The Breakthrough Institute: Fellows

Bill Chaloupka, an expert on the use of resentment to power the anti-environmentalist backlash, is co-editor of the forthcoming Post-Environmentalism, an anthology of international academic responses to the death of environmentalism thesis. He is a professor of political science at Colorado State University, where he has worked since 2002, serving as chair of the department from 2002-2007. Prior to that, he taught environmental studies and political science at the University of Montana in Missoula since the early 1980s, and previously taught at Ball State University and the University of New Mexico. He teaches political theory, environmental thought, and American politics. His books include Everybody Knows: Cynicism in America (1999), Knowing Nukes: Politics and Culture of the Atom (1992) and, co-edited with Jane Bennett, In the Nature of Things: Language, Politics, and the Environment (1993), all published by the University of Minnesota Press. Chaloupka was co-editor of the journal Theory & Event from 1999-2005. He is currently working on a book about environmental politics in the U.S. and , read about him on the Breakthrough blog here and here, and read his Breakthrough interview.

Dalton Conley is Chair of Sociology at New York University. Conley is the author of Honkey, The Pecking Order and five other books. William Julius Wilson called Conley's Being Black, Living in the Red, "the best contribution to the race and class debate in two decades." He also holds appointments at NYU's Wagner School of Public Service, as an Adjunct Professor of Community Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and as a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). In 2005, Conley became the first sociologist to win the NSF's Alan T. Waterman Award. His research focuses on the determinants of economic opportunity within and across generations. In this vein, he studies sibling differences in socioeconomic success; racial inequalities; the salience of physical appearance to economic status; the measurement of class; and how health and biology affect (and are affected by) social position. Conley is currently completing an introductory sociology textbook that will be published by W.W. Norton and Company in 2008. He is also completing a second memoir on family life and fatherhood in the information age. Conley is a frequent contributor of Op-Ed pieces and other essays to the mainstream press; he has written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Slate, Forbes, Salon, Boston Review and Time Magazine. Read his New York Times article "Go on a Savings Spree"

David Douglas is Senior Vice President of Cloud Computing and is also Chief Sustainability Officer at Sun Microsystems. He is responsible for Sun's cloud computing business, with a focus on creating reliable, scalable and sustainable computing and storage servers, as well as the company's developer tools and services. In addition, Dave oversees the strategy and execution of environmental initiatives across the company, including enhancements to Sun's products in the areas of energy efficiency, cooling technologies, product recycling and clean manufacturing. Dave has been in the high-tech industry for more than two decades, including more than ten years of experience leading organizations to build more innovative, efficient, and eco responsible products and has a long-standing passion about environmental issues. He earned both B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT. Dave serves on the board of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON).

Barbara Hill is Executive Director of the grassroots organization Clean Power Now, which is fighting for the first offshore wind energy plant in the U.S. She has been a leader in non-profits and social change for over 25 years. She was born and raised in Montgomery County, Maryland just outside Washington, DC. After graduating in 1977 from Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature she decided to pursue her dream of writing and moved to the village of Chatham on Cape Cod. She began her career in the non-profit sector in 1981 as the Director of the Cape & Islands Fuel Assistance Program for South Shore Community Action Council. She continued onto Housing Assistance Corporation, Cape & Islands Self-Reliance Corp., and the Association to Protect Cape Cod where she worked in a variety of management positions focusing on public relations, fund raising and building relationships between the non-profit sector and the business community. From 2001 to 2005 she served as the Project Manager for Offshore Wind with the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Renewable Energy Trust, the state's development agency for clean energy and the innovation economy. During that same period she also served as a member of the Barnstable Planning Board. Her current role as Executive Director of Clean Power Now began in July 2006. Read her op-ed about Cape Wind.

Marty Hoffert wrote the landmark 2002 article in the journal Science that concluded global warming was a clean energy problem, not a regulation problem. He is Professor Emeritus of Physics and former Chair of the Department of Applied Science at New York University. He holds a B.S. (1960) in aeronautical engineering from the University of Michigan; an M.S. (1964) and Ph.D. (1967) in astronautics from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn; and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (1969) from the New School for Social Research where he did graduate work in sociology and economics. He has published broadly in fluid mechanics, plasma physics, oceanography, planetary atmospheres, climatic change, solar and wind energy and space solar power. His geophysical research includes the ocean/climate model first employed by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to assess global warming for different scenarios of fossil fuel use. His energy research includes laboratory and full-scale experiments on wind turbines, photovoltaic hydrogen production and wireless power transmission for solar power satellites. His present efforts focus on sustainable carbon-neutral technologies to power high-tech civilization consilient with a biodiverse planet. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Watch him being interviewed and speaking at Google.

