Stacy Godfreey-Igwe (she/her)
College of Engineering
PhD in Engineering & Public Policy and Civil & Environmental Engineering (Joint PhD Program)
Hometown: richardson, texas
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You recently participated in the Scholar to Scholar: Graduate Project Showcase. Can you tell us about the work you presented?
I presented a poster on how extreme heat is shaping residential electricity consumption and behavior. Under climate change, we are experiencing more frequent and intense extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, and a major concern in this work is understanding whether households can afford to adapt. Especially over summer months, utilities can see a spike in energy usage as households are running their air-conditioning units, which trends with higher energy bills. In the energy justice space, we have this concept, energy-limiting behavior, where financially constrained households forgo heating and cooling needs in order to afford other basic necessities like food and medicine. Therefore, it’s really important that policy decision-makers, utilities, and emergency management personnel have a better sense of how households are behaving under extreme heat to implement policies and programs that place fewer communities at financial and health risks.
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How did you develop an interest in this area?
I grew up in Texas, where the summers as far as I can remember were always super hot. My family very much experienced financial constraints when it came to affording our energy bills. But the catalyst for me was Winterstorm Uri back in 2021. It was a massive climate disaster that left my childhood home, like many others, without power for a week under extreme cold conditions. I began to think more deeply about energy systems, policy, and equity and worked for two years in Washington, D.C., as a science policy fellow and then Department of Energy intern. In those roles, I had the opportunity to work on various energy-related projects like one project aiming to deploy heat pump technologies, or more energy-efficient HVAC systems, within disadvantaged communities.
With my current research, we have access to a large dataset of daily electricity for households out of a utility in Florida. Considering the hot-humid nature of this region, analyzing extreme heat felt like a good way to understand climate impacts and risks on vulnerable residents. And additionally, it’s really nice to be doing work so tied to my own personal experiences growing up.
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What are your academic and/or professional goals?
Throughout the rest of my PhD (beyond conference and paper goals), I’m working to be more involved in science policy and science communication spaces. I was recently accepted to a year-long science advocacy program out of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), which will be a great opportunity to improve how I communicate my research findings from a general public audience up to policymakers.
Beyond graduate school, I’m aiming to pursue a career in academia or an academia-adjacent role where I can continue conducting research on equitable energy infrastructure and climate resilience, particularly for marginalized communities. I’d be especially interested in a role that combines research with teaching and mentorship, and opportunities to inform policy through collaboration with government agencies or think tanks. Ultimately, my goal is to contribute to developing work that can help lead to more just and resilient energy infrastructure.
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How do you spend your time beyond academic work?
On campus, I really enjoy doing outreach and have been developing curriculum and programming as part of the SUCCEED (Summer Center for Climate, Energy, and Environmental Decision Making) program in the EPP department. It’s been a great way to grow some of my teaching and science communication skills. I’m also a GSA representative and am recently more involved in the Allegheny Science Policy and Governance (ASPG) organization. Off campus, I like to play with my adorable cat Chi-Chi, go to boxing classes, crochet, read fiction, and watch movies at the Manor.
