Kit Cole

Founder and Director, Kit Cole Consulting

Kit Cole is the founder and director of Kit Cole Consulting, LLC and brings 30 years’ experience in the public and private sector to corporate and government clients focusing on projects impacting communities and the environment.

Prior to opening her own firm, Ms. Cole served as a Director of Public Affairs at Southern California Edison, one of the largest utilities in the nation. At Edison, she was responsible for the Public Involvement and Education group promoting outreach and community engagement, especially where high-voltage transmission lines and substations created challenges with communities.

Before coming to Edison in 2011, she served for nearly eight years as Director of External Affairs at Waste Management, Inc., where she developed and implemented strategies around community engagement on a variety of landfill and recycling facility issues, focusing on landfill expansion in the West.

Prior to her move to the private sector, Ms. Cole gained an important perspective from her government service, working in both the policy and regulatory arenas. In 2001, she was appointed by Governor Gray Davis to the California Environmental Protection Agency, where she advised and directed regulation in the area of electronics waste, brownfield development and environmental justice.

As Policy Consultant to Senator Debra Bowen and the Assembly Natural Resources Committee in the California Legislature, she focused on green buildings (LEED certification for state buildings), tire recycling and reuse and beverage container recycling. In addition to natural resources policy she has a history with local governments from serving as a policy consultant to the Assembly Local Government Committee. Her focus in local government policy included work on cities and counties organization, the Brown Act and post-Prop 13 funding. Ms. Cole holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Davis and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California.