This article is part of ISEN's series highlighting alumni in sustainability and energy. MORE PROFILES
Building energy systems for stability and growth
Alexis Tubb started her collegiate career at Northwestern studying chemistry—quickly finding her passion was centered around taking care of the environment. “I started out as a chemistry major but realized I was really interested in the parts that pertained to the environment, so I switched to [major in] Environmental Sciences with a chemistry background,” says Tubb, who also earned a degree in International Studies.
Tubb made it a priority to engage in extracurricular activities including the International Students Association, Engineers for a Sustainable World, and campusCATALYST. As a freshman, she helped form Project Sunampe—an initiative that built a community center in Chincha, Peru after the 2007 earthquake. Fundraising efforts on campus and funding from the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN) allowed a team of eight students to travel to Peru and build the center. Tubb continued to work with the site in the following years, exploring solar energy options for the community.
“That was the first major project I was involved in and managed. From there it kind of cauliflowered into other projects at Northwestern. I started managing projects and figuring out how to organize people. From that grew my career in project management,” says Tubb, who also had a hand in drafting a clean energy plan for Northwestern during her senior year.
Now at the Clinton Climate Initiative—a part of the Clinton Foundation—Tubb works as a project manager with the Islands Energy Program. She helps island nations integrate and install renewable energy and energy efficiency projects into new or current systems. “We work with national governments and utilities in island nations primarily in the Caribbean and off the East Coast of Africa to help them transition into a clean energy economy,” she says.
This translates into working with utility, government, and electric utility regulators to design a comprehensive clean energy transition plan, a strategy to reach renewable energy goals in a way that is technically feasible and reduces an islands’ dependence on external sources—boosting its economic stability.
“We work with national governments and utilities in island nations primarily in the Caribbean and off the East Coast of Africa to help them transition into a clean energy economy.” — Alexis Tubb (WCAS '12), Project Manager at Clinton Climate Initiative
One of the islands, Dominica, is the main project Tubb is currently managing. In 2017,hurricanes Irma and Maria hit the Caribbean. Dominica was severely devastated and is still struggling to recover. Tubb and her team are working alongside the island’s government in developing an energy plan to explore how renewables can be more fully integrated.
This is an important change since energy prices in the Caribbean are about four times higher than in the United States, creating an economic burden on most households. “Most people in the Caribbean know what their electricity rates are and how much they’re paying for electricity, unlike we do here in the United States because it’s such a high percentage of their expenses,” explains Tubb.
Tubb is also working on a variety of other projects to help introduce greater amounts of renewables into island nation energy systems and to introduce other eco-friendly technologies such as solar panels and battery-storage systems.
By putting herself in a project management role early on in her collegiate career, Tubb has found success in a career that makes going to work each day enjoyable.
“Every day is exciting, and every day is different. In the life of project management, things come up and I am constantly intellectually challenged,” says Tubb. “Fundamentally, I love my job.”
This article is part of ISEN's series highlighting alumni in sustainability and energy. MORE PROFILES
