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Debra Rowe doesn’t want anyone to have to choose between heating and eating. After seeing that solar energy systems work, save people money and produce quality jobs, she began spreading the message of clean energy. She uses a mobile classroom, built into a trailer, to demonstrate clean energy technologies to a broad range of audiences. She also works with colleges and universities across the country to expand their sustainable energy education programs.

Image: Photo courtesy of Donna Napolitano.

Medal of Freedom award-winner Mildred Dresselhaus is affectionately known as the Queen of Carbon Science because she has been a pioneer in carbon materials research since the 1960s. She’s also blazed trails in other ways: in 1968, she was the first woman to receive tenure in electrical engineering at MIT. In 2015, she became the first woman to win an IEEE Medal of Honor for her leadership and contribution to the STEM field. A scientist by nature, she is constantly asking herself, “How can I contribute?”

Image: Photo courtesy of MIT.

Dawn Lippert has known she was an entrepreneur since she was a little girl –- she would collect coins from her family members whenever they left lights on in the house because she was concerned with conservation, but she also sold greeting cards and stationery at a young age. As Managing Director of Energy Excelerator, she combines her entrepreneurial and energy passions through funding energy startup companies. In three years, her company has become the largest clean energy accelerator in the United States; the nonprofit has funded more than 40 clean energy startups.

Image: Photo courtesy of Energy Excelerator.

Erica Mackey found a way to replace the unhealthy kerosene lamps that half the population of Africa relies upon on with a solar solution through her company, Off Grid Electric, Ltd. The company offers customers solar equipment for the same price of a kerosene lamp, which the World Bank says has the same health impact as smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. As a result, East Africans get 50 times more energy services for less money and at reduced health risk.

Image: Photo courtesy of Britt Liggett, Show the Good and Solar Sister.

Mary Nichols devotes her life to combatting smog. She’s worked for more than four decades as a public interest lawyer with utilities, vehicle manufacturers, fuel providers and others to develop effective approaches to clean the air. As a young lawyer, she participated in one of the first successful lawsuits under the Clean Air Act against the EPA. Over the course of her career she has worked in private practice and for non-profits, but is always drawn back to public service. As chair of the California Air Resources Board, she gets to continue that important work.

Image: Photo courtesy of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute.

When Dorothy Barnett first met the executive director of the Climate + Energy Project, a newly formed non-profit, Kansas had less than 300 MW of wind energy. She saw an opportunity to harness the economic power of this resource to revitalize rural Kansas. Dorothy has moved Kansas towards a clean energy economy by building coalitions across the state, using a grassroots network of concerned Kansans and working with the state legislature. Now Kansas has nearly 4,000 MW of wind energy and state utilities produce 20% of their power from clean wind energy.

Image: iStock Photo.

When Jodie Wu (not pictured) ventured into rural Tanzania with a solar lantern, where 97% of households are without electricity, the course of her career changed dramatically. The energy crisis in Tanzania was one of access, not technology and Jodie realized bridging that gap would have a real impact. That year, GCS pivoted to last-mile distribution, building a village entrepreneur network to set a global community standard: every household should have access to quality products, unparalleled customer service, and above all, the opportunity for a better life.

Image: Photo courtesy of DFID-UK Department for International Development.

During the weeks immediately following the Nepal earthquakes in early 2015, most aid organizations were unable to get relief supplies in. Fortunately, Anya Cherneff (not pictured) was able to leverage local, women-led distribution networks to immediately deliver more than 10,000 solar lights and chargers to displaced families and aid workers, who used them for night rescues. This is just one example of the opportunities Empower Generation seeks out -- for women to provide much needed energy services to their communities. In the process, these women open their own businesses and earn social capital and respect.

Image: Photo courtesy of Empower Generation.

Katherine Lucey started her career in investment banking. After 20 years, she transferred those finance and business development skills to the non-profit world when she created Solar Sister. In Uganda, she saw that women are the ones truly dealing with the day-to-day realities of energy poverty and they have the most innovative ideas for solutions. She created the Solar Sister model: women entrepreneurs who sell small, affordable solar energy and clean cookstoves to their communities, making a difference where it is needed most.

Image: Photo courtesy of Solar Sister.

Nicolette (Nicky) Phear works to empower her students to effect change. In 2008, she helped develop one of the nation’s first and only academic programs to focus on climate change. She now oversees the interdisciplinary Climate Change Studies minor at UM. She works to foster the exchange of ideas regarding climate change and show the impacts through an innovative Cycle the Rockies course for the Wild Rockies Field Institute. She also developed a similar Bhutan Ride for Climate and continues to create educational opportunities for students to make connections and act on our climate and energy needs in creative ways.

Image: Photo courtesy of Dave Morris.