Our Team

David Wooley is the Executive Director of the Goldman School of Public Policy's Center for Environmental Public Policy. He has over 30 years’ experience with electric power regulation and Clean Air Act implementation. David is also Of Counsel at the Oakland firm of Keyes & Fox LLP, a law practice focused on distributed energy resources.  He served as an Assistant Attorney General in NY, taught energy and environmental law at Pace University Law School and was the Executive Director of the Pace Energy Project. Later he directed the American Wind Energy Association’s Northeast Policy Project, served as Counsel to the Clean Air Task Force and as Vice President for Domestic Policy Initiatives at the Energy Foundation in San Francisco. David is co-author of West Group's Clean Air Act Handbook (2016).

Daniel M. Kammen is the Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he holds appointments in the Energy and Resources Group, the Goldman School of Public Policy, and the department of Nuclear Engineering. Kammen is the founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) and the co-Director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment.  Kammen is the Director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center.  Kammen received his undergraduate (Cornell A., B. ’84) and graduate (Harvard M. A. ’86, Ph.D. ’88) training is in physics After postdoctoral work at Caltech and Harvard, Kammen was professor and Chair of the Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at Princeton University in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from 1993 – 1998.  He then moved to the University of California, Berkeley.  Daniel Kammen is a coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.  He hosted the Discovery Channel series ‘Ecopolis, and had appeared on NOVA, and on ’60 Minutes’ twice. Read more about Daniel Kammen

Simone Cobb is the Program Manager at the Center for Environmental Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy. Simone supports the Center's Port Decarbonization and Green Bonds projects. Prior to working at GSPP she was an analyst at the political consulting firm Lake Research Partners in Washington, DC. Simone received her BA from UCLA.

Lily MacIver is a Graduate Student Researcher for CEPP. She has experience in the public sector and in non-profit fundraising with a focus on environmental health and justice. Past projects include working with the City of Oakland’s Sustainability Program, where Lily collaborated with local community-based non-profits on community engagement implementation and design for Oakland’s Energy and Climate Action Plan. Since 2016 Lily has supported the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project's programmatic and fundraising efforts and is currently their development coordinator. From 2016-2018 Lily worked as a development associate at the Center for Environmental Health. Currently, she is a completing a dual master's at UC Berkeley in City Planning and Public Health. Her research interests include: the impacts of air pollution on low-income communities of color, climate and health equity, community-led policy advocacy and planning, community-based participatory research, and GIS-based analysis.

Barbara Haya’s work combines research and policy outreach with a focus on the effectiveness of carbon offset programs. She leads the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project, which examines the outcomes of California’s carbon offset program and performs analysis on any proposed expansion or modification to the program. Barbara is also helping the University of California system develop its strategy for procuring carbon offsets for use towards meeting the system’s carbon reduction and neutrality goals.

Barbara holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group, where she studied the outcomes of the Kyoto Protocol’s offset program, the Clean Development Mechanism, and worked closely with NGOs at the international climate change negotiations in support of offset program reform. Prior to returning to UC Berkeley, she worked with the Union of Concerned Scientists and then Stanford Law School contributing analysis on the design and implementation of California’s global warming law.

Dr. Nikit Abhyankar, Senior Scientist, has conducted extensive research and policy analysis over 15 years on a range of key energy issues such as renewable energy, transport, energy efficiency, and power sector reforms and regulation in multiple countries including India, U.S., China, Indonesia, and Vietnam. In particular, he analyzes the key technical, market design, and policy issues in renewable energy grid integration, energy efficiency programs, and transport electrification. Dr. Abhyankar has published over 50 peer reviewed journal papers, research reports, and conference papers and his research has been widely covered in the professional and popular media, for example - The Los Angeles Times, Forbes, The Verge, The Hindu, Live Mint , Down to Earth, Listening Brief etc.  

Dr. Abhyankar has a Ph.D. from Stanford University in Environment and Resources. He also has a master’s degree in economics and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. 

Dr. Amol Phadke, Senior Scientist, research broadly focuses on energy technology, economics, markets, and regulation. Currently, his work is focused on, grid scale battery storage, heavy-duty electric vehicles, deep RE penetration in the India power sector, and appliance and equipment efficiency in several emerging economies.

Amol has published over 80 journal articles, research reports, and conference papers. His work has been featured in the Times of India, Economic Times, The Hindu, Nature Magazine, India and numerous other publications. Amol regularly advises the national government, utilities, and regulators in India on energy policies and programs. Amol has a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Government College of Engineering, Pune, India, and a M.S. and Ph.D. from the Energy and Resources Group, from UC Berkeley.

Umed Paliwal, Senior Scientist, conducts research on ways to integrate high share of renewables on the grid and its impact on reliability and electricity prices.  He holds a Master of Public Policy from UC Berkeley where he focused on energy markets, regulation, power systems modeling and data analytics. Prior to coming to Berkeley, he was an Analytics Consultant at a financial services firm.  Umed did his undergraduate studies in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (India) where he worked for two years on a project to develop emission inventory of Black Carbon and modeling its concentration in India.

Alyssa Cheung is a graduate student researcher for CEPP. She is pursuing her Master of Public Policy degree at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, with a focus on energy and climate. Prior to Berkeley, she was a Senior Program Associate for West Policy at Energy Foundation, where she supported grantees advocating for clean energy policies across the western U.S. She is committed to advocating for policies that will lead to a cleaner, healthier, and more equitable future for all communities in California. She graduated with a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Yale University.

Kristine Arboleda is a Graduate Student Researcher for CEPP supporting the Center’s work on sustainable finance and green bond market development. She is pursuing a Master of Public Policy at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School, focusing on climate finance policy and mechanisms. Prior to CEPP, Kristine worked at Ernst & Young and FERC with additional experiences in climate philanthropy. Her interests lie in advocating for policies and cross-sector solutions that promote sustainable financial systems. Kristine graduated with a B.S. in Accountancy from DePaul University and is a registered CPA in the state of California.