Welcome!
See below for information on my professional background and links to sample work products. If you’d like to get in touch, please send me an email.
- LinkedIn profile
- Résumé (last updated January 2026)
- Bluesky @joannagubman.bsky.social
- Email joanna@cs.stanford.edu
- Current leadership:
- Graduate of Emerge California Class of 2026
- Vice President of the Board at California Walks
- Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter & SF Group Executive Committee member
- Visiting Fellow in democracy & sustainability at Research Institute for Sustainability at GFZ in Potsdam, Germany
- Other recent leadership:
- Board member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and SFBC Education Fund (2021-2026)
- Member of the Rail Passengers Association Council of Representatives (2025-2026)
- From 2021 through early 2024, I served as Executive Director of Urban Environmentalists, a YIMBY Action initiative. We engaged in administrative advocacy, as well as grassroots legislative advocacy. Press/op-eds from the Desert Sun to the Chicago Tribune. Spoke at national conferences.
- From 2020-2021, I served as an Administrative Law Judge II at the California Public Utilities Commission. I was responsible for the Commission’s building decarbonization and broadband access proceedings, among others. Sample rail crossing decision.
- In 2019 I was a visiting fellow at Agora Verkehrswende, a transportation decarbonization think tank in Berlin. Our paper on e-scooter impacts and best practices is available in German and English.
- From September 2017 through early 2019, I served as Energy Advisor to Commissioner Liane Randolph at the California Public Utilities Commission, whom I advised on:
- Integrated Resource Planning
- Resource Adequacy (including contributing to two decisions)
- Climate Adaptation (including contributing to the order instituting rulemaking and scoping memo)
- Transportation Network Companies (Uber/Lyft)
- Other energy-related topics
- I also served as Energy Advisor to Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves in 2017. Focus areas included:
- Rooftop solar policy
- Affordable access to energy in the San Joaquin Valley
- In Summer 2016, I was an Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung/Foundation fellow at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany, where I conducted a comparative study of electric vehicle policy in Germany and California
- As an advisor to Commissioner Carla Peterman for 7 months in 2015-2016, I focused on:
- Electric vehicles (contributing to decisions in January 2016 on pilot programs in SDG&E and SCE service territories)
- Energy efficiency (contributing to a decision in March 2016 on statewide marketing and outreach)
- Greenhouse gas marketing, education, and outreach
- Water infrastructure
- Previously at the Commission, I supervised the residential energy efficiency and low-income programs team. Sample decisions I contributed to:
- I also served as a CPUC analyst in resource adequacy & procurement oversight. Sample work:
- 2012 Resource Adequacy Report (co-author, published in 2014)
- Qualifying Capacity and Effective Flexible Capacity Calculation Methodologies for Energy Storage and Supply-Side Demand Response Resources: initial draft paper and workshop presentation, Fall 2013; final proposal, April 2014
- Effective Load Carrying Capacity and Qualifying Capacity Calculation Methodology for Wind and Solar Resources Staff Proposal, January 2014
- Contributing analyst to the 2015 Resource Adequacy Decision (D.)14-06-050, June 2014
- Prior to joining the Commission, I was German Chancellor Fellow at the German Solar Industry Association and a Managing Consultant at Navigant Consulting. Sample work:
- Solar Policy and Green Building: Lessons from Germany, presented at Greenbuild 2012, the annual conference of the US Green Building Council
- Growing Beyond the Feed-in Tariff: Priorities to Support PV in the Age of Retail Parity, presented at the 27th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (PVSEC 2012); conference paper available upon request
- The German Feed-in Tariff: Recent Policy Changes (in collaboration with Deutsche Bank Group DB Climate Change Advisors)
- Project Manager, The California Sustainability Alliance (while at Navigant Consulting)