Julie Greene

Last edited: 27 February 2017

Julie Greene, Executive Director, Solar Cookers International

Julie Greene is the executive director of Solar Cookers International, the sponsor of this site. Julie developed an interest in driving global change at a young age. As a young volunteer, one of her most vivid memories was greeting Cambodian refugees as they deplaned at San Francisco International Airport, assisting the families and children as they settled into a motel to begin their new life in a new land. “All the children and adults were traumatized and exhausted,” Greene recalls. “I became driven to choose work that would be life-changing for people who faced extraordinary challenges.”

That experience led Greene to work as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), an educator, and ultimately to Solar Cookers International, which has global impact to improve human health and preserve the environment.

As Greene worked with women one-to-one, she saw universal patterns emerge. “While I loved working with individual women and their families, it became clear that change on a global scale needed required supportive policy and advocacy, and networks with skilled, effective partners around the world.”

Today, Greene leads a strong team at Solar Cookers International that educates, advocates, researches, and serves worldwide to save women’s lives. She implements the strategy that weaves a global network of 500+ partners in 133 countries. Networking and convening individuals, NGOs, manufacturers, researchers, solar cooking field project managers, Greene leverages global expertise to drive solar cooker technology adoption, focusing on the world's regions of greatest need.

She also leads Solar Cookers International's advocacy efforts at the United Nations New York, exercising special consultative status with the United Nation's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). As Solar cookers International's representative, Greene speaks on behalf of the global solar cooking sector, offering expertise and responding to requests for energy and environmental solutions on an international scale.

Greene prioritizes Solar Cookers International's work to focus first on the women and girls who live on less than $2 a day (USD) who are among the people who pay the highest human cost for their cooking energy in the world’s poorest regions.

Greene was a TEDxSacramento 2016 Changemaker Fellow, a TEDxGrass Valley presenter in 2012, and received the Suman Foundation’s Suryamitra Award in 2015. She was nominated for the Outstanding Women Leader Award for visionary leadership by the National Association of Women Business Owners, Sacramento Chapter, 2016.

Greene is also an editor of the SCI Digest. Languages: English, French.