Springer · Women in Engineering and Science

Good Work

An Oral History

Real voices describing real work, with dignity and specificity and the mess of real life.

Anna Kelly sat down with solar installers, wind turbine technicians, program evaluators, policy advocates, founders, researchers, grid builders, and efficiency engineers, and asked them to talk about their work.

People told her about jobs they’d stumbled into, mentors who changed their paths, days they wanted to quit, and moments they realized the work mattered.

The people in this book are not famous. They are regular workers. But because they work on climate, they go to bed feeling good every single night.

37 Chapters · Seven Parts

  • Part I
    Hands-On Fieldwork
  • Part II
    Data Science
  • Part III
    Policy
  • Part IV
    Entrepreneurship
  • Part V
    Grid Infrastructure
  • Part VI
    Energy Efficiency
  • Part VII
    Teaching

Get the Book

Available July 19, 2026
Hardcover · eBook · Softcover (2027)

About the Author

Anna Kelly is a pathologically curious, climate and climate-adjacent author who works in energy and climate policy. She writes standards, designs measurement systems, and figures out if things are working the way they’re supposed to.

She has a master’s in energy policy from Oregon State University. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her partner and their two daughters.

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