Nkiru­ka Avi­la is a grad­u­ate stu­dent in the Ener­gy and Resources Group at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Berke­ley. She grad­u­at­ed with Sum­ma cum Laude hon­ors in Petro­le­um Engi­neer­ing from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Okla­homa. She has worked in var­i­ous sec­tors of the ener­gy indus­try, from engi­neer­ing design and pro­duc­tion to end-use dis­tri­b­u­tion and mar­ket­ing. Her cur­rent research inter­ests include renew­able ener­gy inte­gra­tion, sus­tain­able ener­gy devel­op­ment and rur­al electrification.