Ellen Morris

Focus Areas: Energy and International Development

Dr. Ellen Morris is the Managing Director of the California Renewable Energy Laboratory (CREL), an initiative focused on creating a more inclusive and expansive clean energy workforce with community colleges.  Morris came to CREL after working at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to launch and manage the University Partnerships Program.  At CREL she is building new partnerships, experiential learning opportunities and workforce development initiatives in climate, energy, and resiliency for the 116 colleges that serve 2 million students.   

Morris is a world-recognized expert on energy and international development, with a particular focus on policy analysis, research, and strategy development on energy access, gender equality, and business models in developing countries.  She developed the energy and development courses at SIPA has been teaching at SIPA since 2007 and also serves as a faculty affiliate of the Center for Global Energy Policy. 

Since 2000, Morris served as President of Sustainable Energy Solutions, an international professional services company that she founded to promote the increased use and deployment of clean energy technologies as a means to support economic development and reduce poverty across the world.  Early in her career, Morris was a Congressional Fellow on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives and was an Exploration Geophysicist at Texaco in Los Angeles.  Morris received her bachelor’s degree in Geophysical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and her doctorate in Geological Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography. 
 

Education

• Ph.D. in Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography