Jennie C. Stephens is a climate justice scholar-activist and feminist focused on transformation toward a more just, healthy, and stable future for all. She is Professor of Climate Justice at the National University of Ireland Maynooth and on the coordinating team of the Climate Justice Universities Union. Her research, teaching, and community engagement focus on confronting climate obstruction and integrating transformative social justice, feminist, anti-racist, decolonial perspectives into climate and energy policy, fossil fuel phaseout, the renewable energy transition, energy democracy, gender in energy and climate, and climate justice in higher education. She is listed among the world’s top 2% of scientists based on influence of her research.
Her most recent book Climate Justice and the University: Shaping a Hopeful Future For All (Hopkins University Press, 2024 available to order at any bookstore or open access here) proposes a paradigm shift toward climate justice universities, reimagined and restructured higher education systems to facilitate transformative social change toward ecological health and climate justice.
She is on the advisory group of Feminists Communities for Climate Justice, was a Climate Justice Fellow at Harvard-Radcliffe (2023-2024), is a member of the New England Grist Fixer Network, is part of the Climate Social Science Network, and was a 2015-2016 Leopold Leadership fellow. Before moving back to Ireland to join Maynooth University, Professor Stephens was on the faculty at Northeastern University (2016-2024), the University of Vermont (2014-2016) and Clark University (2005-2014). She did post-doctoral research at Harvard’s Kennedy School and she has taught courses at Tufts, Boston University, and MIT. She earned her PhD at the California Institute of Technology in Environmental Science & Engineering and her BA at Harvard University in Environmental Science and Policy.
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Recent Publications
Ireland is falling for the American fossil fuel industry’s ‘energy security’ con. Irish times. 18 December 2025
Confronting Climate Obstruction: The Role of Civil Society and Non-State Actors. Chapter 13 in Climate Obstruction: A Global Assessment. J. T. Roberts et al. 2025. Oxford University Press.
Academic Capture: Investigating Industry Funding of Higher Education in Ireland. Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review. Autumn 2025
Universities, Polycrisis and Regional Distribution. The Need for Radical Transformation. Review of Regional Research
Gender Equity and Care for Transformative Climate Justice. Administration.
Networks of Climate Obstruction: Discourses of denial and delay in US fossil enery, plastic, and agrichemical industries. PLOS Climate
Education
Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (2002), Environmental Science and Engineering
M.S. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (1998), Environmental Science and Engineering
B.A. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (1997), Environmental Science and Public Policy
Awards and Fellowships
Listed in World’s Top 2% Scientist Ranking, September 2025
Radcliffe-Salata Climate Justice Fellowship at Harvard, 2023-2024
Arab-American Frontiers Fellowship, National Academy of Sciences, 2017
Research Leadership Development Initiative, Northeastern, 2016-2017
Leopold Leadership Fellow, Stanford Woods Institute of Environmental, 2015-2016
Faculty Community Engagement Award, Colleges of the Worcester Consortium, March 2013
Excellence in Teaching Award, Department of International Development, Community, & Environment (IDCE), Clark University. May 2011
US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Fellowship for Graduate Study, 1999-2002
Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Fellowship, 2000-2002
National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Fellowship, 1998-1999
Harvard College Research Fellowship and Dean’s Research Award, 1996
Pforzheimer Student Fellowship, Radcliffe College, 1994-1995
Academic Positions
Professor of Climate Justice, National University of Ireland Maynooth, 2024-present
Radcliffe-Salata Climate Justice Fellow, Harvard University 2023-2024
Visiting Researcher, Department of Geography, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, 2022-2023
Climate Justice Senior Fellow, Global Council for Science and Environment, 2022-2023
Dean’s Professor of Sustainability Science and Policy, Northeastern University, 2016-2024
Director of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Northeastern, 2018-2022
Director of Strategic Research Collaborations, Global Resilience Institute, Northeastern, 2017-2022
Senior Associate Director of Northeastern Environmental Justice Research Collaborative NEJRC, 2016-2022
Associate Professor, Blittersdorf Professor of Sustainability Science & Policy, University of Vermont, 2014-2016
Associate Fellow, Tellus Institute, Boston MA USA, 2015 - 2020
Associate Professor of Environmental Science & Policy, Clark University, 2012-2014
Assistant Professor of Environmental Science & Policy, Clark University, 2005-2012
Coordinator of Graduate Program in Environmental Science & Policy, Clark University, 2007-2010, 2011-2012
Research Associate Professor (2012-2014), Research Assistant Professor (2005-2012) Marsh Institute on Human Dimensions of Global-Environmental Change Clark University, Worcester, MA USA
Research Associate, Energy Technology Innovation Policy Group, Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, MA USA, 2005-2011
Post-Doctoral Research Scholar, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, MA USA, 2002-2005
Visiting Lecturer, Environmental Policy Group, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA USA, 2004-2005
Adjunct Lecturer, Boston University, Department of Earth Sciences Boston, MA, USA, Summer 2003
Adjunct Lecturer, Tufts University, Medford, MA USA, Spring 2003