Leslie Abrahams is the Director of Energy Systems Analyses at Clean Air Task Force (CATF). Her work centers on assessing and managing the risk and feasibility of a zero-carbon energy transition. In addition to providing modeling insights to support CATF’s federal and state policy efforts, Leslie focuses on demonstrating the criticality of technology diversity and optionality to solve climate change both domestically and on a global scale. The systems approach underlying Leslie’s work seeks to incorporate social, behavioral, and policy contexts in addition to traditional technical and economic analyses in order to drive discussions around zero-carbon transition pathways to be inclusive, representative, and meaningful for planning and implementation.

In addition to energy policy modeling, Leslie has expertise in robust decision making under uncertainty and risk assessment. Prior to joining CATF, Leslie worked as a research staff member at the Science and Technology Policy Institute where she worked with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop inter-agency strategies to advance R&D related to energy, environment, and natural hazard resilience.

Leslie has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and a joint PhD in engineering and public policy and civil and environmental engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.