Frank Laird is an expert in energy policy, particularly the way that renewable energy policies can affect environmental policy. He is an authority on the history of renewable technology development in the U.S. Frank is an associate professor of technology and public policy at the Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver. His teaching and research interests there focus on environmental policy, energy policy, science and technology policy, and public policy more generally. Most of Frank's research has focused on energy policy, particularly the way that renewable energy policies can affect environmental policy. His book Solar Energy, Technology Policy, and Institutional Values was a finalist for 2004 Don K. Price Award for the best book in science and technology policy or politics. Frank has chaired and served on the public policy committee the American Solar Energy Society, during which time he served on the Society's board of directors. Read his articles "Just Say No to Greenhouse Gas Emissions Targets" and "Solar Energy, Technology Policy, and Institutional Values"

Roger Pielke, Jr. has done pioneering work on proper role of scientists and experts in society. He is an expert on the societal impacts of natural hazards, particularly hurricanes and floods, and a strong advocate of adaptation as a vital part of climate change policy. Roger has been on the faculty of the University of Colorado since 2001 and is a professor in the Environmental Studies Program and a Fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). At CIRES, Roger served as the Director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research from 2001-2007. Roger's current areas of interest include understanding the policy and politics of science in decision making in a range of areas. In 2006 Roger received the Eduard Bruckner Prize in Munich, Germany for outstanding achievement in interdisciplinary climate research. Before joining the University of Colorado, from 1993-2001 Roger was a Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Roger serves on various editorial boards and advisory committees, and is the author of numerous articles and essays. He is also author, co-author or co-editor of five books. His most recent book is titled The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics . In 2007 Roger was on sabbatical at the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization, Oxford University. Check out his blog, Prometheus, and read his Breakthrough interview.

Cara Pike, Director of Earthjustice's Social Capital Project, has done innovative work in transforming the next generation of environmentalism. She is committed to building broad-based support for ecological values, and to finding ways for business to be a tool for social change. Her last position was as Vice President of Communications at Earthjustice, where she was responsible for leading the organization's advocacy communications efforts and brand strategy. Before joining Earthjustice, Cara worked on sustainability issues and community outreach in the green business sector. Growing up in Canada, Cara did her share of fieldwork from tree planting in British Columbia to conducting field ecology research in the low Arctic. Cara has a Masters of Science in Environmental Studies with a focus on communications and education from California State University, Fullerton, and a Bachelor of Science in Communications and Environmental Studies from McGill University.

Jim Proctor, an expert in the role of science and religion in environmental thought, has brought together numerous groups of scholars to re-examine concepts of nature underlying contemporary environmentalism, and is co-author of several resultant volumes, including his work with Bill Chaloupka on the forthcoming Post-Environmentalism. Jim is Professor and Director of the Environmental Studies Program at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Before coming to Oregon, Jim spent 13 teaching in the geography department of the University of California, Santa Barbara. He graduated from the University of Oregon in 1980 with a degree in religious studies and went on to work as a Peace Corps volunteer in Swaziland, southern Africa. He later attended graduate school in geography and environmental science and engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Read his article, "Environment After Nature".

Siddhartha Shome is an engineer who is passionately interested in various social, political, environmental and technological issues. Born and raised in India, he is particularly interested in questions related to India and other developing societies such as how to reconcile the seeming conflict between the goals of environmentalism and development. After finishing his engineering Bachelor's degree in India, Siddhartha came to the U.S. for graduate studies. In 2000, he completed his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Iowa. Currently he works at Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) in San Jose, CA, developing mechanical design and simulation software. Outside of work he loves to mull over myriad social issues. He is also involved in a number of social causes. He is an active volunteer for Asha for Education, a group that works to spread basic education in India. He has played a leading role in Asha's Silicon Valley chapter. He is also involved in Manushi, an organization that works for social and governance reform in India, particularly on issues involving women, the urban poor, etc. Read some of his Breakthrough Blog posts here, and check out his own blog here.

