PEOPLE

A number of people work actively with us to help us achieve our goals.


Core Staff

Jonas MonastJonas Monast, Co-Director
Jonas recently joined the CCPP and will facilitate communication among CCPP partners and between the Partnership and government officials.  He will also assist the Partnership with legal research and analysis.  Prior to joining the CCPP he served as legislative counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending.  Jonas began his legal career working with the Corporate Social Responsibility Practice at Foley Hoag LLP, where he advised corporate clients on emerging legal and reputational risks regarding social, environmental, and ethical issues.  In this capacity, he developed monitoring tools to gauge compliance with international standards, conducted on-site assessments to evaluate compliance, and helped build relationships between clients and interested stakeholders, including policymakers, nongovernmental organizations, and affected communities.  Jonas also served as a congressional fellow for the late Senator Paul Wellstone.  He earned his law degree from Georgetown University and his B.A. from Appalachian State University.

Eric WilliamsEric Williams, Co-director
Eric Williams is serving as Project Director for the Nicholas Institute in the CCPP.  He manages economic and policy research on the project.  His skills and experience include energy and environmental economics, climate change policy design and analysis, and energy modeling.  He has worked at the state, national and international levels.  Eric brings more than eight years of experience in "think tanks" and government. Before launching an independent consulting career, he was a Senior Policy Analyst at the Center for Clean Air Policy. Before that, he was an Economist with the US Energy Information Administration in the International Economics & GHG Division, Office of Integrated Analysis and Forecasting. Eric began his career at Tellus Institute as a Research Associate in the Energy & Environment Program and the Electricity Program.  He has a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, with concentrations in Development Economics and International Environmental Policy. He received his BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of Kentucky.

Christopher GalikChristopher Galik, Research Coordinator
Christopher Galik joined the Partnership as Research Analyst after several years of research and policy analysis at the National Association of Home Builders in Washington D.C. where he delved into numerous environmental issues including species conservation, forest management, and water supply and efficiency.  He brings a strong understanding of the impacts that community growth and development have on environmental quality, and how strategies such as green building and smart growth can help address climate change and other concerns.  Christopher holds a Master of Environmental Management degree from the Nicholas School at Duke, with a concentration in forest resource economics and policy.  He received his B.A. in Biology from Vassar College.

Chi-JenChi-Jen Yang, Technology Policy Analyst
Chi-Jen joined CCPP in March 2008. He received his Ph.D. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. His dissertation research focused on the U.S. policies in developing nuclear power and synthetic fuels. He holds three master’s degrees, including dual master’s degrees in Civil Engineering/Technology and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a master of science in environmental engineering from National Taiwan University. Chi-Jen has worked at the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration where he was instrumental in preparing Taiwan's greenhouse gas inventories. His research interests include energy policy, technology assessment, technological innovation policy, and climate change policy.

Kerry BullockMunish Chandel, Postdoctoral Research in CCS
Munish Chandel joined the Climate Change Policy Partnership as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in February, 2008. Before joining the CCPP, he was a Postdoc with Ecole des Mines de Nantes, France. He worked on CO2 capture using Chemical Looping Combustion for the combustion of methane and biogas. Munish is a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India. He holds a Masters in Environmental Engineering from National Institute of Technology Allahabad, India and a Bachelors in Civil Engineering from National Institute of Technology Hamirpur, India. His work with the CCPP will be focused on CO2 capture and storage (CCS).

Kathy JoossKathy Jooss, Project Assistant
Kathy joined the Climate Change Policy Partnership in March 2007.  She works part time, providing administrative support to the growing CCPP team.   Kathy came to the CCPP out of her personal interest in finding solutions to mitigate the effects of global warming.  Previously, she worked in marketing for Hewlett-Packard for nine years.  She has a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.


Affiliated Staff

Brian Murray
Dr. Murray is the Director for Economic Analysis at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. He specializes in developing and applying economic models to analyze environmental and natural resource policies, programs, and regulations.
Link to full bio >

Lydia Olander
Lydia Olander is Senior Associate Director for Ecosystem Services at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. She is currently focused on developing the Institute's expanding initiative on ecosystem services and working on the burgeoning multinational effort to add avoided deforestation into future international climate agreements.
Link to full bio >


Faculty

Robert Jackson
Rob Jackson is the Faculty Director of the Center on Global Change, one of the primary participant groups in the CCPP. He is also the Nicholas Chair of Global Environmental Change and a professor in the Biology Department and Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University. His research examines feedbacks between people and the biosphere, including studies of the global carbon and water cycles, biosphere/atmosphere interactions, and global change.
Link to full bio >

Tim Profeta
Tim Profeta is the Director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, one of the primary participant groups in the CCPP. He is also Senior Associate Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University.
Link to full bio >


Students

Pragati Anand, Master of Engineering Management Program, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University.  Pragati will evaluate the feasibility of advanced electricity transmission technologies and grid management systems as part of the CCPP this fall.

