Lydia Freehafer

Lydia Freehafer is the Research Assistant for NUMO, the New Urban Mobility alliance, hosted by WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. She conducts and coordinates research and analysis on WRI’s Electric School Bus initiative, focused on electrifying all 480,000 U.S. school buses by 2030. In addition, she supports multiple research projects related to new mobility services, including electric bikes and scooters.

Prior to joining WRI, Lydia was the legislative and climate intern for Environmental Advocates NY, a state government watchdog group based in Albany that fights for transformative environmental policy. She revitalized a policy toolkit to help municipalities across New York electrify their vehicle fleets, and authored a report evaluating the success of statewide sustainability programs.

Lydia graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Dartmouth College. While there, she conducted research in Namibia on the effect of climate change on livestock feeding patterns. She received high honors for her thesis research on sustainable rebuilding in New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina.

In her free time, Lydia enjoys learning new languages, attending book club, playing the flute, and baking.