U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm issued the following statement today following the U.S. Senate bipartisan confirmation of Shalanda Baker to serve as Director of the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE):
“I am so grateful to have Shalanda Baker confirmed to serve as Director of DOE’s Office of Economic Impact and Diversity. Her efforts to advance President Biden’s Justice40 initiative have already revolutionized our Department’s work in underserved and overburdened communities across America. There is no more effective champion for building an equitable, just, clean energy economy than Shalanda. We are thrilled that she is willing to serve the American people and we are incredibly fortunate to have her in the DOE family.”
Shalanda H. Baker is the Deputy Director for Energy Justice in the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity at the U.S. Department of Energy. Prior to her appointment, she was a Professor of Law, Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University. She has spent over a decade conducting research on the equity dimensions of the global transition away from fossil fuel energy to cleaner energy resources. Baker is the author of over a dozen articles, book chapters, and essays on renewable energy law, energy justice, energy policy, and renewable energy development. In 2016, she received a Fulbright-Garcia-Robles research fellowship to study climate change, energy policy, and indigenous rights in Mexico. She is the Co-Founder and former Co-Director of the Initiative for Energy Justice, an organization committed to providing technical law and policy support to communities on the frontlines of climate change. Baker received her B.S. from the United States Air Force Academy and J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law. She obtained her LLM while serving as a William H. Hastie Fellow at the University of Wisconsin School of Law.
