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MTRP People
Sarah Outcault – Director
Sarah Outcault is the Director of the Market Transformation Research Program at the Energy and Efficiency Institute. Dr. Outcault designs and implements studies and experiments to explore the drivers of technology adoption, use and maintenance, as well as opportunities for market intervention. She works in a wide range of contexts – e.g, disadvantaged communities, commercial dairies, schools, sustainable communities – in California and abroad, to understand the needs and constraints of stakeholders and ensure that solutions are designed to address them.
Prior to joining UC Davis, Dr. Outcault worked as an Assistant Policy Analyst at the RAND Corporation, where she also conducted her doctoral research on financial decision-making through the lens of behavioral economics and policy analysis. Previously, she worked as a consultant at Econ One Research, advising on infrastructure policy for governments, NGOs, and the private sector in Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia. Dr. Outcault has a Ph.D. in Policy Analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School, an M.Sc. in Economic History from the London School of Economics, and a B.A. in Economics and Social Science Research from the University of Massachusetts-Boston.
Since joining UC Davis in 2014, Sarah has worked on roughly 30 research grants, given more than a dozen presentations at professional conferences, and authored four peer-reviewed journal publications.
Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarah-Outcault
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-outcault-62185168/
Email: smoutcault@ucdavis.edu
Angela Sanguinetti – Faculty Researcher
Angela Sanguinetti is a Research Environmental Psychologist at the UC Davis Institute of Transport Studies and Energy & Efficiency Institute. She earned a B.S. and M.S. in Psychology with an emphasis in Behavior Analysis from CSU Stanislaus, and a Ph.D. in Planning, Policy and Design with an emphasis in Design-Behavior Research from UC Irvine’s School of Social Ecology in 2013. Angela’s research interests center on how the design of the built environment, including our neighborhoods, homes, and vehicles, impacts our behavior and well-being. She directs the Consumer Energy Interfaces Lab (cEnergi.ucdavis.edu), which focuses on the topic of eco-feedback–interfaces that provide information about natural resource use (e.g., energy feedback) to consumers with the aim of promoting more resource-responsible behavior. Dr. Sanguinetti is also Director of the Cohousing Research Network, which seeks to increase the rigor and reach of research on collaborative neighborhoods. At UC Davis since 2014, she has worked on over 30 research grants and authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications.
Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Angela-Sanguinetti
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-sanguinetti-6b217553/
Email: asanguinetti@ucdavis.edu
Alan Meier – Senior Scientist
Alan Meier is a senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Adjunct Professor at UC Davis in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy, and a faculty researcher at the UC Davis Energy and Efficiency Institute. Previous appointments include four years as a senior advisor at the International Energy Agency in Paris and as a postdoctoral fellow at Waseda University in Tokyo. His research focuses on understanding how people and equipment use energy and opportunities to reduce consumption. Meier’s research on “standby power use” in appliances—equal to 1% of global CO2 emissions—led him to propose an international plan to reduce standby power loss in all devices to less than 1 watt, which was endorsed by the G8 countries. He was Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Energy and Buildings, and the founder of the magazine, Home Energy. He is the author of many articles spanning technology, behavior, and policy, plus two two books, Supplying Energy through Greater Efficiency and Saving Electricity in a Hurry. Alan holds a Ph.D. in energy and resources from University of California, Berkeley.
Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alan-Meier-2
Email: akmeier@ucdavis.edu
Eli Alston-Stepnitz – Graduate Student Researcher
Eli Alston-Stepnitz is a PhD Candidate in Sociology, and holds an M.A. in Sociology. Prior to UC Davis, Eli worked as a researcher in the Health Equity Institute at San Francisco State University. He is interested in decarbonization and electrification especially as they intersect with access and equity. Specifically he is interested in the ways underrepresented groups and individuals are impacted by new technologies. Since coming to UC Davis he has worked in several different institutes on projects related to electrification including ones that focus on micromobility, alternative fuel vehicles, medium and heavy-duty fleets, commercial and residential technologies, and affordable housing.
Email: ecalstonstepnitz@ucdavis.edu
Cinthia Magaña – Researcher
Cinthia is an assistant researcher at the UC Davis Energy and Efficiency Institute center. She graduated from UC Davis with a B.S. in Sociology with an emphasis in Organizational Studies. She started with us as an intern for the Market Transformation Research Program for which she conducted several surveys with disadvantaged communities. Her tasks at EEI include stakeholder outreach, proposal development, and performing deployment activities. She specializes in outreaching targeted groups, conducting, analyzing, and presenting research findings to further support EEI’s mission to stimulate the development of sustainable energy technologies and solutions. She is particularly interested in researching inequality in today’s society. Her topic interests include environmental justice, immigration, the labor market, education, health, and sustainability. As an undergraduate, she volunteered in non-profit organizations throughout her academic years, such as the California Center for Cooperative Development, and assisted in developing the Covid-19 Vaccine Youth Media Messaging Contest. Cinthia is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and plans to have a career managing research projects and bettering the lives of disadvantaged communities through policy influence.
Email: cymagana@ucdavis.edu
