Kathryn Zyla

Executive Director, Georgetown Climate Center

2016 Law & Finance Award Winner

Kathryn Zyla is the Executive Director of the Georgetown Climate Center, where she oversees the Center’s work at the nexus of climate and energy policy, supervising staff and student work on climate mitigation and adaptation at the state and federal level. She is also a Senior Lecturer at Georgetown University Law Center and faculty advisor for the student Georgetown Energy Law Group.

Zyla previously served as Program Director, Northeast Policy, at the Energy Foundation in 2018–2021. Prior roles include Deputy Director and Director of Research and Policy Analysis for the Georgetown Climate Center in 2009–2018; Senior Associate in the Climate and Energy Program at the World Resources Institute in 2007–2009; and Senior Research Fellow for Domestic Policy at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change in 2004–2007. Zyla has served as a Commissioner on the District of Columbia’s Commission on Climate Change and Resiliency since 2017, and was a member of the Engineering Advisory Council for Swarthmore College in 2013–2018. She has a BS in engineering from Swarthmore College, a Master of Environmental Management from the Yale School of the Environment, and a JD, cum laude, from Georgetown Law.