Kate Gordon led the Energy & Climate team at Next Generation, developing policies and communications strategies to combat climate change and move the U.S. to a clean energy economy. She also served as a Senior Advisor to the Risky Business Project, an initiative to quantify and publicize the economic risks of climate change that is co-chaired by Michael Bloomberg, Hank Paulson, and Tom Steyer. Kate was the Executive Director of the project for its first two years.

Kate has worked on a variety of economic development and social justice issues for more than 15 years, and is regarded as a leader in the national “green jobs” movement. She has focused on issues related to clean energy manufacturing, regional economic development in clean energy sectors, and American competitiveness. She contributes regularly to the Wall Street Journal as one of the paper's "Energy Experts," blogs for the Huffington Post, and writes a weekly update on California energy and climate news for Next Generation.

Prior to joining Next Generation, Kate was Vice President for Energy and Environment at the Center for American Progress (CAP) in Washington D.C., where she still serves as a senior fellow. Prior to joining CAP, Kate was the program director and then national co-director of the Apollo Alliance (now part of the Blue Green Alliance).  Earlier in her career, she was a senior associate at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy and an employment and consumer rights litigator at the public interest law firm Public Justice.

She earned a J.D. and master's degree in city planning from the University of California-Berkeley, where she was Editor in Chief of the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law. She received her undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University.