Announcing Our 2026–27 Senior Fellows
The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania is pleased to announce our senior fellows for the 2026-27 academic year: Shleifer Senior Fellows Danny Cullenward and Leslie Labruto; and Noah Deich, Stephen Hammer, Carolyn Kousky, John Quigley, Benjamin Schmitt, Nora Todd, and Jamie Van Nostrand.
Our senior fellows program brings distinguished practitioners to Penn to collaborate on research, connect with students and faculty, and contribute to public conversations about some of the most pressing energy and climate policy challenges. Throughout the academic year, senior fellows will contribute to the Kleinman Center through research and writing, public events, teaching, workshops, mentorship, and our Energy Policy Now podcast.
This year’s fellows bring expertise across a wide array of topics, including climate finance, institutional governance, greenhouse gas removal, carbon management, insurance and climate risk, datacenter growth, energy security, international economics, and electricity regulation.
Our two inaugural named Shleifer Senior Fellows, announced in May, include:
Danny Cullenward, who is an economist and lawyer focused on the scientific integrity and governance of climate policy. He also serves as a member of the UNFCCC Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism’s Methodological Expert Panel and vice chair of California’s Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee.
Leslie Labruto, CEO of Earth Bank, who is a specialist in climate finance and impact investing. She is a former Environmental Defense Fund managing director of the sustainable finance team, where she helped drive finance for decarbonization across multiple sectors, including oil and gas, food and agriculture, and transportation.
They are joined by seven other senior fellows—some new, some returning:
Noah Deich brings extensive experience in carbon management and greenhouse gas removal as a senior fellow at the Kleinman Center and its Clean Energy Conversions Lab. He most recently served as deputy assistant secretary for carbon management at the U.S. Department of Energy.
Stephen Hammer is an expert in climate finance who advises governments and institutions on climate finance and policy at the global, national, and local levels. He has joint appointments at Penn Institute for Urban Research and Perry World House.
Carolyn Kousky is the founder and executive director of Insurance for Good. She is author of Understanding Disaster Insurance: New Tools for a More Resilient Future, the vice-chair of the California Climate Insurance Working Group, a member of the Green Ribbon Commission for the California Department of Insurance.
John Quigley, former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, continues another year at the Kleinman Center with an emphasis in state and regional energy policy, and a special focus on data center growth.
Benjamin Schmitt, a returning fellow and director of Penn’s Perry World House Graduate Program, is an expert in European energy security, critical infrastructure protection, export controls policies, and modern sanctions regimes. Recently, he developed one of the world’s highest-altitude energy security power plants in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
Nora Todd joins as a senior fellow at the Kleinman Center and its EconClimate Lab. She previously served as a special assistant to the President and the senior director for international economics and labor in the Biden administration.
Jamie Van Nostrand, former chair of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, is policy director at the Future of Heat Initiative. His work focuses on energy affordability and effective regulation of natural gas utilities.
“This group joins us at a time of rapid change in energy policy,” said Cory Colijn, executive director of the Kleinman Center. “Electricity demand is accelerating, climate impacts are increasing, and affordability and reliability concerns are placing new pressure on households and organizations. Our senior fellows are poised to address these real-world challenges.”
