Monitor. She previously worked as a postdoctoral scholar in Earth System Science at the University of California in Irvine and as a research fellow at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. Her peer-reviewed research has appeared in Nature, AGU Advances, and Earth’s Future, among others, and has been featured in The New York Times and National Geographic. She is author of Kivalina: A Climate Change Story, which was runner-up for the 2012 Rachel Carson Environment Book Award. She received her PhD in Sociology from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Caitlin Swalec (she/her) is an engineer and energy and climate researcher. At GEM she focuses on industrial decarbonization, particularly iron/steel and hydrogen. She previously worked as an air quality engineer in compliance reporting and permitting for fossil fuel fired power plants throughout the United States. Caitlin also worked as a wind farm planner and analyst for Fraunhofer IWES, a European wind energy research institute, and as a communications specialist for the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. Her research specialties also include sustainable forestry, carbon easements, and wildfire management. Caitlin received a bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and a master’s degree from UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management.

Ryan Driskell Tate is a Research Analyst at Global Energy Monitor. He holds a Ph.D. in energy and environmental history from Rutgers University, with a specialty in coal development and stakeholder disputes in mining communities. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Review of Books, and other popular and scholarly outlets. Prior to GEM, he held research fellowships at the University of Wyoming and was an adjunct professor in political science.

Aiqun Yu has been a China researcher with Global Energy Monitor since 2014. She was a journalist and TV documentary editor in Beijing, China, focusing on environmental and social justice topics before moving to the US in 2012. She received a master’s degree in journalism from the Communication University of China, and spent two years as a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. She currently lives in Zurich, Switzerland.

Nagwa Abdallah (she/her) is a Researcher at Global Energy Monitor. Nagwa holds a master’s degree in international media from American University in Washington DC and a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Cairo University in Egypt. She previously worked as the Head of the Foreign Affairs Desk and as a Quality Control Editor in digital and traditional media outlets in Egypt and the United States. She published and covered the Middle East and international affairs. Nagwa worked as a Research Fellow at “Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism,” and at the University of Oxford in the UK. She is the author of The Role of the Media in the Democratic Transition in Egypt and other publications in Arabic and English.

Greig Aitken (he/him) has worked on fossil fuel finance with non-profit groups for more than 15 years. For seven years from 2003 he was Media Coordinator for CEE Bankwatch Network, focusing on preventing environmentally and socially destructive financing from multilateral development banks primarily in central and eastern Europe and also globally. Prior to joining Global Energy Monitor he worked for BankTrack, providing research and analysis for publications such as the Fossil Fuel Finance Report Card which have helped bring about increased global pressure on major international commercial banks to restrict their financial support for the coal, oil and gas industries. He has also worked for the Scottish Green Party, is fluent in French and speaks Czech.

Warda (she/her) is a Research Analyst at Global Energy Monitor. She provides regional support from South Asia for various GEM projects. She holds a PhD in Public Policy from Oregon State University, with a background in Energy Systems Engineering (MS) and Environmental Engineering (BE). Her doctoral research focused on the socio-technical transition toward microgrids and other decentralized energy systems and has been published in reputed academic journals such as Energy Research & Social Science; Energy Policy; and Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. Before joining GEM, she was an Assistant Professor at the U.S. Pakistan Center For Advanced Studies In Energy, National University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan.

Hanna Fralikhina is a Researcher at Global Energy Monitor. She holds a BA in Environmental Economics and Policy from the University of California, Berkeley and an MSc in Environment and Natural Resource Management from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Prior to joining Global Energy Monitor, Hanna worked at Both ENDS, an environmental justice organization in the Netherlands, where she focused on divestment, climate campaigns, and renewable energy alternatives in East Africa and on deforestation and community livelihoods in Indonesia. She has also worked for such organizations as the Environmental Defense Fund and Environmental Protection in the Caribbean. She speaks Russian, Belarusian, and French.

Harvey graduated from Middlebury College with a degree in Economics and Philosophy in 2022. Originally from the Maldives, he is engaged with observing how climate change and economics intersect and influence each other, along with the host of ESJ issues that arise therein. Harvey brings experiences from years of volunteering and working at NGO’s, as well as a basis of undergraduate research in climate change economics.

Julie joined Global Energy Monitor in 2019. Previously, she was the Associate Professor of Natural Resources Law and Policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, focusing on land and resource management issues. She received a master’s degree from Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a law degree from Georgetown University. Her research has been published in many academic journals.

Baird Langenbrunner (he/him) is a Research Analyst working on the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker. Before GEM, he worked as an editor at Nature Climate Change, where he handled research and commentary on the physical impacts and broader implications of contemporary climate change. Baird has a bachelor’s degree in Geophysics from Brown University, a PhD in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from UCLA, and a keen interest in the decarbonization of the global energy system.

