Kit Batten

Managing Director for Energy and Environmental Policy

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Kit Batten is the Managing Director for Energy and Environmental Policy and is a Ph.D. ecologist. She has served in the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) where she worked as a legislative assistant on climate change, energy, transportation, and agriculture policy. She also served as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow in the office of Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) where she worked on climate change legislation, energy policy, land conservation and management, fisheries policy, and Endangered Species Act reauthorization.

Batten also worked with Lieberman to investigate allegations of climate science censorship at several government agencies including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Forest Service.

As a postdoctoral associate, Batten worked for the National Ecological Observatory Network at the American Institute of Biological Sciences. At NEON, she helped design a national observation and experimentation system to explore the effects of ecological drivers such as climate change, invasive species, infectious disease, and land use change on important ecosystem services including nutrient cycling, hydrology, and biodiversity.

She received a B.A. in chemistry from Oberlin College and a M.S. and Ph.D. in ecology from the University of California, Davis. Her dissertation research focused on examining how invasive plants changed the soil microbial community in serpentine grassland and looked at impacts of these changes on native plant performance and ecosystem function.

Email: kbatten /@\ americanprogress.org