Gudrun Thompson

Senior Attorney and interim Leader of Clean Energy and Air Program

For Gudrun, climate change is the existential threat of our time, and in her SELC role she helps lead the political fight to cut carbon pollution. 

I’ve stayed at SELC because we get results, and because I am constantly inspired by my colleagues.

Senior Attorney Gudrun Thompson

She leads SELC’s advocacy across the South to promote greater reliance on energy efficiency by electric utilities. She is a familiar force to state regulatory commissions, where she advocates for rapid phaseout of power plants fired by fossil fuels, and maximum deployment of efficiency, renewable energy, and other clean energy resources. Her work is particularly meaningful, she said, “given our region’s outsized contribution to carbon pollution.”

“I wanted to practice law in defense of the Southern environment, so SELC was a perfect fit,” said Gudrun, who has lived in Chapel Hill since 1994. “I’ve stayed at SELC because we get results, and because I am constantly inspired by my colleagues.”

Gudrun’s communication skills greatly benefit SELC. She drafts, edits, and contributes content to foundation proposals and reports, mainly for SELC energy efficiency work but also general utility and energy work across North Carolina. 

Gudrun enjoys hiking  along Morgan Creek near her house. “I can walk there in five minutes and it is lovely in every season,” she said.  

Previous Experience

• SELC staff attorney
• SELC associate attorney
• North Carolina Court of Appeals, clerk 
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of North Carolina, clerk
• J.D., University of North Carolina School of Law with honors
• B.A., University of Michigan 
• With SELC since 2004