About Aileen Nowlan

Aileen Nowlan

U.S. Policy Director, Global Clean Air Initiative

Work

Areas of expertise:

Policy, air pollution, climate and health, zero-emissions transport, corporate leadership

Description

Aileen Nowlan leads the initiative to develop and scale air pollution monitoring, mapping, and analysis. She leads the work to make risks from truck-attracting facilities like warehouses local, personal, and avoidable. Additionally, Aileen helped launch the first framework to attribute air pollution to individual companies. She previously launched a novel project finance mechanism for corporate brands to sponsor medium and heavy duty electric vehicles (EVs) when they don’t own their own vehicles. Earlier at EDF, Aileen catalyzed new technologies and new regulatory frameworks to reduce oil and gas methane emissions. She is an attorney and former management consultant with a background in project finance, restructuring, litigation, international law, sustainability and access to energy.

Background

Prior to joining EDF, Aileen clerked for a federal judge in the District of Columbia and practiced law at international law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York City, focused on petroleum industry clients. She is a graduate of Yale Law School, where she led the Yale Journal of International Law and advised on local and international climate change and clean energy initiatives. Aileen previously worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, then led multistakeholder collaborations to drive market transformations in clean energy, water, and housing at Ashoka in India and D.C. She is also a graduate of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.