Senior Research Fellow
Dr. Kathleen Saul serves as a Senior Research Fellow and editor for the Foundation for Renewable Energy and Environment (FREE). She brings to FREE a passion for interdisciplinary research with a focus on energy, energy policy, and energy justice; a penchant for good writing; and an eye for detail. She is working with FREE research teams on state energy planning, transformational possibilities of funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act for weatherization, energy efficiency, and energy and environmental justice.
Dr. Saul obtained degrees in French and Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, an MS in Management from the Wharton School of Business, and an MES from The Evergreen State College before pursuing a Ph.D. in Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Delaware. While completing and after receiving her Ph.D. in 2017, Dr. Saul inspired a future generation of interdisciplinary thinkers in the Graduate Program on the Environment at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. She stepped away from teaching in June 2024 but continues to mentor students, write energy-themed case studies for Evergreen’s Enduring Legacies: Native Case Studies program, and conduct research into the economic, social, technical, environmental, and geo-political drivers of the transition to a clean energy future. At the same time, Dr. Saul has expanded her volunteer work as an advocate for those in Washington State who cannot afford to pay their energy bills and as part of a working group exploring the justice implications of offsets associated with the Washington carbon market.