Assistant Professor
University of Michigan School for Environment & Sustainability

Tony G. Reames is an assistant professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Director of the Urban Energy Justice Lab, which conducts research on topics at the intersection of energy and equity. Dr. Reames is affiliated with the Center for Sustainable Systems, Center for Local, State and Urban Policy, Energy Institute, and UM Poverty Solutions initiative. He is also a member of the second cohort of the JPB Foundation Environmental Health Fellowship Program at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, established to promote a new generation of Environmental Health scholars who are committed to finding solutions and supporting policy changes that address environmental, social, economic and health disparities across U.S. communities. Prior to his academic career, Tony worked in civil engineering design and review in both the private and public sectors. He is a licensed Professional Engineer. He is also a U.S. Army veteran. He served 8 years as a combat engineer officer, reaching the rank of Captain, and was deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He also served as a basic training executive officer at Fort Jackson, SC and military science professor at University of Missouri-Kansas City. Tony was born and raised in rural South Carolina and has live in Michigan since 2014 and in the Holly Hill Farms neighborhood of Farmington Hills since 2017. He has delivered over 50 lectures, keynotes and presentations, both domestically and internationally, on his energy justice work which investigates fair and equitable access to affordable, reliable, and clean energy technology. His research employs energy analysis, geographic information systems (GIS), and policy analysis tools to study disparities residential energy dynamics focusing on the production and persistence of spatial, racial, and socioeconomic inequality. He works throughout southeast Michigan with students, community groups, businesses, and policymakers. He work appears in top peer-reviewed journals as well as in popular media such as Michigan Radio, Grist, Concentrate, Midwest Energy News, and Greentech Media. He's done research in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, and studied urban heat islands in Nuuk, Greenland. He is passionate about reducing energy and water poverty in the US and abroad. He and several students published a study on water security in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties finding many residents often make tradeoffs between water bills and other monthly expenses. Read the study

The information presented here was accurate as of January 1, 2019.