Researchers

Joseph Romm

Senior Research Fellow at the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media

Dr. Romm is a leading expert on climate solutions and clean energy—and how to communicate those to the public. He holds a PhD in physics from MIT and has authored countless articles and 10 books in the areas of climate change, clean energy, and communications. In the 1990s, Romm spent 5 years working on climate solutions at the US Department of Energy. For 3 years, he helped to run the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy ultimately serving as Acting Assistant Secretary, where he oversaw $1 billion in R&D and demonstration of low-carbon technologies. This included renewables, building efficiency, industrial decarbonization, energy storage, bioenergy, hydrogen, and electric cars. In 2008, Romm was elected a Fellow of the AAAS for “distinguished service toward a sustainable energy future and for persuasive discourse on … sustainable technologies.” In 2009, Rolling Stone named him one of 100 “people who are reinventing America,” and Time named him “Hero of the Environment″ and “The Web’s most influential climate-change blogger.” Romm was Chief Science Advisor for the Emmy-winning docuseries “Years of Living Dangerously.” His Oxford University Press book was called “the best single-source primer on the state of climate change” by New York Magazine.

Katharine (Kate) C. Staley

Visiting Scholar at the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media

Katharine (Kate) C. Staley, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist, trained in the scientist/practitioner model. Currently, she is serving as a Visiting Scholar at University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media (PCSSM). There, Dr. Staley is conducting research on the anxiety, despair, and other psychological impacts of climate change on adolescents and young adults.  Dr. Staley also started River Rocks Consulting where she employs her expertise writing white papers and offering evidence-based talks and trainings. Her most recent white paper was on the unique stressors impacting Generation Z’s mental health and wellbeing.  Prior to starting River Rocks, Dr. Staley worked at Penn State University for over 15 years as a researcher, clinician, educator, writer, and outreach specialist. Most recently, Dr. Staley served as the Assistant Director of Community Education and Outreach at Penn State’s large student counseling center (CAPS). Other positions held at Penn State include Associate Director of the Justice Center for Research, Research Scientist at the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness, and PSU Project Director of the Family Life Project, a large two-site NICHD-funded study of children growing up in rural poverty.  Dr. Staley has served as a consultant to a myriad of organizations, including CASEL, ChildFund International, and Togetherall, an international digital health company. Dr. Staley received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Child Clinical Psychology from Penn State University, and her A.B. in Psychology from Brown University.

Eryn Campbell

Gloria T. and Melvin J (“Jack”) Chisum Post-Doctoral Research Fellow

Eryn Campbell is the Gloria T. and Melvin J. (“Jack”) Chisum Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at PCSSM and APPC. Her research interests broadly include engaging key stakeholders in advocacy for climate action, media and social influences on public perceptions of climate change, climate and health messaging strategies, and communicating climate mitigation and adaptation measures. Eryn was previously a research assistant with George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication (4C) where she earned her Ph.D. in science communication. She also earned her M.P.S. in Weather, Climate, and Society from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and a B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Virginia.

Lauren Lutzke

Kleinman Center for Energy Policy Post-Doctoral Research Fellow

Lauren Lutzke is the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at PCSSM. With a background in psychology and environmental studies, Lauren’s interdisciplinary research broadly focuses on judgements and decisions people make in relation to the issue of climate change. Her work has examined interventions for preventing the spread of climate misinformation online, public perceptions and acceptance of a new climate technology, and communication strategies for conveying climate policy information on Twitter. Lauren’s work has been published in Global Environmental Change, Climatic Change, and Risk Analysis. Lauren received an M.S. in environmental studies from the University of Michigan in 2019 and a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Southern California in 2022. 

Alyssa (Allie) Sinclair

Joan Bossert Post-Doctoral Research Fellow

Alyssa (Allie) Sinclair is the Joan Bossert Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at PCSSM and APPC. She collaborates with Emily Falk and others at Penn to develop interventions to change beliefs and behaviors pertaining to climate change and health. Allie draws on her expertise in learning, memory, and motivation to design interventions that are informed by cognitive neuroscience. Her research interests include knowledge and belief updating, learning from error, risk communication, information seeking and sharing, and misinformation correction. To conduct this interdisciplinary research, Allie uses a combination of in-lab and online behavioral studies, functional neuroimaging, and large-scale online field studies. Prior to joining PCSSM, Allie completed a PhD in Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University and an Honours BSc in Experimental Psychology at the University of Toronto. Outside of the lab, Allie enjoys rock climbing, video games, painting, and hiking.

https://alyssasinclair.com/

Ovidia Stanoi

Mary Frances Berry Postdoctoral Researcher and Civic Science Fellow

Ovidia Stanoi is the Mary Frances Berry Postdoctoral Researcher and Civic Science Fellow in the Climate Communication Division of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, working with the Annenberg School for Communication’s Communication Neuroscience Lab and the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media (PCSSM). Her research is twofold. First, she studies how people regulate their emotions, perceptions, and behaviors to build social connections and to achieve their social goals. Second, she examines the neural, behavioral, and network mechanisms through which social relationships impact well-being and health. Across all her studies, she capitalizes on the heterogeneity typical of psychology samples to understand when and for whom certain relationships emerge. In her work, Ovidia uses both laboratory and in-the-wild studies that leverage recently developed techniques in functional MRI, experience-sampling, multilevel modeling, and social network methods. As a postdoctoral researcher at Penn, she will apply her research to the study of climate communication, action, and resilience in collaboration with Drs. Emily Falk and Dani Cosme in the Communication Neuroscience Lab and Dr. Michael Mann in PCSSM. Before joining Penn, Ovidia completed a Ph.D. in Psychology at Columbia University in the SCAN Lab with Dr. Kevin Ochsner, a M.A. in Clinical Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University, in the Loss, Trauma and Emotion Lab with Dr. George Bonanno, and a B.A. in International Relations at Brown University.