Staff

Anya Schoolman - Executive Director

Anya Schoolman has been working on environment and sustainable development for more than 25 years. She spent nearly 10 years in the Federal Government at the US EPA and the Department of the Interior and the following 10 years working as a strategic advisor for NGOs and Foundations on strategy, grant-making, campaign design, base-broadening, energy policy, voter engagement and program development and design. She founded the Mt Pleasant Solar Coop five years ago with her son Walter.  As President of the Mt Pleasant Solar Coop she has led a city-wide effort in Washington, DC to make solar accessible and affordable to anyone who wants it.  She has assisted more than 70 homeowners in Washington DC to go solar and has helped foster the creation of 11 sister coops that joined together to form a city wide organization called DC Solar United Neighborhoods (DC SUN). She is the founder of the Community Power Network.

Emily Stiever - Program Director

Emily Stiever joined as Program Director for Community Power Network in 2012. Based in Washington, DC, Emily works full time to help grow the CPN network through outreach and social media. She’s also available to answer questions about community renewables and support your organization’s efforts. Prior to joining CPN Emily worked as a renewable energy consultant specializing in solar electric and solar water heating initiatives and incentive programs. She graduated in 2009 with a B.A. in Political Ecology from Grinnell College.

Advisor

John Farrell

John Farrell directs the Energy Self-Reliant States and Communities program at ILSR and  he focuses on energy policy developments that best expand the benefits of local ownership and dispersed generation of renewable energy.  His latest paper, Democratizing the Electricity System, describes how to blast the roadblocks to distributed renewable energy generation, and how such small-scale renewable energy projects are the key to the biggest strides in renewable energy development.  

Farrell also authored the landmark report Energy Self-Reliant States, which serves as the definitive energy atlas for the United States, detailing the state-by-state renewable electricity generation potential.  Farrell regularly provides discussion and analysis of distributed renewable energy policy on his blog, Energy Self-Reliant States (energyselfreliantstates.org), and articles are regularly syndicated on Grist and Renewable Energy World.

John Farrell can also be found on Twitter @johnffarrell, or at jfarrell@ilsr.org