Jenny Martos is a Research Analyst at Global Energy Monitor. She previously worked as an energy consultant focusing on power procurement and wholesale energy markets. Her work included research and quantitative analysis, energy price forecasts, and testimony support for regulatory-related projects funded by public utility commissions in the U.S. and Canada. She received her bachelor’s degree in Nuclear Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and her master’s degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Robert Rozansky is a Research Analyst at Global Energy Monitor studying liquified natural gas infrastructure. Previously, he has advocated for clean energy innovation with a DC-based think tank, and served in a fellowship supporting science and technology policy initiatives from the White House and other agencies. He has authored reports on renewable power, emerging technologies, and U.S. innovation policy. He received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Brown University and a master’s degree in physics from Aix-Marseille University, with a thesis at the international nuclear fusion project ITER, while on a Fulbright scholarship to France.

Scott Zimmerman (he/him) is a researcher at Global Energy Monitor. He previously worked at the Center for Media and Democracy where he researched corporate power. His writing has appeared in Truthout, ExposedbyCMD, and The Cap Times. He received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Art from the St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Ingrid Behrsin (she/her) is a research analyst at Global Energy Monitor for the Global Renewable Power Tracker. She holds a PhD in Geography and an MSc in Community and Regional Development from the University of California, Davis, with an emphasis in the political ecology of renewable energy classifications and waste markets. Her writing on renewable energy transitions is published in academic journals such as Energy Research & Social Science; Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space; and Annals of the American Association of Geographers, as well as in popular outlets such as Utility Dive and Euractive. Prior to joining GEM, she was a postdoctoral fellow and research affiliate at the UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment, and the Economy, and the Office of Public Scholarship and Engagement. She received her BA in International Development Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

Joe Bernardi (he/him) uses his research, programming, and data visualization skills in his work on Global Energy Monitor’s Hydro Power and Nuclear Power Trackers. He is passionate about supporting the growth of a healthier, more equitable, and more sustainable world. Before joining GEM, he worked in the energy data and analytics sphere to improve the transparency of North American energy markets. He reported on short-term and long-term market trends, maintained data collection processes, and built models and forecasts of supply, demand, and prices. He has a BA with a double major in Biology and Music from Washington University in St. Louis.

Christina Carty (she/her) began as an intern with GEM in 2021 and is now working as a part-time researcher with the renewable energy trackers. Her outside-of-GEM research focuses have ranged from studying the intersection of economy and climate in the development of European renewable energy to working with 3D climate models as tools for understanding exoplanets. She recently graduated with a double major in Earth Science and Statistics from Northwestern University after finishing her final semester at the University of Barcelona, where she continues to reside.

Andrew Gamez (he/him) is a Researcher at Global Energy Monitor. He received his BA in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research background includes Environmental Law and Policy, and his passion lies in Environmental Justice issues. Based in Long Beach, CA he focuses on Ocean Conservation in his free time.

Vanessa Levy is a researcher at Global Energy Monitor working on the Global Hydropower Tracker. She received her BA in Gender Studies from Swarthmore College in 2022 and has focused her research on the intersection of environmental justice and feminist movements. Prior to joining GEM, Vanessa worked at Energy Justice Network and continues to support their anti-incineration work.

Dorothy Lan Mei is a Researcher at GEM. She has more than 7 years of experience in international and grassroots NGOs and venture capital tackling issues including climate change, urban planning, energy, and air pollution. In 2015 and 2016, she led China’s youth delegation to COP21 in Paris and COP22 in Marrakesh to foster greater youth participation in the fight against climate change. In 2015 she was selected as a U.S.-China Professional Fellow by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs to work with the National Trust for Historic Preservation on historic building preservation in the US. She holds a master’s in Development Practice from University of California, Berkeley, a master’s in History from Hebei University, and a bachelor’s in English Language from Guizhou University in China.

Kasandra O’Malia (she/her) brings over a decade of experience in data analysis and visualization, programming, and technical writing to the Global Renewable Power Tracker project as a Research Fellow. Before transitioning to a career in the energy and climate sector, she spent many years as a spacecraft and instrumentation engineer working on programs for NASA, NOAA, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Coast Guard. Her undergraduate degree in Physics is from Lewis & Clark College and she holds a master’s degree in Astrophysics and Planetary Science from the University of Colorado.

Sumera Patel (she/her) is a Researcher at GEM. Prior to working at GEM, she was a Science Writer/Paralegal for a law firm. She holds a BA in Biology and History from Swarthmore College and her research interests include the political ecology of development and anticapitalist environmental movements.

