Kate Gordon

Kate Gordon is CEO of CA FWD, a statewide organization dedicated to a more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive economy across every region of the state. She has spent the past two decades working at the intersection of climate change, energy policy, and equitable economic development. Most recently, she served as senior advisor to US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, in which role she led a variety of locally focused initiatives to help drive a sustainable and resilient energy transition, including creating the Community Benefits Plan framework for Department of Energy (DOE) funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, and driving the agency’s efforts to site clean energy projects on DOE lands through the Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative. Prior to her time in the Biden administration, she served for several years as director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research and senior climate policy advisor to Governor Gavin Newsom. In this role, she launched or led several initiatives to better integrate climate and economic development strategy across the state. Before entering public service, she was the founding director of the Risky Business Project, focused on quantifying and communicating the financial risks and economic impacts of climate change on key US regions and sectors. She serves on multiple boards, including for Brown Advisory and Element Resources, as well as PPIC’s Statewide Leadership Council. She teaches a course on the intersection of climate, politics, finance, and infrastructure at the University of California, Berkeley, and is a nonresident scholar at Carnegie California. She earned a JD and a master’s degree in city and regional planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University.