Meet The Forum Team: Anna Rosen

Meet Anna, a first-year Masters of Environmental Management student at the Yale School of The Environment (YSE). She is from western Massachusetts, but moved to New Haven from Brooklyn, NYC where she has been living for the past 4 years. Prior to working, she went to Middlebury College in Vermont where she majored in Environmental Economics! She intends to specialize in Business & the Environment here at YSE while also taking classes in the Environmental Policy Analysis and Climate Change Science and Solutions specializations.

What was your academic and professional background prior to coming to YSE?

I was an environmental economics major in undergrad. At school I lead a sustainable investment club and worked as a sustainability consultant for institutional clients like the campus bookstore. I also interned in local government through the Boston City Council in Michelle Wu’s office. After graduating I moved to NYC and began working as a paralegal for a law firm and then on the in-house legal team for an asset management company. As a transactional paralegal, I was negotiating NDAs for large mergers and acquisitions. On the in-house team, I gained deeper insight into financial markets, investor requests, and the nuances of managing various asset classes: these work experiences gave me the opportunity to get generally exposed to law and policy and their intersection with financial management. I aim to ultimately leverage my understanding of these legal and financial frameworks to connect back to environmentally focused work. 

Where did your interest in clean energy manifest? 

I have a lifelong interest in climate solutions, which is something I think stems really naturally from being a part of our generation. I have found myself being drawn to concrete, analytical solutions given that climate change is such an overarching, complex and interdisciplinary issue. For example, I see capital mobilization and largescale sustainable investments as powerful pathways through which to enact change, particularly to enable our necessary clean energy transition. I appreciate how the Forum digs into these clean energy markets and is rooted in CBEY, highlighting this intersection between business solutions and sustainable pathways like the clean energy transition.

What excites you most about this upcoming year of reporting on clean energy?

I’m really excited to be a writer on the forum; it’s a unique way to express scientific and business concepts more digestibly and creatively. Writing has been a longtime personal hobby, and I am excited for the opportunity to hone my communication skills. I appreciate that grad school presents these particularly fulfilling opportunities for creative engagement. I’m most excited to explore clean energy markets and more broadly research high-impact private sector involvement in our national energy transition.

What news or issues in energy have caught your attention recently? How are you going to find topics?

I am most excited about finding ways to connect and report in person, including through the Forum’s conference, interviewing folks at NYC climate week, and engaging with the speakers that come to visit YSE and CBEY. I am planning to be increasingly thoughtful about my news consumption and to prioritize carving out intentional time to engage with updates. I recently reviewed and updated my podcast and Substack subscription list to do so (Daily Climate Hope, Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, to name a few on Substack, and Climate Rising and Volts to start re podcasts). 

What are your future plans and career aspirations? Summer internship or beyond!

While my four years as a paralegal provided a great professional foundation and learning experience, I am eager to realign my passion for, and background in, sustainability, equity, and social impact, with my career at and beyond YSE. I am also focused on deepening my quantitative skills through coursework at Yale to best position myself for involvement in high-impact avenues for climate solutions.