Ellen Morris

Director, UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIPS Program, NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY

Ambassador

Dr. Ellen Morris is the Director of the University Partnerships Program at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). This is a new program to build and strengthen partnerships with leading universities and research institutions that leverage 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. 

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. Prior to joining NREL, Morris served as President of Sustainable Energy Solutions, an international professional services company that she founded to promote the increased use and deployment of clean energy technologies as a means to support economic development and reduce poverty in developing countries. 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 holds a joint appointment at the Colorado School of Mines in the Engineering, Design and Society program, and previously was on the faculty at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She 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.