Solutions to Violence | Elisa Owen | Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign | May 11, 2026

Our guest today is Elisa Owen, a Senior Energy Organizer in Kentucky. She works with the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, and closely with the Kentucky Chapter) as their cheap energy (i.e zero cost fuel) specialist. Before landing at the Sierra Club in February 2025, Elisa most recently served as Kentucky Interfaith Power and Light's Executive Director. She was educated at Emory University, the Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where she received an M.A. in international relations and economics, and Princeton Theological Seminary. Her work includes time in the international electric energy regulation practice of a Washington DC consulting firm focused on the economics of electric sector privatization. She then joined a subsidiary of the Civil Engineering Research Foundation (CERF), the International Institute for Energy Conservation (IIEC), to support businesses and governments around the world with their efforts to use regulatory changes to integrate renewable energy sources into their energy production plans.