Leah Stokes

Leah C. Stokes is a Canadian^[1] political scientist and expert on environmental policy. She is an Associate Professor of Political Science ^[2] at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Stokes investigates the politics of energy and environmental policy in the United States. She regularly writes about energy and climate policy for newspapers and on social media.

Early life and education[]

Stokes earned her undergraduate degree in psychology and East Asian studies at the University of Toronto.^[3] She completed a Master of Public Administration at Columbia University. After graduating, Stokes worked at Resources for the Future. She went on to work at the Parliament of Canada.^[4] Her role involved policy analysis for Members of Parliament working on the Environment and Sustainable Development Committee, and the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs. In 2010, Stokes moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she earned a master's degree and a doctorate under the supervision of Lawrence Susskind. At MIT, Stokes created environmental policy curriculum, including The Mercury Game, a treaty negotiation that has been used by over 100 universities around the world.^[5]

Career[]

In 2015, Stokes joined the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on energy policy and environmental policy in the United States.^[6] She has investigated the interaction between public opinion and policy making on renewable energy.^[7] She has also looked at what determines public opinion in particular states, and how the design and presentation of Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) changes public support for a particular policy. She has also published research on backlash against renewable energy projects. Her recent work examines Congressional staff and their understanding of public opinion.

Awards and honours[]

Her awards and honours include:

• 2010 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Siemens-MIT Energy Fellow^[7]
• 2013 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Martin Fellow^[8]
• 2018 Midwest Political Science Association Patrick J. Fett Award^[9]
• 2019 Business and Politics (journal) David P. Baron Award^[10]
• 2019 Jack Walker Award, Best Article on Political Organizations and Parties from APSA, 2019.
• 2019 Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Scholar^[11]

Selected publications[]

Her publications include:

• Stokes, Leah C. (2013). "The politics of renewable energy policies: The case of feed-in tariffs in Ontario, Canada". Energy Policy. 56: 490–500. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2013.01.009.
• Stokes, Leah C. (2016). "Electoral backlash against climate policy: A natural experiment on retrospective voting and local resistance to public policy". American Journal of Political Science. 60 (4): 958–974. doi:10.1111/ajps.12220. hdl:1721.1/99561.
• Stokes, Leah (2020). Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190074265.

Stokes has written for The Guardian,^[12] The Washington Post,^[13] The New York Times,^[14] Boston Review, ^[15] and The Los Angeles Times,^[16] and her work is regularly cited in the media, including in The Washington Examiner,^[17] Mashable,^[18] New Hampshire Public Radio,^[19] the National Observer,^[20] and E&E News.^[21]

She has been interviewed on PBS NewsHour,^[22] Democracy Now!,^[23] the Science Friday radio show,^[24] the Scholars Strategy Network podcast No Jargon^[25] and the .^[26]

In October, 2020, Stokes and Katharine Wilkinson started "A Matter of Degrees" podcast, where they discuss the levers of power that have created the climate problem, and the tools to fix it.^[27]

References[]