Joy Dunkerley, Class of 1954, consultant in energy economics and former senior analyst at the U.S. Congressional Office of Technology Assessment

Joy Dunkerley exemplifies Clark's mission to seek solutions to real-world problems and create positive change. Dunkerley, a native of England, came to Clark on a Fulbright Fellowship to earn a master's degree in economics and has spent more than 30 years studying energy issues in developing countries. She has also studied at the London School of Economics (LSE) and Stanford University, but says the best teaching she received was at Clark University.

There are two main strands of work in my career. One strand started in the 1970s in energy conservation. Nobody thought anything of energy conservation in the 1970s. It was an eminently unbelievable concept. People believed that if we used less energy, then we'd all be poorer and the economy would shrink. I did a series of studies at a think tank called Resources for the Future in Washington, D.C., illustrating with examples from other countries how even a rich industrialized country could produce all the goods and services needed for the comfort of good living with perhaps half or two-thirds of the energy we consume here in the United States. I think that was quite persuasive in altering this mindset that ³there's no other way, we've got to have all that energy, and if we can't then it's the end of the economy.²

Having initiated that debate, I then moved to an area I've been working on ever since, which is energy in developing countries. I started that as a program at Resources for the Future. We looked at various topics in modern fuels‹energy, electricity, oil, gas‹but also in traditional fuels like firewood and how countries managed to make the transition to modern fuels. After this project at Resources for the Future, I was asked to join the U.S. Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, again working on and publishing reports on energy in developing countries. I also worked in other aspects of energy, particularly in the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe.

When I became a consultant, I worked for the World Bank, for UNESCO, for the Atlantic Council and for an African group called Afrepren. The last project I did for the World Bank was a study of rural electrification in Tunisia. Many developing countries put major efforts into rural electrification‹that is, sending electricity services into villages. There have been some successes‹many failures, but some successes‹and the World Bank wanted to look into a series of success stories to see what lessons might be applicable to other countries.

I was at Clark from 1953 to 1954 on a Fulbright Fellowship to earn a master's degree in economics. I came from the London School of Economics, and after Clark I went to Stanford University. At both the LSE and at Stanford, I was privileged to have as teachers distinguished economists who went on to win the Nobel Prize. But, the best economics teaching I received was at Clark, particularly from Professor James Maxwell of the Economics Department. Without doubt, it still remains with me. That's what Clark was about. That's where the emphasis was. That's what people wanted to do‹they wanted to be good teachers.

I'm amazed by Clark today. The undergraduate program has changed a lot. When I was here, a very high proportion of undergraduates were very local. Even to come from New York was quite exotic. When I spoke to undergraduates during my recent visit to Clark about careers in economics, there must have been 30 or more students, and two-thirds were foreign students. That's the sort of development that doesn't just happen without effort and visionary leadership. Not only is Clark thriving, it's highly international. I have met people in Latin America whose children attend Clark, and they all said the same thing. They want their children in the United States, but they are concerned for them and want them to be in the safe and caring environment that Clark provides.