Michelle comes to Potential Energy after 7 years at Kiva, a nonprofit organization connecting people through lending to alleviate poverty. At Kiva, Michelle spent 5 years building their network of microfinance partners across Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, and 2 years as Senior Director of Kiva’s Strategic Initiatives group, where she was responsible for overseeing their expansion into new impact areas including clean energy, water and sanitation, innovative agriculture and higher education. In 2012, Michelle served as a Rainer Arnhold Fellow, a prestigious program for social entrepreneurs with particularly promising solutions to the big problems in health, poverty, and conservation in developing countries. Prior to joining Kiva, Michelle founded a nonprofit organization in Costa Rica, NatureKids, which focuses on English literacy and environmental sustainability in burgeoning tourist hubs. She also worked at various organizations dedicated to financial inclusion, including ACCION International. Michelle graduated magna cum laude from Boston University with a degree in International Relations and a minor in Economics.

On the show, Michelle Kreger talked about Potential Engergy and its innovation practices. 3 billion people across the world prepare their meals over an open cooking fire. This smoke is one of the leading causes of death in the devloping world. Working with improved cooking stoves can drastically improve the amount of smoke in the home and can have an effect on not only the health of the women preparing the food, but also the children in the home. Potential Energy produces low-tech stoves, made of steel that have internal combustion chambers that burn wood. The structure drastically improves the efficiency of the burn, reducing the amount of smoke and wood needed by half. They have been able to produce these stoves under 20$ to get it in the hands of the user.