Kelly Roache
Research and Communications Specialist
Kelly Roache is a research and communications specialist at the Energy and Policy Institute. She has previously worked as an organizer and advocate for energy democracy and social justice in the US and internationally.
As Director of Inclusion at Solstice, a community solar-focused social enterprise, Kelly led the development and implementation of alternative qualification and financing mechanisms to increase low-income and environmental justice communities’ access to shared solar energy in New York and California. She also served on the Steering Committee and chaired the Policy and Intersectionality Working Group and of the New York Energy Democracy Alliance, where she advanced a just and participatory transition to a renewable, equitable, accountable, and local energy system. Kelly is active as a Board member of the Institute for Social Ecology, and co-founded Symbiosis, a confederation of North American grassroots institutions building a directly democratic, ecological society.
Formerly with the US Department of State, Kelly helped achieve a humanitarian evacuation in Syria, advanced the US-India bilateral relationship, and led an Ambassador-level review of the goals and objectives of the US Embassy to the UAE. As a graduate student, she spearheaded a campaign to divest Princeton University’s endowment from corporations complicit in human rights violations in the Middle East, which won majority support among the student body. She earned her Masters in Public Affairs and BA cum laude, both from Princeton. She is originally from and has returned to reside near Asbury Park, New Jersey.
