Penn’s Vice Provost for Climate Science, Policy, and Action Sanya Carley sat down with The Daily Pennsylvanian to discuss her goals for the future of climate and sustainability at the University.
Carley outlined a three-pronged vision for the office — including integrating programs University-wide, elevating current climate initiatives, and making an impact on the global climate space. Her October 2025 appointment followed Penn professor Michael Mann’s resignation from the role last year.
“Five years from now, I want anyone in the world, if you ask who’s leading in the climate space, I want them to identify it’s Penn,” Carley said while describing her “biggest goal.”
Key areas of focus for Carley’s team include student programming, communications, faculty engagement, and climate solutions. Carley highlighted her office’s plans to launch new student fellowships, leadership opportunities, and cohort programs.
When asked about recent federal developments — including cuts to climate research funding and threats to higher education — Carley stated that Penn should “stick to the cause” of climate solutions and continue to put forward “the best possible research and teaching.”
She also discussed the potential of future developments in energy policy, while acknowledging those changes are “hard to predict.”
“I’m an energy policy scholar at my core, and there’s a lot of developments happening that are attempting to change the course of energy policy within the country, as well as all across the world,” Carley said. “I don’t think it changes the long-term trajectory of where we’re going with our energy transition.”
During her first few months in the role, Carley and her team at Penn Climate met with stakeholders from across campus — including advisory groups, senior management groups, and other University provosts — to gather input and help inform their priorities.
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“We want to bring people together from all across the University,” she said. “So hearing from people and hearing their desires and their needs is really quite essential as part of that process.”
Penn Climate's office is set to formally launch later this year. According to Carley, the team plans to meet with the Faculty Senate and host a student town hall to hear feedback from across campus.
“We want to be absolutely as inclusive as possible,” Carley said. “People can opt out, but we want everybody to feel like they have a home in Penn Climate.”
Carley described herself as a “team player” — recounting her time playing sports in college — which she said helps her “bring people together” in her current role. She also noted her multidisciplinary academic background — with degrees in economics, public policy, and city planning — as influential to her role.
“I’m open-minded to a variety of perspectives, which informs my choices on how to build something that is truly spanning across all of the schools and all the disciplines,” Carley explained.
She added that “we want to leverage the strengths that we have across all of the different disciplines to make something bigger and … impactful for the rest of the world.”
Carley characterized herself as “very optimistic” about Penn’s ability to tackle important climate issues through technology and policy solutions — particularly through initiatives in collaboration with peer institutions.
“It’s an all-hands-on-deck set of challenges,” Carley said.
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Senior reporter Norah Findley leads coverage of science and health and can be reached at findley@thedp.com. At Penn, she studies environmental studies. Follow her on X @NorahFindley_.
