Erica Mackie is the co-founder of non-profit, Grid Alternatives. Grid Alternatives connects community volunteers and would-be solar installers with low-income families to install solar electric systems at their homes, providing unemployed workers with valuable technical experience and struggling families with inexpensive electricity. Today, the company, which was cofounded by Erica Mackie (a former youth advocate and efficiency consultant who describes herself as "a social worker turned engineer turned something in between"), installs about 1,600 systems a year across the U.S. and Central America and has trained more than 20,000 solar installers, giving the green-collar economy a fresh pool of talent.

Mackie holds a degree in Women's Studies from Earlham College as well as a BS in Mechanical Engineering, Physics, from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

Non-Profit & Association, Solar power, Environment, Sustainability, Environmentalist Co-founder, Community Improvement, Energy, Environmental Activism,