Aimee Barnes
Director of Policy Lab, Elemental Excelerator
Aimee serves as co-director of the Elemental Policy Lab, a collective of policy entrepreneurs working at the seam of technology and policy. She is also the founder and CEO of Hua Nani Partners, a consulting practice focused on seeding the next generation of climate and energy solutions, and a senior advisor at the California-China Climate Institute. In 2022, Aimee was appointed by Hawai’i’s Governor David Ige to serve on the Hawai’i State Board for Land and Natural Resources.
Aimee served previously as Senior Advisor to California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr., where she helped launch the US Climate Alliance, led the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit, and was responsible for Executive Order B-55-18, committing California to carbon neutrality by 2045. She also served as Deputy Secretary for Border and Intergovernmental Relations at the California Environmental Protection Agency, and was a partner at Allotrope Partners. Earlier in her career she worked on climate issues internationally, in the UK and United Arab Emirates, at the carbon markets firm EcoSecurities, and at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
Aimee co-founded Bright Spot Network, which supports parents facing cancer while raising young children, and serves on the boards of the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society at Dartmouth College, and Independent Diplomat. She was the 2018 recipient of the Government Leadership Award for DOE’s C3E Women’s Initiative, and founded Powerwomen, a database of leading women in climate change and energy. She has an MPA in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), and a BA from Dartmouth College in Environmental Studies.