Liepa earned a Master in Public Administration with a concentration in Environmental Policy from the University of Washington in 2021. While being a full-time student, she interned at the City of Issaquah Office of Sustainability, where she helped create the City’s first-ever climate action plan and helped develop and pass an electric vehicle (EV) charging policy that requires EV stations in most new construction. She also worked at Shift Zero and NW Energy Coalition, where she created educational materials and case studies for policymakers and advocates on building codes and building electrification. As part of her graduate capstone project, she and her team researched policies to decarbonize existing residential buildings in Seattle with heat pumps and heat pump water heaters and presented the results at the Built Green Conference in Washington state.