Jessica Koski
How would you describe your research and/or work to a non-academic audience? What was it then and/or what it is now?
My passion is diversifying the expertise and experience that we use to know and act on global warming to ensure that our solutions to the climate crisis simultaneously promote social and economic justice.
What are you most proud of in your career to date?
I am proud of all the ways I have nurtured a deep and widespread commitment to a fair transition away from fossil fuels. As an organizer on the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, I mobilized support for holding Washington's largest energy utility, Puget Sound Energy, accountable to the workers at its coal plant in Colstrip, MT. My current role focuses on building relationships between environmental groups and labor unions based on a shared commitment to fighting climate change in a way that creates good jobs and leaves no worker or community behind.
What advice would you give your younger self or someone considering a similar path?
First, start doing what you want to do now, in whatever way you can, and the rest will follow. Second, be brave. It's your life. I will be forever grateful to the two wise women that gave me these pieces of advice at the tail end of my program. They changed my life profoundly.