Amanda Graham, Academic Director, Irving Institute
Amanda's priorities as Irving Institute Academic Director are to engage all members of the Dartmouth community, to expand understanding of the fundamental roles energy systems play in society, and to partner with students, faculty, and alumni to evolve those systems toward a more just and sustainable world. Prior to Dartmouth, Amanda served in several roles at MIT, including Executive Director of the Environmental Solutions Initiative and Education Director for the MIT Energy Initiative. Amanda is a founding member of the Committee on Energy, Equity, and Justice of the University Energy Institutes Coalition and a member of the organizing committee for the Community of Educators for Energy Transitions within the Global Council for Science and the Environment. Her PhD (environmental communication) and MS (forestry social sciences) are both from the University of Washington. She is a Williams College alum, deeply committed to the liberal arts and to learning by doing, and inspired by Barbara Kingsolver's observation that "the most interesting parts of human experience might be the sparks that come from that sort of chipping flint of cultures rubbing against each other."
Megan Litwhiler, Manager of Academic Initiatives, Irving Institute
Megan supports the design and execution of the Irving Institute's multidisciplinary energy and society education programs for a range of learners. Before coming to Dartmouth, she spent over five years at the Museum of Science, Boston where she partnered with scientists and research centers to help them communicate their work to public audiences and interdisciplinary academic audiences. She received her PhD in biology, specializing in urban bird ecology, from Rutgers University Newark and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Outside of the office, Megan enjoys birdwatching and exploring nature in her home state of Vermont.
Jessica Dunn, New Energy Summit Alumni Advisor
Dr. Jessica Dunn is a senior analyst in the Clean Transportation Program, specializing in lithium-ion battery sustainability. She conducts research on material circularity and reducing battery impacts through repurposing and recycling. Jessica has a Doctorate in Energy Systems from the University of California, Davis. During her studies she was a co-facilitator for the California Lithium-ion Battery Recycling Advisory group and a private consultant for the International Energy Agency on topics related to energy technologies and battery systems. In addition, she published several academic journal articles about using industrial ecology methods to forecast and evaluate the impact of battery recycling and repurposing. Prior to pursuing her doctorate, she earned a master’s degree from University College London in Economics and Policy of the Environment and Energy and worked in the energy and environmental consulting industries.
Zdenka Myslikova, New Energy Summit Alumni Advisor
Zdenka Myslikova completed her doctorate in international environmental policy and is now a postdoctoral scholar at the Climate Policy Lab at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. She works on the intersection of climate, innovation systems, and the politics of change, with a focus on climate policy and energy technological innovation. By way of background, she grew up in Europe, and spent five years in Latin America. Before starting her doctorate, she worked at Mexico’s Energy Regulatory Commission.