Sanya Carley

Dr. Sanya Carley is Presidential Distinguished Professor of Energy Policy and City Planning at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, and the Mark Alan Hughes Faculty Director of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds secondary appointments at the Wharton School and the School of Social Policy and Practice. She also co-directs the Energy Justice Lab.  

Dr. Carley’s research focuses on energy justice and just transitions, energy insecurity, electricity and transportation markets, and public perceptions of energy infrastructure and technologies. With the Energy Justice Lab team, she built and maintains the Utility Disconnection Dashboard. Dr. Carley is an author of the Fifth National Climate Assessment report and a member of the Innovation Policy Forum and the Roundtable on Macroeconomics and Climate-related Risks and Opportunities, respectively, for the National Academies.  

Prior to her appointment at Penn, Dr. Carley was a Paul H. O’Neill Professor at Indiana University, and held administrative positions there as a Chair, Program Director of the top-ranked Master of Public Affairs program, and as an Associate Vice Provost of Faculty & Academic Affairs. Before academia, she worked at the World Bank Group and as a consultant. 

Dr. Carley received her Ph.D. in public policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, M.S. in urban and regional planning from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and bachelor’s degrees in economics and sustainable development from Swarthmore College. 

Recent publications: 

Graff, M., Carley, S., Konisky, D.M., Memmott, T. 2023. Opportunities to advance research on energy insecurity. Nature Energy. 

Silva, J., Carley, S., Konisky, D.M. 2023. “I earned the right to build the next American car”: How U.S. auto workers confront the energy transition and the shift to electric vehicles. Energy Research & Social Science. 

Crespo, C., O’Shaughnessy, E., Bednar, D., Nock, D. Carley, S., Kammen, D., Konisky, D.M. 2023. Enabling and centering equity and justice in clean energy transition research. Joule. 

Carley, S., Graff, M., Konisky, D., Memmott, T. 2022. Behavioral and financial coping strategies among energy insecure households. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Raimi, D., Carley, S., Konisky, D.M. 2022. Mapping county-level vulnerability to the energy transition in U.S. fossil fuel communities. Scientific Reports. 

Sovacool, B.K., Newell, P., Carley, S., Fanzo, J. 2022. Equity, technological innovation and sustainable behavior in a low-carbon future. Nature Human Behavior.  

Carley, S., Konisky, D. 2020. The justice and equity implications for the clean energy transition. Nature Energy 5.