Nia Atmadja, Ph.D. candidate, Natural Resource Economics, North Carolina State University.

Allison Carr, Master of Environmental Management, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University.  A second-year student concentrating in Global Environmental Change, Allison will be examining the effects of regional planning and public transit on vehicle efficiency and emissions for her Master’s Project as part of the CCPP.

Chelsea Conover, Master of Environmental Management, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University.  Chelsea will combine her interests in biology, chemistry, climate change, business, and politics to conduct a geographical and structural analysis of the biodiesel industry for her Master’s Project with the CCPP.

Nick Donowitz, Master of Environmental Management, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University.  Nick’s research for the CCPP this fall will focus on electricity transmission needs under different alternative energy scenarios.

Anna Frankel, Master of Environmental Management, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University. Anna is a second-year student with a concentration in Energy and the Environment using GIS to create cost surfaces for potential carbon sequestration transport networks, connecting sources and sinks.

Carla Frisch, Master of Environmental Management, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University.  A second-year student concentrating in Energy and the Environment, Carla’s Master’s Project is focused on building legitimacy and redundancy into international carbon markets through improved measurement, monitoring, and verification of offset credits.

Kristin Igusky, Master of Environmental Management, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University.  Following an internship at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in Newcastle, England in summer 2007, Kristin will research changes in forest carbon sequestration due to urban associated economic factors for her Master’s Project.  Specifically, she will examine driving factors of urban development, including lumber pricing, housing demand, and/or projected urbanization, using an economically driven land use model.

Michael Leff, Master of Environmental Management, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University.  Mike will investigate the distributional effects of carbon policy, including job loss and gain projections, for his Master’s Project as part of the CCPP.  He will look at the economic impacts of different policies and carbon prices.

Drew McConville, Master of Environmental Management, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University.  Drew will contribute research this fall to a CCPP project investigating how to transition state- and regional-level carbon policies to the federal level.  Topics will include how to harmonize the value of carbon credits obtained through various existing programs into one, future federal carbon credit.

Michele Okoh-Bernis, JD candidate, Duke University School of Law. Michele’s research this fall focuses on liability and regulation of carbon dioxide pipelines and injection wells and determining potential legal obstacles to establishing geologic carbon sequestration as a national policy. Michele has a BA in Pre-Law/ Political Science from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Michele plans to practice environmental law, upon completion of her JD.

Andres Potes, Master of Environmental Management, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University.  Andres will contribute to a project researching the life-cycle impacts of various biofuels this fall for the CCPP.

Sonya Reinhardt, Master of Environmental Management, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University.  Sonya is planning to continue the research she began this summer at an internship with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and will research the impacts of climate change and a carbon price on the nuclear power industry in the United States for her Master’s Project.

Valerie Speth, Master of Engineering Management candidate, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University. Valerie is at Duke on a Fulbright Scholarship and is concurrently pursuing her German Diploma in Technology Engineering Management at the Universitaet Stuttgart, Germany, focusing on Innovation Management and Industrial Engineering. Valerie’s work at the CCPP is in evaluating different vehicle technologies and their potential integration into an emission reduction policy system.

PAST STUDENTS:
Maura Barr
Katie Bolcar
David Carlson
Jagannath Cuddapah
Brigham Daniels
Audrey de Nazelle
Kevin Dudney
Jason Franken
Kat Galloway
Mudit Gangal
Aishwarya Gawaskar
Nora Greenglass
Morgan Hansen
Keith Herrmann
Jingying Hu
Ling Huang
Raghuram Jandhyala
NamHee Kim
Katharine Kollins
Jean Lee
Garrett Martin
Ben Moore
Alyssa Platt
Ranjit Prasad
Carla Rosenfeld
Rebecca Ryals
Melissa Semcer
Brad Strode
Brandon Warner
Liz Willetts
Yun Wu
Sarah Zaleski

 

Climate Change Policy Partnership | Box 90658 | Duke University | Durham, NC 27708 | 919.613.9008 | fax: 919.681.7176 | ccpp@nicholas.duke.edu