Leah Stokes

Anton Vonk Associate Professor of Environmental Politics, UC Santa Barbara

Dr. Leah Stokes is a policy expert with nearly two decades of experience working on climate and energy, including championing a federal Clean Electricity Standard. She has four degrees, including her doctorate from MIT, and was recently recognized on the 2022 TIME100 Next and Business Insider Climate Action 30 lists. Leah is conversant in a wide variety of climate and energy topics, including public policy, political science, planning, and psychology. Her recent award-winning book Short Circuiting Policy examines why we are behind on climate action, telling the history of fossil fuel companies and electric utilities promoting climate denial and delay. She is the Anton Vonk Associate Professor of Environmental Politics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, the co-host of the popular climate podcast “A Matter of Degrees,” and a senior policy consultant at Evergreen Action and Rewiring America. Her academic work is published in top journals and is widely read and cited.

Photo Credit: Lucy Lu Photography

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