We are facilitators, policy experts, and advocates for a just future.
Our Team
We are inspired by the challenge of addressing climate change for just outcomes, and are undaunted by energy policy, utility regulation, and working to find commonality among diverse interests. We are committed to building a more equitable world through our work, and we know that begins with us personally. We are unabashed about grounding our work in our values, and we are proud of the standards we hold ourselves to as individuals and as an organization.
We work by the principles of autonomy and flexibility, balance as a process, and mutual support.
We are a collaborative of independent advocates that choose to work together. We each own our own schedule and we each take care of one another and the work. We believe that we can grow as practitioners without sacrificing our personal passions, and that we come to our work best when we are whole and rested. We admit freely that our work is head-and-heart led, and we hope the experience working with us is characterized by love, empathy, humility, and trust. We abide by our commitments, hold our boundaries, and keep one another accountable to the larger picture of ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities.
Michelle Vigen Ralston
Michelle Vigen Ralston is the Principal and Founder of Common Spark Consulting.
From Minnesota, to Washington DC, and now in California (notable Top Ten states from the ACEEE Scorecard), Michelle has garnered diverse energy policy experience. Throughout her career, she has become well-known for her ability to swiftly grasp new and complex topics and translate that understanding into impactful advocacy or strategies.
She has proven her fluency in areas ranging from social marketing, local government policymaking, energy efficiency regulatory advocacy, electrification market transformation, and energy financing strategies to open new markets. Michelle has built programs, teams, policies, and whole organizations from scratch; led multi-pronged stakeholder engagement processes, drafted cutting-edge policy, and continues to grow in her practice by partnering across a wide array of world-class practitioners.
With Common Spark, Michelle consolidates her full range of experience in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors to deliver tailored solutions that set the pace in terms of depth and quality.
Learn more about Michelle on LinkedIn.
Katie Wu
Katie Wu is a Managing Director with Common Spark Consulting. An environmental professional with more than a decade of experience in environmental and energy work, Katie brings deep expertise in research, advocacy, and stakeholder engagement. Previously Katie provided leadership, research, and engagement with Gridworks, serving as their Director of Research. Prior to that served as a Research Analyst at the California Public Utilities Commission, respected for her stakeholder engagement and thoughtful policy work. Her experience covers demand-side cost-effectiveness analysis, energy efficiency planning and implementation, advanced rate design, and fossil gas transition policy issues.
Katie holds a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Evolution from UC San Diego. She is an avid traveler and hopes to wander South America in the very near future.
Learn more about Katie on LinkedIn.
Tanya Paslawski
Tanya Paslawski is a Collaborating Consultant from Elevated Engagement with Common Spark Consulting. She is an attorney and energy industry veteran with over 20 years of experience in regulatory policy analysis, development, and advocacy. She served in a variety of leadership roles in the public and private sector on state and federal policy issues and was appointed by Michigan Governor Whitmer to the Michigan Council on Climate Solutions and the Upper Peninsula Energy Task Force.
Tanya is co-founder and facilitator for Advancing White Anti-Racist Education (AWARE), providing training and supported conversations on systemic inequities and tools for change. She was also the lead author of State Energy Justice Roundtable Series: Participation in Decision Making, a publication of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.
She has a law degree from Michigan State University College of Law with a concentration in environmental and natural resource law and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Oakland University. She is licensed to practice law in Michigan. Tanya is also a certified meditation instructor.
Learn more about Tanya on LinkedIn.
Suhaila Sikand
Suhaila Sikand (she/her) is a Consultant with Common Spark Consulting. With over 3 years of experience advancing stakeholder engagement, facilitation, and community advocacy, Suhaila is a passionate strategist centered in social and environmental equity. As a graduate of design, Suhaila is known to balance aesthetic quality with community needs, accessibility, and sustainable practices.
Suhaila has recently interacted with municipal policy and urban planning through stakeholder management and community engagement that centered community needs and impacts. Simultaneously, she launched a volunteer-led passion project to simplify climate policy for non-technical audiences focusing on the relatability of initiatives in daily lives and applying an evaluative environmental justice perspective.
Prior to her recent endeavors, Suhaila applied her graphic and strategic design skills in marketing, branding, and academia. She has successfully launched and managed the design implementation of consumer-facing energy consumption dashboards and interfaces in addition to dissecting existing energy feedback through design and behavior lenses at University of California, Davis, where she earned her B.A. in Design. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and currently resides in Larkspur, unceded Coast Miwok tribal land. Suhaila has built her career on foundational values including equity, sustainability, and community.
Learn more about Suhaila on LinkedIn.
Sooji Yang
Sooji Yang (she/her) is a Consultant with Common Spark Consulting, bringing over two years of policy research, climate and energy justice advocacy, and stakeholder engagement experience. As a daughter of immigrant parents, she is committed to ensuring the voices of her community and all other underrepresented communities are heard and honored when building a clean energy future grounded in our collective liberation.
