Joanne Kilgour, Esq. is a Pennsylvania-based environmental lawyer and nonprofit professional with a passion for justice and democracy. Joanne most recently served as the Director of the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter, where she stewarded the organization’s statewide operations and managed its lobbying and political program. Before joining the Sierra Club, Joanne had the opportunity to combine her legal background and passion for community-based advocacy into a position as the first Legal Director at the Center for Coalfield Justice (CCJ). At CCJ, she worked to infuse legal tools into grassroots organizing efforts, helping to support community members in the coalfields of southwestern Pennsylvania on matters related to underground mining, oil and gas development, and environmental justice.

Joanne received her undergraduate education at Carnegie Mellon University, where she served as a Fellow in Local Democracy through a partnership with the Coro Center for Civic Leadership and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Program for Deliberative Democracy. Earning her law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Joanne was awarded a Certificate in Environmental, Law, Science, and Policy and worked in the school’s Environmental Law Clinic, where she learned client-centered counseling methods and provided legal services to clients who otherwise could not afford representation. During law school, Joanne also received the Thornburgh Prize for Legal Service to recognize her public interest work with communities in the coal and gas fields.

In addition, Joanne serves on the Board of Directors for Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania and as member of the Conservation and Natural Resources Advisory Council for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Joanne is motivated by a commitment to secure social, economic, and environmental policies that support communities while demanding long-term structural change.

Sean O’Leary, senior researcher, energy and petrochemicals, has studied and written about coal, natural gas, and their role in the economies of Appalachia since the beginning of the fracking boom. He is the author of “The State of My State” blog and newspaper column, which ran in the Martinsburg (WV) Journal between 2010 and 2014. Since 2016, Sean has served as communications director of the NW Energy Coalition in Seattle, Washington where he has helped develop and promote policies advancing the Northwest’s transition to an emissions-free electric system, just transitions for fossil fuel workers and communities, and the restoration of salmon and orca whales whose survival is threatened by hydropower dams on the lower Snake River.

Previously, Sean was the founder and president of MarketLab, Inc., a market modeling and promotional services firm that provided analytic and creative services to over 50 national consumer packaged goods brands. He also created the ZeroBase marketing optimization model, which was used by brands to analyze performance and optimally allocate promotional spending.

In his spare time, Sean is an accomplished playwright and author of six plays that have been professionally produced. They include “Pound”, about the poet Ezra Pound, which starred Christopher Lloyd in an off-Broadway production in 2018. Sean’s plays have been recognized by the National Endowment for The Arts, the National Arts Club, and the West Virginia Department of Arts and Culture. In 2005, he was named to the Literary Map of West Virginia.

Sean is a native of Wheeling, West Virginia and is a graduate of Warwood High School and Bethany College. He and his wife, Kat Elias, live in Indianola, Washington. Sean’s book, “The State of My State”, published in 2013, is available in bookstores and on Amazon. You can also visit “The State of My State” blog.

Dr Martina Angela Caretta is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Human Geography at Lund University, Sweden. She holds a PhD in Geography from Stockholm University, Sweden. Dr Caretta was an Assistant Professor in Geography at West Virginia University between 2016 and 2020. While at WVU, Dr Caretta investigated the social, economic and environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing and pipelines development in Appalachia. Her research agenda revolves around the human dimensions of water and climate change adaptation. Dr Caretta is a Coordinating Lead Author of the United National Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report.

Professor Gamper-Rabindran analyzes public utility commissions, community-centered strategies, and the economic, legal, and political aspects of the renewable energy transition, as well as the economic diversification of fossil-fuel-reliant communities nationally and globally.

Her book America’s Energy Gamble: People, Economy and Planet details how political, financial, and legal institutions entrench fossil fuel dependency, but how efforts to shift to cost-competitive renewable energy have gained traction.

Her edited volume The Shale Dilemma: A Global Perspective on Fracking and Shale Development covers countries’ diverging decisions to pursue or eschew shale extraction and describes the impact of the shale gas industry on local communities.

Jaimie K. Worker is the senior state policy coordinator for the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN) at EPI. She is committed to ensuring that racial and gender equity is a public policy priority and that the leaders of communities impacted by structural racism and oppression are key collaborators in developing public policy.

Prior to joining EPI, Worker was a senior policy analyst at Community Change, where for more than six years she worked on racial and economic justice campaigns focused on jobs and public investment in partnership with grassroots organizations. Previously, she worked with the New Organizing Institute, as well as the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michigan, supporting workplace organizing and policy campaigns to win improved working conditions in the restaurant industry.

Worker is the proud daughter of immigrants and hails from Detroit, Michigan.