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.