Dr. Leah Stokes is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and affiliated with the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and the Environmental Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Her research examines public policy, public opinion and political behavior, with a focus on energy, environment and climate change. Her recent book Short Circuiting Policy (Oxford University Press) examines how interest groups have tried to weaken clean energy laws across the American states. Other ongoing projects include examining protests against energy infrastructure, political staff in Congress, environmentalists’ electoral participation, violence against environmental activists, and effective water conservation policy in California. Prior to academia, Dr. Stokes worked at the Parliament of Canada and Resources for the Future. She is also the co-Chair of the Scholars Strategy Network’s Working Group on Energy & Climate, and a Fellow at the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy at John Hopkins SAIS and the University of Calgary School of Public Policy. She completed her doctoral degree in Public Policy in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning’s Environmental Policy & Planning group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received a Master of Science degree from MIT’s Political Science Department. Before that, she completed a Master of Public Administration degree in Environmental Science & Policy at SIPA and the Earth Institute at Columbia University. She also has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and East Asian Studies from the University of Toronto.