In her previous role as the Energy Equity fellow at the Greenlining Institute, she led their city-based building decarbonization strategy by working with city governments to equitably electrify homes. Before that, she helped develop the City of Oakland's Equitable Climate Action Plan and supported its community engagement efforts as a Climate Corps fellow. Her previous experiences taught her that community needs, priorities, and leadership must be meaningfully centered in decision-making processes in order to ensure equitable outcomes of climate and energy policies.
Sooji graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a B.S. in Society and Environment and a minor in Geography. After spending the last 6 years in the East Bay, she is now back home in Los Angeles, unceded Tongva/Gabrielino tribal land. In her free time, she enjoys bookmarking pie recipes and volunteering with AAPI FORCE-EF to produce AAPI visibility podcasts.
Learn more about Sooji on LinkedIn.
Molly Blondell
Molly Blondell is a Research Associate with Common Spark Consulting, bringing research experience focused on the politicization of natural resources and land access, energy policy, and the development of policy interventions to reduce cumulative air pollution impacts experienced by frontline communities. She is excited to bring her commitment to advancing climate justice, and ensuring community health, safety and wellbeing to her work with Common Spark.
When not busy with Common Spark research efforts, Molly works with North Avenue Mission’s ‘Farm to Stoop’, a free weekly market that provides clothing, PPE, warm meals, and groceries to community members in Baltimore. She has also worked as a Research Consultant with the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition (MEJC) to develop a landscape analysis of environmental justice screening tools. Molly is also a member of the 2019 cohort of the Environmental Fellows Program of the Environmental Grantmakers Association.
Molly holds a Master of Science from the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago. Outside of her research and work, she is an avid runner and a Judge for the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt.
Learn more about Molly on LinkedIn.
Jade Lu
Jade Lu is a Consultant with Common Spark Consulting. She brings over 6 years of experience in the clean energy industry and climate policy landscape. She has worked in both public and private sector roles, garnering a diverse energy policy experience. Previously, Jade worked at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) on public-private climate solutions in the areas of grid modernization and clean transportation. In her work at Hua Nani Partners, she advises clients on a range of topics including regulatory strategy, state climate policy implementation, and early-stage cleantech innovation support.
She is especially passionate about bringing energy justice and equity to the forefront of policy development and implementation. At both MassCEC and Hua Nani Partners, Jade has held leadership roles in organizational equity working groups. In Massachusetts, she led the development and implementation of MassCEC’s equity strategy and served as a member of the statewide Interagency Environmental Justice Working Group.
Jade holds a BS from Duke University in Environmental Science and Biology and is a 2021 Clean Energy Leadership (CELI) Fellow. Outside of work, she enjoys learning how to play guitar and reading too many books at the same time.
Natalie Lucas
Natalie Lucas (she/they) is a Project and Operations Coordinator with Common Spark Consulting.
Natalie has spent the past four years in the Pacific Northwest, creating hands-on holistic Environmental Stewardship and Education Experiences with high-school youth around Washington State, in addition to community-centered work in Southeast Portland. Prior to these years in the PNW, Natalie was based out of San Francisco where they worked at the San Francisco Department of Environment with the School Education and Environmental Justice Teams. She brings an energetic, adaptable, and creative lens to coordinating projects both great and small at Common Spark!
Growing up surrounded by her grandmother's orchids, and love for the ocean, Natalie is passionate about creating multi-sensory experiences in the outdoors. Being in nature helps them connect to the land that their ancestors tended as migrant farmers, to slow down and appreciate nature's resilience. Natalie relishes in creating communities united around food, joy, abundance and believes in building bridges of trust and holding space for letting others' stories shine. She hopes to continue to marinate in the loving energy folks are sharing, and is healing in small ways every day. When they aren’t planning the next craft night, Natalie can be found with her red rainboots walking around the Bay, identifying plants!
Learn more about Natalie on Linkedin.
Our Advisors
Maria Stamas is an Advisor with Common Spark Consulting. With over a decade of experience in energy law and policy, Maria’s work is dedicated to personal and systemic transformation in service of just, regenerative economies. Maria brings a depth of expertise in strategic planning, facilitative leadership, and systems thinking as well as energy equity and regulatory work.
In addition to Common Spark, Maria also serves as an interim Program Director with the Initiative for Energy Justice. Prior to that role, Maria served as Climate Equity Co-Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council where she fostered strategic partnerships to support the integration of racial and social equity into local government climate work as well as developed equitable building decarbonization frameworks. Maria has co-led coalition-based advocacy campaigns before the California Public Utilities Commission, the California Energy Commission, and the California State Legislature, which collectively resulted in $200 million invested in affordable housing upgrade programs.
Maria holds a B.A. from Oberlin College and received her J.D. and M.A. in Energy & Resources from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law & the College of Natural Resources. She currently serves as vice-chair of the California Utility Low-Income Oversight Board.
Learn more about Maria on LinkedIn.
Careers
We’re hiring! See our Careers page for more information. Be sure to follow us on LinkedIn for any opportunities!