2008 Breakthrough Generation Fellows

Teryn Norris
Associate Director
Teryn Norris is a leading young writer, researcher, and policy advocate. In 2007, he was involved in successful advocacy by the Breakthrough Institute to convince the Obama Campaign to adopt a $150 billion clean energy investment platform. In 2008, Teryn founded and directed the Breakthrough Fellows Program (a.k.a. Breakthrough Generation), a highly selective summer fellowship program with fifteen college graduates and undergraduates. Previously a Research Fellow at the Breakthrough Institute, he co-authored "Fast, Clean, & Cheap: Cutting Global Warming's Gordian Knot," a study published in the Spring 2008 edition of the Harvard Law and Policy Review. He is co-author of the National Energy Education Act proposal, which has been featured by Mother Jones, San Francisco Chronicle, Baltimore Sun, Congressional testimony, and online interview. Teryn has worked as Chief Research Assistant to Dr. Steve H. Hanke, one of the world's top monetary economists, as well as for the Sierra Club and Environment California, where he advocated and fundraised for the California Global Warming Solutions Act. Teryn studied economics and political science at Johns Hopkins University, where he served as Class President and led a successful campaign to establish a university-wide climate neutral energy policy. He has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, Baltimore Sun, Huffington Post, Alternet, and he regularly blogs at DailyKos, the Breakthrough Blog, WattHead -- Energy News and Commentary, and ItsGettingHotInHere. His work has been cited by the New York Times, Council on Foreign Relations, The Guardian, and other publications.

Jesse Jenkins
Associate Director
Jesse is an energy and climate policy analyst, activist and blogger. Jesse joined the Breakthrough team in June 2008 to co-direct the Breakthrough Generation Summer Fellows Program. He currently directs Breakthrough's efforts to develop and advance new energy and climate solutions to power America's future, secure our energy freedom, and halt global warming. Before joining the Breakthrough Institute, Jesse spent two years as a Research and Policy Associate at the Renewable Northwest Project where he worked to advance the development of the Pacific Northwest's abundant renewable energy potential. In the past, Jesse has worked as a researcher and software developer with the Department of Physics at the University of Oregon, where he focused on alternative vehicles and fuels, and as a teacher's assistant in energy studies courses at the university. Jesse has a history of grassroots climate and energy activism and co-founded the Cascade Climate Network, the Northwest's largest network of youth working to tackle the climate crisis and build a sustainable, just, and prosperous future. An active blogger, Jesse is the founder and blogmaster of the site, WattHead - Energy News and Commentary. He currently writes at several sites throughout the blogosphere and has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, Baltimore Sun and Huffington Post. Jesse is a graduate of the Robert D. Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon (magna cum laude), where he completed an interdisciplinary course of study in computer science, philosophy, liberal arts, political science & energy studies.

Zach Arnold, a native of Swarthmore, PA, is a sophomore at Harvard College studying social theory and environmental policy. He serves as co-chair and communications director of the Harvard College Environmental Action Committee and is currently leading a major campaign for climate neutrality and expanded climate research at Harvard. He also works as an urban gardener in the Cambridge school system, and will be a delegate to this year's session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. Zach is particularly interested in deforestation, agriculture policy, and the effect of institutional design on conservation outcomes. Before coming to Harvard, he spent time working for the National Park Service and as a farmhand in Pennsylvania and Italy. In his spare time, he cooks, bikes around, and reads far too many blogs.

Helen Aki, is a sophomore from Bard College at Simon's Rock. Her interest in environmental, political and social studies have developed ever since her middle school years, and she is currently pursuing a concentration in Environmental Studies, Society and the Environment, or Sustainable Development, depending on what school she transfers to for her junior year. Helen recently wrote two chapters comparing environmental and ecological economics for a compilation of research perspectives on global peak oil production. Two years at a small liberal arts college has left her inundated and frustrated with theory, and she is anxious to channel theory into praxis. Recently, she has become interested in the potential of decentralized indigenous or grassroots power and the notion of "everyday resistance," and has begun to appreciate the pragmatism of those involved in such politics, compared to disengaged academics. She is currently working on a black and white photography project, "exposing modernity through the bodies of mobilization," in an effort to find a nexus of political acts, the aesthetic of modernity and community, interference with the pace of time, and what people look like when they think no one is looking. She is also a singer-songwriter.

Rachel Barge, is a graduating senior at UC Berkeley and a 2007 recipient of the David Brower Youth Award. Last year she co-created The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF), a student fee referendum at Berkeley that successfully secured more than $2 million over ten years for sustainability projects on campus. TGIF funds clean energy, sustainable transportation, improved energy efficiency, water conservation, green internships, and improved recycling and composting programs. Rachel also founded The Sustainability Team (Steam), the central environmental student group at Berkeley. Steam implements green projects such as expanded bio-diesel for the campus fleet and created The Local -- the first organic, local, student-run cooperative produce stand on campus. Rachel is now working to expand The Green Initiative Fund into a national program that will help university campuses nationwide secure hundreds of millions of dollars for renewable energy. In her free time Rachel loves cooking vegan desserts in her co-op, playing frisbee, teaching her Organic Gardening class, and biking in the Berkeley hills.

Genevieve Bennett, a 21 year-old New Jersey native, is primarily interested in the political economy of "sustainability" and environmental policy. She is intrigued by the implications for economic development and trade of a renewable energy-based economy, and by the possibilities for participation by different actors -- public, private, and civil society. Most of her professional experience has been within the field of human rights, particularly in research and capacity-building for organizations working for social change. She interned at the Center for the Study of Human Rights, and worked as a project assistant at the Research Center for Leadership in Action, assisting in social science research on leadership in social justice work. Most recently she has been working for the New York City Commission to the United Nations planning an international summit, "Climate Change and Public Health: the Urban Policy Connection." She expects to pursue a Master's degree next year at the London School of Economics in environmental policy. She recently received her B.A. from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University, concentrating in international political economy and political theory. At NYU, she was a co-founder of the interdisciplinary undergraduate Journal of Global Affairs. Genevieve currently lives in Washington Heights, New York. She plays for a soccer team in Brooklyn, and likes to search the city for cheap meals and occasionally escape to go rock climbing.

Joanna Calabrese, is currently a sophomore environmental science and policy major at the University of College Park, MD. In her freshman year, she co-founded a student group, Clean Energy for UMD in response to the lack of climate activism on her campus. Clean Energy for UMD successfully gauged student interest in funding green initiatives on campus and was integral in achieving a state wide victory to make all Maryland System schools carbon neutral. Joanna was elected president of Clean Energy for UMD in the spring of 2007 and is currently working to unite students behind clean energy investment. In response to student demands for a more sustainable campus, the President of the University of Maryland signed onto the President's Climate Commitment, and Joanna was selected to serve as a student representative on the school's Climate Action Workgroup, working on administrative and educational policy for CO2 emission reductions. Throughout this, she served as a legislator in her school's Student Government Association, writing and passing policies in support of environmentally responsible campus affairs while working to register over 250 new voters. She also assisted in planning and organizing Recyclemania 2008 for the University of Maryland and helped to unite students to create a "Green Groups Roundtable" on her campus. Joanna has been interning this past semester in Washington DC for the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, researching legislative initiatives, attending Congressional hearings, and undertaking press and media projects for the committee.

Alisha Fowler, graduated from Hamilton College in 2006 with a B.A. in Geoscience and Environmental Studies. While at Hamilton, Alisha co-led the Hamilton Environmental Action Group and worked with the college community to bring more sustainable energy practices to their campus situated on the edge of the Adirondack Mountains. She still volunteers with Graduates for a Greener Hamilton. Alisha has spent the past year working in Communications with the National Wildlife Federation in their office of Congressional and Federal Affairs in Washington, D.C. Her media work with NWF has focused primarily on global warming and legislation currently being considered by Congress. To that end, she has written and distributed a weekly newsletter about global warming to reporters nationwide. She is also actively engaged in the blogosphere and online social media strategies. Before joining NWF, Alisha worked with PIRG as a campus organizer on the Campus Climate Challenge, and as a museum educator at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Alisha senses the enormous urgency and economic opportunities associated with global warming and strongly desires to aid the transition to a clean energy society. She is most passionate about utilizing her academic background in science and professional experience in communications to engage the public in creating positive environmental and economic change.

Lindsey Franklin, graduated from Middlebury College in 2007 with a B.A. in Environmental Studies/Philosophy and a passion for climate change solutions. The summer and fall of 2007 found her in New Hampshire for the Presidential primary, working on three consecutive campaigns to highlight climate change as a key voting issue in the 2008 elections. She helped organize a five day walk for clean energy across New Hampshire in the beginning of August, then joined with the Step it Up campaign to coordinate hundreds of climate rallies nationwide in November. She spent the last months before the primary co-directing a campaign with the League of Conservation Voters to increase climate change visibility and coverage at candidate events, sparking and developing her interest in a socially just national climate policy that also spurs economic opportunity. Living now in San Francisco, she misses the snow of New England but loves the thriving culture of city life and the extraordinary amount of environmental and social justice action in the Bay Area. She also can't wait to explore everything mountainous within just a few hours of the city.

