Lara Skinner

Dr. Lara Skinner is the Director of the Worker Institute’s Labor Leading on Climate Initiative.

Dr. Lara Skinner is the Director of the Labor Leading on Climate Initiative at the Worker Institute of Cornell University’s ILR School. Skinner studies the labor and employment impacts of climate protection, clean energy and just transition, and provides training and education programs for unions to help union leaders and members engage in the public debates and decision making around climate protection and clean energy. Skinner, along with Dr. Mijin Cha, authored the 2017 report “Reversing Inequality, Combatting Climate Change: A Climate Jobs Program for New York State.” The Worker Institute also serves as the educational partner to Climate Jobs NY and the Climate Jobs National Resource Center, providing research, education and training programs for unions in multiple U.S. states.

Skinner began her career in labor working with Oregon’s Farmworkers Union (Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste), the University of Oregon Labor Education and Research Center, and as an active member of the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, Local 3544. Skinner has worked for unions doing campaign research and policy development since 1999.

She received her Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in 2010.