Hadia is a manager in RMI’s Climate-Aligned Industries (CAI) Program, co-leading community engagement and equity-centered work across the highest emitting industrial sectors in the Clean Industrial Hubs (CIH) team. Her portfolio includes Clean Hydrogen, Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), Shipping, Steel, and Waste-Methane sectors. She advises project developers on how to operationalize the “Justice40 Initiative” framework via capacity-building workshops and webinars on best practices for equitable, inclusive and meaningful two-way engagement to derisk projects, designing and implementing well-rounded and responsive community benefit plans (CBPs), and remediating the impacts of historic underinvestment, environmental injustice, and decades of legacy pollution in low-income, BIPOC frontline communities.
Background
Hadia has cross-sectoral experience in climate, energy policy and sustainability in the public, private, nonprofit, community-based organizations (CBOs), intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), and academic sectors. Prior to joining RMI, Hadia served as the program manager of the Carbon Management Research Initiative (CaMRI) at the Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University Climate School, managing the Initiative’s research agenda and partnerships, events, and engagements with local, state, and federal policymakers in the United States, and organizing high-level decarbonization strategy briefings for energy and climate ministries around the world. Previously, she was a post-graduate fellow to Nobel Laureate, Leymah Gbowee, a Net Impact Climate Fellow, and United Nations SDSN Local Pathways Fellow. She has served as an ambassador for the ONE Campaign and Girl Rising, and Youth Delegate to the UN Economic and Social Council (UN ECOSOC) and World Bank Group’s Climate Summit. Hadia has been internationally recognized for her research and contributions to climate action, equity, sustainability, women’s and girls’ empowerment, and inclusive adaptation and resilience in disaster-prone communities. Hadia is the first global winner of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s King Hamad Youth Empowerment Award to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for contributions to Goals 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 13, 16, and 17, and was recognized as one of the “50 Rising Stars in ESG‘‘ by Women of the Future, Tesco, Burberry, PwC, Aviva, Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, and The Financial Times. Most recently, she was named as a “Rising Star,” on Hydrogen Economist’s 2024 “Women in Hydrogen 50,” list. Hadia is a contributing author on the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC), which helps inform the city’s multi-hazard adaptation and resilience strategies to protect vulnerable and low-income communities from growing climate risks.
Education
MSc, Sustainability Management and Conflict Resolution, Columbia University
BA, Government and Politics, St. John’s University
Authored Works