Jacqueline Ennis

Jacqueline Ennis is a master’s student within the atmosphere and energy program of the civil and environmental engineering department. Her academic interests center around policy mechanisms for deep decarbonization and environmental stewardship. As an undergraduate, Jacqueline studied symbolic systems: a holistic look at artificial intelligence through the lenses of computer science, psychology, and philosophy. She interned at Facebook and the D. E. Shaw Group before pivoting to focus on climate change and the environment, a decision motivated by her love of nature and the outdoors. She supported research projects within the Jackson Lab by training neural networks to gap-fill methane emissions data from wetlands and analyzing data for predictors of soil organic carbon storage. She also worked with the Natural Capital Project on research studying social drivers behind forest carbon storage.

In a professional capacity, Jacqueline has worked as a Schneider Fellow at the Natural Resources Defense Council, where she supported the climate and clean energy program in developing state-level clean energy policy recommendations, drafting their annual energy report, and analyzing the impact of electric vehicle availability at car dealerships on EV sales across the U.S. She also served as a Shultz Fellow for the Hawai’i Public Utilities Commission, where she studied mechanisms for quantifying climate resilience in electricity grid planning. Through the Stanford d.school’s design for extreme affordability course, she collaborated with Kijani Forestry on a community reforestation and sustainable charcoal venture in rural Uganda. She then worked as climate action specialist within the City of Honolulu’s Office of Climate Change, where she helped release O’ahu’s first climate action plan, implement sustainable transit projects, and launch a pilot to increase rooftop solar access for low-income communities on O’ahu. She now supports Climate Cabinet in delivering district-specific climate change data and policy recommendations to state representatives.