Dr. Leah Stokes is a policy expert with nearly two decades of experience working on climate and energy, including championing climate provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act. She has four degrees, including her doctorate from MIT, and was recently recognized on the Forbes Sustainability Leaders 2024, 2022 TIME100 Next and Business Insider Climate Action 30 lists. 

Stokes is conversant in a wide variety of climate and energy topics, including public policy, political science, planning, and psychology. Her 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. Her academic work examines how to make progress on climate policy. 

Stokes has applied this work in partnership with leading environmental nonprofits, helping to lead successful campaigns for federal, state and local policy including billions in funding for clean electricity and electrification. She is the Anton Vonk Associate Professor of Environmental Politics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, a 2023-24 fellow of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, the co-host of the popular climate podcast “A Matter of Degrees,” and a senior policy consultant at Rewiring America. Her public writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic and elsewhere. Her academic work is published in top journals and is widely read and cited.

Leah Stokes photo © Lucy Lu Photography