Sara Lechtenberg-Kasten is a 2021-2022 Veterans Advanced Energy fellow at the Atlantic Council and a research fellow at the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC) in Saudi Arabia. She previously served as a US Army civilian at the US Army Training and Doctrine Command Analysis Center and as a diplomat in the US foreign service.

Lechtenberg-Kasten has worked on geopolitical topics in the Middle East for the greater part of the last twenty years with positions in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. At KAPSARC, Lechtenberg-Kasten brings an environmental justice perspective to the topics of energy access and risk reduction in an era of climate change. She is leading KAPSARC’s Resilient Cities in the Gulf Cooperation Council project and, most recently, she launched a new study investigating ways to enhance circularity for plastics in the global economy.

Lechtenberg-Kasten has received numerous awards dating back to her public service roles in Haiti including a Fulbright Scholarship, two US Army awards for study support, and a State Department Superior Honor Award. Lechtenberg-Kasten received a Juris Doctorate from the University of Kansas and a Master of Laws in the international protection of human rights from the Washington College of Law.