Shradhey Parijat Prasad (he/him) is the Project Manager for the Global Geothermal Power Tracker (GGtPT) at Global Energy Monitor. In the past, Shradhey worked as a researcher at the Indian School of Business in India on projects that evaluated the impact of digital identity in the field of economics, policy and economic development. Since then, he has worked as a Consultant for Acari LLC where he calculated the carbon footprint of their sustainable jerky product line. Shradhey was an independent Researcher at the IKEA Foundation where his research guided the foundation’s investment and intervention strategy around renewable energy access in rural India. His current interests lie at the nexus of climate, energy and development. He earned his Master’s in Development Practice from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor’s in economics from Shiv Nadar University in India.

Janna Smith (she/her) began research for Global Energy Monitor in 2021. She holds a BA in Chinese language and culture from the University of Edinburgh, and an MSc from the Global Security Institute at Durham University, UK. Her Master’s research focused on Chinese corporate response to local protest within the resource extraction industry in Peru.

Martin Weil has been working on China energy and environment issues for decades. His experience includes marketing clean power generation technologies for the ABB group, contracting to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s global climate change division to do feasibility analysis for methane recovery projects in China, and representing the US-China Business Council in Beijing.

Sophia Bauer joined Global Energy Monitor as Researcher in 2021. She received her BA in Global Affairs from George Mason University and holds an MA in Latin American Studies from the University of South Florida. She has worked as a socio-cultural researcher focused on Latin America using open-source and geospatial data to inform work related to climate refugees, environmental change, and social justice movements. She speaks Spanish & Portuguese and has spent extensive time in Central and South America.

Gregor Clark (he/him) has worked as a writer and researcher focusing on Latin America and Europe for 20 years, including intermittent stints at Global Energy Monitor dating back to 2014. Since 2020 he has been the project lead for the Portal Energético para América Latina, a regional tracker that synthesizes GEM’s research on Latin American and the Caribbean and makes it available in Spanish, Portuguese and English. Gregor holds a degree in Romance Languages from Stanford University, with additional undergraduate work in Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz and graduate work in Spanish at Middlebury College. He speaks Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and German.

Charmaine Dalisay (she/her) is a researcher at Global Energy Monitor working with partner organization WattTime for the Climate TRACE Project. She has extensive experience conducting environmental and social research utilizing geographic information systems (GIS). Charmaine has a passion for studying the intersection between society, ecology and climate change to gain understanding on how to create resilient solutions for future disasters. As an avid map maker, she hopes to use maps as a canvas to communicate critical climate issues. She holds a Bachelor of Science in GeoDesign and a Masters in Environmental Studies from the University of Southern California (Fight On!).

Alex Hurley (he/him) is a Research Analyst at Global Energy Monitor, working on the Private Equity Tracker. Prior to joining GEM, he worked as an Energy and Climate Analyst for Climate Strategies Lab, which builds and implements industrial decarbonization campaigns across various sectors. In the past, Alex also conducted analytical work for Donovan Energy, covering topics such as gas and coal plant finance, clean energy transition strategies for public utilities, and feasibility studies for clean energy hardware projects such as solar PV systems and EV charging stations. Early in his environmental career, Alex worked for the US EPA’s National Risk Management Research Laboratory and a startup focused on accelerating the development of smart and sustainable cities through technological and financial solutions. Alex holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Centre College and a M.S. in Environmental Studies from the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service at Ohio University.

There’s always at least one research nerd in every radical activist space– Julie is one of them. She has been working on fossil fuel resistance and climate justice initiatives for years, focusing mainly on Enbridge and their subsidiaries (Energir and Vermont Gas). She’s been part of several successful campaigns to stop or hinder pipeline expansion and works closely with the regional campaign No Coal, No Gas to shut down the last coal plant in New England. Julie also worked with Save Our Skies VT in their efforts to stop the basing of F-35 nuclear bombers in Vermont and works locally on issues of eviction defense and police brutality. You can find Julie working here at GEM, and often doing something a little unorthodox– like running for City Council from an occupied Line 3 construction site. She lives in Burlington, VT with her partner, guinea pigs, and gecko.

Alyssa Moore (she/her) is a researcher at Global Energy Monitor. In addition to her experience as a professional writer, editor, and proofreader, she was a 2020-2021 CreatureKind Fellow exploring the intersections of sustainability and food justice, and previously worked in water-use efficiency for City of Santa Rosa Water. She received her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from the University of San Francisco and will graduate with a Master’s degree from Santa Clara University in May 2022.

Tiffany Nakano is a Researcher at Global Energy Monitor who has worked closely with partner organization WattTime to support the initiative known as Climate TRACE. She received her undergraduate degree in Applied Mathematics from UCLA, spent some time working in the film industry, and studied GIS & Geospatial Technology before joining GEM.