Barbara Kates-Garnick Ph.D. is currently a professor of practice at the Fletcher School of Tufts University and senior research fellow at the school’s Center for International Environment and Resources Policy (CIERP), where she teaches courses on energy policy, energy finance and innovation.
Dr. Kates-Garnick recently served as Undersecretary of Energy for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and her prior public service positions included Commissioner of Public Utilities and Assistant Secretary of Consumer Affairs. She also held the position of Vice President of Corporate Affairs at KeySpan, a gas utility in the Northeast. She conceived of and developed the initial proposal that created the New York City Accelerator for Clean and Renewable Energy (NYC ACRE) at NYU.
She serves on the board of PowerOptions, a pioneer in energy aggregation for the nonprofit community in Massachusetts and on the Board on Energy and Environmental Systems (BEES) of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. She also is advising the American Academy of Arts and Sciences on a clean power study. Dr. Kates-Garnick serves as an ambassador to DOE’s 3CE, a global initiative that promotes women in clean energy through the creation of role models and champions to enhance their visibility and success in energy careers.
Dr. Kates-Garnick has a Ph.D. in international political economy from the Fletcher School of Tufts University, an A.B., cum laude, in political science from Bryn Mawr College and was a pre-doctoral fellow at the Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, where her focus was on energy security.