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Our ability to travel is limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but energy entrepreneur Anne Slaughter Andrew, ’83, will discuss the journey to potential new energy solutions during her upcoming lecture for IU McKinney on September 11.

“We can’t really travel right now, but in my talk, I want to take the audience on a journey, contextualizing the history around our electricity system and ask how we got where we are and think about where we are going,” Andrew says. “We need to look at the legal and regulatory systems we have created around energy and electricity. How do we take those systems and revolutionize them to achieve a just transition to a sustainable energy future?

“If we can do that right, we can devise a map to arrive at an optimistic climate future,” she says.

Andrew will present “Mapping an Optimistic Climate Future,” in a talk sponsored by the IU McKinney Program in Environmental & Natural Resources Law at 3 p.m. on September 11 during a Zoom webinar.

This is a free event, but registration is required. One hour of CLE credit is available.

Andrew is former U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica, appointed by President Barack Obama as the first woman to serve in that post, from 2009-2013.

Prior to her appointment, she was an environmental and energy lawyer in Indiana, first with the law firm Faegre Baker Daniels, where she was a partner and co-chair of the environmental/energy practice team, and later with Patton Boggs, as a partner in that law firm’s environment and energy group. She led collaborative efforts at the state and national level to advance regulatory reform, including state and national models for Brownfield redevelopment and for the Clean Air Act National Model Permits. Andrew was also an adjunct professor at IU McKinney.

But in recent years, she has carved out a career as a social entrepreneur, investing, advising, and advocating clean energy and sustainable development. Recent projects include co-founding TerViva, LLC, an agrotechnology company developing environmentally sustainable crops for food and fuel; launching the Climate Forum with the NewDEAL, a rising stars network of exceptional state and local elected officials; investing and advising LNG, LLC, a Central American venture to collect and recycle used lubricant oil; and co-founding EARTH University's global platform for Leadership and Sustainable Solutions Impact.

Andrew serves on the board of directors of Sunnova Energy International (NOVA), a residential solar and energy storage service provider, and Ad Astra Rocket Company in Houston, Texas.

“Throughout my legal and business career, I’ve always found enjoyed the challenge of aggressively asking, ‘where are the strategic levers?’” Andrew said. “Within the limits of the time and energy each of us has, where can you put your effort to make a real difference?”

That’s why electricity is such an intriguing piece of the climate change challenge, Andrew says. Most people lack a basic understanding of the modern electricity system, from how electricity powers their home when they turn on the lights, to understanding their electric bills.

“We’re pretty disconnected from the way in which we are all connected to climate change,” Andrew says. “If we help people think about energy and engage in conversation about how they use energy, it could just have a crescendo of an impact. Having people empowered with knowledge and access to information will accelerate our ability to build a sustainable energy future.”