Chris Knight currently works for UC Davis sociologist Fred Block on a project that seeks to uncover some of the government's hidden roles in the economy, and is also employed as a math T.A. at De Anza high school in Richmond. He wrote his senior thesis on the influence of political variables upon the development of economic thought, and maintains strong interests in economics, humanistic psychology, and clean energy. Growing up in a rural and somewhat conservative household, Chris is especially interested in seeing how Breakthrough can build diverse coalitions that create solutions to seemingly intractable problems. When he's not scheming for social optimization, he enjoys trail running and listening to all kinds of music. He graduated from UC Davis in June 2007 with a B.A. in economics.

Ashley Lin is a second year rhetoric major at the University of California, Berkeley. Originally from Minnesota, she loves that California is sunny most of the year and appreciates not having to run through snow in the winter. She has spent a summer as an intern for the Institute for Food and Development Policy and has written about bio-fuels for the student science journal The Triple Helix. Ashley plans to minor in Chinese and is fluent in the mandarin dialect. Concurrently with Chinese, she is learning French and will spend a semester abroad in Lyon. Ashley enjoys watermelon and is known for her ability to eat an entire half by herself. She is very excited to be working with such an intelligent group of people this summer!

Lindsay Meisel has written for the Daily Californian and Tikkun magazine. She was founding editor of Counterpoint, an opinion journal committed to fostering balanced political debate among students. A recipient of a Forest Foundation grant, Lindsay designed and implemented a program to introduce more local foods to UC Berkeley's dining services. Inspired by this success, she put her Rhetoric degree to good use by spending a season as a farmhand in Bolinas, California. She speaks conversational Spanish and spent time in Costa Rica conducting an anthropological research project. She received a B.A. in Rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied the rhetoric of political theory and the "green" movement.

Adam Rodriques is a rising junior at Yale University, where he is majoring in Political Science. More specifically, he is focusing his studying on the ongoing crises in the Middle East on a regional as well as a geopolitical scale. By combining scholarship in history, religion, psychology, cognitive science, and political science, Adam hopes to be able to approach the situation from a sufficiently comprehensive perspective, both in academia and in the rest of his career, which he wants to spend working in a think tank. Adam is also a member of the Center on Security and Foreign Policy of the Roosevelt Institution's Yale chapter, where he has collaborated on a policy paper examining the feasibility of an international fund to promote peace efforts in the Middle East, as well as an ongoing project that is looking into bringing together Kenyan youths across tribal lines.

Molly Tsongas is focused on using social marketing and community organizing tools to mobilize Americans to create a clean energy economy. She served as the Pennsylvania State Director for SmartPower, a non-profit marketing organization for clean energy and energy efficiency from 2006-2008. In that role, Molly managed the Pennsylvania Clean Energy Communities Campaign, a program that recruits municipalities to purchase and market clean energy in their communities. In 2007, she was trained by The Climate Project to give "Inconvenient Truth" presentations to educate the public about climate change. Molly founded the Estabrook Woods Alliance, an organization that conducts community organizing and direct action to preserve a forest in Massachusetts. Molly graduated from Brown University in 2005 with a B.A. in Environmental Studies.

Natasha Yurk is a junior Social Policy and Legal Studies major from Northwestern University. Originally from Indianapolis, Natasha has been competing in speech and debate for the past seven years. College debate has exposed her to some of her greatest research interests, including African development and innovation in renewable energy (part of the reason that she is drawn to the Breakthrough Institute). Next year's research topic is Latin American politics and foreign relations, one of her favorite areas of study. At Northwestern, Natasha is currently working on a project called the Northwestern Political Forum, a bipartisan, open forum, political discussion group. She has also worked on several campus judicial boards and plans on becoming a lawyer/judge/law professor in the near future.

Adam Zemel is finishing up his first year at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA. He grew up in the D.C. area, where political and governmental awareness and discussion are a fact of life. A philosophy major, he is deeply interested in philosophy of language and theories of knowledge. Adam borrowed Break Through from a friend last November, and has been exploring the ecological and social ideas proposed in the book for the past few months. He is drawn to the Breakthrough Institute for the broad and big ideas about progressive politics, the recognition of a need to create a new social contract in America, and the acknowledgment of material security as a precondition for ecological concern and awareness. The understanding that humans organize their world and understand their individual places within it through narratives and stories, and the recognition that this is more profound a fact than liberals have appreciated up until now, is the reason he identifies with the Breakthrough Institute's mission.