Board
Jeanette Pablo, CEO
Jeanette Pablo is the CEO of the Climate Equity Foundation. Previously, she was the Director of the Climate Equity Initiative at Clean Air Task Force where she focused on barriers, challenges, and solutions through research and engagement with environmental justice communities.
Prior to joining CATF, Ms. Pablo was General Counsel at the Energy Futures Initiative, a clean energy think tank founded by Ernest Moniz, the 13th Secretary of Energy. She was also a major contributor to EFI’s research and analysis portfolio for advancing clean energy technologies and deep decarbonization pathways.
Ms. Pablo served as Senior Advisor and Acting Deputy Director for Energy Systems in the Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis at the U.S. Department of Energy. At DOE she oversaw analysis and policy related to energy systems and infrastructure, the electricity sector, North America energy policy and security, and critical materials. Ms. Pablo was Director of Federal Affairs & Senior Climate Advisor for PNM Resources from 2005-2015. Earlier in her career, she represented the Tennessee Valley Authority before Congress and the Executive Branch on energy and climate policy. And she was an energy associate at the law firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand.
Ms. Pablo holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, an M.A. in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University, and a B.A. from the University of Virginia, where she focused on Soviet and East European Affairs.
Lauret Savoy. Vice President
Lauret Savoy is the David B. Truman Professor of Environmental Studies & Geology at Mount Holyoke College as well as a writer, photographer, and pilot. Winner of Mount Holyoke’s Distinguished Teaching Award and an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, Lauret has also held fellowships from the Smithsonian Institution and Yale University.
Lauret’s work explores how this nation’s ever-unfolding history has marked the land and this society. Her books include Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape; The Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity and the Natural World; Bedrock: Writers on the Wonders of Geology; and Living with the Changing California Coast. Trace won the 2016 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation and the 2017 ASLE Creative Writing Award. It was also a finalist for the 2016 PEN American Open Book Award and Phillis Wheatley Book Award, as well as shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing and Orion Book Award.
For Lauret, writing of the complex intertwinings of natural and cultural histories helps us understand the American land’s origins—and the stories we tell of ourselves in this land.
Lauret holds an A.B. in geology from Princeton University, an M.S. in earth sciences from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and a Ph.D. from Syracuse University. She is also a Fellow of the Geological Society of America.
Montina Cole, Secretary & Treasurer
Montina Cole, Principal of Jai Green Consulting LLC, works at the intersections of integrated climate policy, racial equity and resilience, providing clients with holistic tools and solutions for sustainability. Ms. Cole is also an Open Society Foundations 2023 Leadership in Government Fellow. She previously served as the inaugural Senior Counsel for Environmental Justice and Equity at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, where she helped lead the environmental justice and equity integration initiative, including the creation of the agency’s first Equity Action Plan. She has also served as Senior Attorney in the Climate & Clean Energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Ms. Cole previously spent almost 20 years practicing energy law in corporate law firms, representing a wide variety of clients. She also served as Special Counsel to the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and on the staff of former U.S. Representative Jim Slattery.
She received her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and graduated from Washburn University, where she received her B.A. in political science, cum laude, with University and Departmental honors. She is a member of the bar in the District of Columbia and in Pennsylvania.
David Ellis
David Ellis brings years of experience as a journalist, newsroom executive and media commentator to the Climate Equity Foundation. As a founding member of the EFI Foundation (EFIF) team, Ellis developed the brand strategy for the Washington, DC-based think tank, including the organization’s content design and logo, and guided the creation of interactive websites and social media platforms. Before EFIF, he was Chief Content Officer of CQ Roll Call, overseeing five units and 160 employees, and led the redesigns of Roll Call and CQ.com (Congressional Quarterly) while introducing new editorial products that generated an extra $5 million in revenue. At CQRC, Ellis was a proven champion of diversity, bringing in new voices, elevating in-house talent, and addressing gender-driven salary inequities. He was previously Editor-in-Chief of Moneywise, the leading UK personal finance magazine, and has worked for Bloomberg News, Time Magazine, and Dow Jones International.