Ellen Morris, Ph.D.

President and Founder, Sustainable Energy Solutions, LLC

Ambassador

Dr. Ellen Morris is the President and Founder of Sustainable Energy Solutions, an international professional services company that she founded to promote the increased use and deployment of clean energy technologies to support economic development and reduce poverty in developing countries. She is also currently teaching at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Morris is a world-recognized expert on energy and international development, with a particular focus on policy analysis, research, and strategy development on energy access, gender equality, and business models for the base of the pyramid. Most recently Morris served as the Director of the University Partnerships Program at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). This was a new program to build and strengthen partnerships with leading universities and research institutions that leveraged NREL’s scientific knowledge and state-of-the-art facilities to solve complex, multidisciplinary challenges in energy efficiency, sustainable transportation, renewable energy, and grid integration. She was also a founder of Embark Energy, a social enterprise that trained and mentored energy entrepreneurs in Tanzania and Arc Finance, a non-profit that expands access to financing for energy, water and other basic needs to build the income and assets of poor people around the world.

Morris received her bachelor’s degree in Geophysical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and her doctorate in Geological Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography.