Peggy Duxbury, an expert in energy and environmental policy with deep experience in issues related to climate change, will join the Environment Program of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation as a program officer, Foundation officials announced today.
For the past three years, Duxbury served as director of governmental and regulatory affairs at Seattle City Light, where she was responsible for external affairs at one of the nation’s largest municipal utilities and the first in the United States to be carbon neutral.
“Peggy’s background in government policy and the corporate world broadens the expertise the Foundation can bring to bear on some of the most pressing environmental issues of the day,” said Susan Bell, the Hewlett Foundation’s vice president and senior fellow for energy and climate. “We’re very pleased she’s joining us.”
Tom Steinbach, director of Hewlett’s Environment Program, said that Duxbury’s background also makes her an ideal candidate to make grants related to western land conservation and climate change, two of the Program’s central interests.
“At a time when we believe real progress is possible on both preserving western lands and combating climate change, she will help us make the most of it,” Steinbach said.
In her work at the Hewlett Foundation, Duxbury will focus on U.S. and western state energy policy issues as well as U.S. and international climate policy. In particular, she will pursue grantmaking strategies to minimize the damage from fossil fuel development in the West, promote increased use of renewable energy sources, and encourage energy efficiency and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Duxbury earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Old Dominion University and a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She then had a one-year faculty appointment at Harvard Business School, where she helped develop a curriculum for a master’s degree in business administration focused on environmental and energy policy.
“I’m greatly looking forward to joining Hewlett’s environmental team,” Duxbury said. “I admire its pragmatic, results-oriented approach and the breadth of the issues it tackles.”
Duxbury has had a wide-ranging professional life in energy and environmental policy. She started her career as a legislative assistant to Congressman Bill Frenzel from Minnesota. During the Clinton administration, she was a senior policy advisor to the White House Council on Sustainable Development, led by Vice President Al Gore.
She also was a vice president for corporate strategies at Redefining Progress, a leading think tank that works on shifting public policy to achieve a sustainable economy and a healthy environment. Later, at Calpine, the nation’s eighth-largest energy producer, she was a vice president for governmental and environmental affairs and directed clean energy strategies. The Hewlett Foundation’s Environment Program makes grants to conserve the ecological integrity of the North American West, address global climate change, and promote a sustainable energy future.
About the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has been making grants since 1967 to help solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. The Foundation concentrates its resources on activities in education, the environment, global development, performing arts, philanthropy, and population, and makes grants to support disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Contact:
Jack Fischer
Hewlett Foundation Communications Officer
(650) 234-4500 x5744
jfischer@hewlett.org