Kristen is a Solar Sister, with a capital “S”. She follows the philosophy that since the sun is the source of all energy, we should look to it first to provide design guidance in our built environments.
In 2012, Kristen graduated from Iowa State University with a Bachelor of Architecture degree, and set out to learn about passive solar strawbale construction, joining the Moab based non-profit Community Rebuilds in 2013, building homes for low income families. Thanks to their collaboration with Solar Energy International, Kristen landed a position as a work trader at SEI in 2014, where she greatly expanded her knowledge of energy, completing the Residential and Commercial Photovoltaic Systems Certificate and Solar Business and Technical Sales Certificate. Shortly after, Kristen was asked to stick around to be SEI’s first Americorps VISTA, and spent the next year creating and implementing the Solarize North Fork Valley program in collaboration with the valley’s local PV installation company.
This opened yet another door for Kristen to become a PV installer and later, designer and salesperson for the local company. In addition to PV work, Kristen has built two passive solar strawbale homes in Paonia over the past couple of years, and committed herself to an off-grid lifestyle, living on 300 watts of solar in her off-grid geodesic dome-home just outside of Paonia. Kristen is back at SEI as Director of Campus & Hands-On, running the lab yard with the best team ever!