Job Opening: Institute Associate in GCC Mitigation Program
March 3, 2023
The mission of the Georgetown Climate Center is to advance ambitious and equitable government responses to the climate crisis in the U.S. at the national, state, and local levels.
In the United States, responding to the climate crisis depends on effective partnerships among federal, state, and local governments. When different levels of government collaborate and communicate with each other when they are developing climate and energy policies, they can go farther and faster in achieving durable, equitable, ambitious climate action for the health and welfare of the people across the country.
The Georgetown Climate Center (GCC) was established in 2009 at the request of state leaders who recognized the need to strengthen connections between climate policies and policymakers at all levels of government and to help policymakers develop aligned strategies that work together to address climate change.
We aim to help good ideas make their way into laws and regulations, so we focus on helping federal, state, and local leaders with the messy and complicated business of practical, real world policymaking. GCC serves as a resource to state, federal, and local policymakers who are working to develop policies to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and become more resilient to the effects of climate change, providing legal, policy, and process support to inform policy development.
Job Overview
The Institute Associate will help advance GCC initiatives to support equitable low-carbon strategies at the federal, state and regional levels. This will involve collaboration with colleagues, partners and consultants to conduct timely analysis on critical technical and legal issues to help inform decision making. The Institute Associate will help to build decision-making tools, convene policymakers, and facilitate dialogues that help policymakers identify and adopt best practices for implementing federal legislation and initiatives, including the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Justice 40 Initiative, and relevant regulations. Examples of research topics include: low-carbon transportation, clean electric power, and community-based air quality monitoring.
Duties will include:
- Conducting high-quality policy, legal, and technical research in collaboration with colleagues, partners and consultants;
- Supporting the Mitigation Director, Senior Institute Associates, and GCC leadership in engagement with policymakers, interested communities, and other stakeholders, to inform current and future climate policy decision making;
- Preparing research, presentation materials and speaking points for briefings and meetings with senior local, state, and federal officials, NGO and academic partners;
- Helping to build relationships of trust with policymakers, partners, and stakeholders.
- Representing GCC local, state, and national events;
- Assisting with the supervision of student research on relevant climate topics;
- Helping to staff and manage working groups and other convenings of state and local policymakers and stakeholders in support of state-level public engagement processes.
Qualifications and Experience
We are seeking candidates with the following qualifications:
- One to two years of experience in climate, transportation or energy policy
- Excellent legal and policy research and communications skills
- Ability to produce high-quality policy, legal, and/or technical analysis
- Ability to communicate effectively with various audiences through writing and presentations
Relevant experience includes:
- Conducting research projects, including legal, technical or policy research on relevant regulations and legislation (e.g. clean energy and transportation policies, electric vehicles, etc.)
- Experience planning and managing complex projects involving multiple partners and collaborators.
- Working with or for local, state, tribal or federal governments.