Jess Kersey is a fourth-year PhD stu­dent broad­ly inter­est­ed in tech­nol­o­gy, reg­u­la­tion, and pol­i­cy to improve ener­gy access and cli­mate adap­ta­tion efforts across mul­ti­ple geo­gra­phies includ­ing East Africa, Latin Amer­i­ca, and island nations. Jess is also a research affil­i­ate of the Lawrence Berke­ley Nation­al Lab and con­sults with ESMAP, the Asian Devel­op­ment Bank, and the Glob­al Ener­gy Alliance for Peo­ple and Plan­et.

Her cur­rent work focus­es on decon­struct­ing urban/​binary spa­tial cat­e­go­riza­tions and high­light­ing how exam­in­ing ener­gy pover­ty with greater spa­tial nuance reveals access bar­ri­ers for the grow­ing pop­u­la­tions in infor­mal and/​or peri-urban com­mu­ni­ties. She leads the Spot­light Kam­pala project, which is a mul­ti-stake­hold­er research part­ner­ship to under­stand ener­gy access afford­abil­i­ty, safe­ty, for­mal­i­ty, reli­a­bil­i­ty, and qual­i­ty in infor­mal settlements.

Jess holds dual bachelor’s degrees in chem­i­cal engi­neer­ing and polit­i­cal sci­ence from Vir­ginia Tech. She pre­vi­ous­ly worked as an ener­gy engi­neer with AECOM’s Ener­gy busi­ness line pro­vid­ing tech­ni­cal, project man­age­ment, and busi­ness devel­op­ment sup­port for renew­able ener­gy, ener­gy effi­cien­cy, and sus­tain­abil­i­ty projects. She has a diverse engi­neer­ing back­ground which includes expe­ri­ence in ener­gy, con­struc­tion man­age­ment, and dis­as­ter relief both domes­ti­cal­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly includ­ing work in Haiti, Pana­ma, El Sal­vador, the US Vir­gin Islands, and Iraq.