Freeman has been a member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Council on Foreign Relations.

In light of the approval of the Willow project and her research grant from Harvard's Salata Institute in 2023 to review corporate net zero targets, scrutiny of Freeman's role as an independent director of the ConocoPhillips board increased.

[17] The Guardian described emails allegedly showing that she had facilitated a meeting between ConocoPhillips executives and a director at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2021 without disclosing her conflict of interest in a way that fully complied with university policy.

[18] The Harvard Faculty Divest steering committee, a group of professors seeking to end fossil fuel use, sent a letter to president Claudine Gay and vice provost for climate and sustainability James H. Stock expressing their concerns about a potential conflict between Freeman's responsibility to ConocoPhillips and the university's climate commitments.

[17] The student activist group Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard published an open letter asking her to resign from the company's board.

[18] The group acknowledged Freeman's climate work but criticized her effectiveness in "helping reform ConocoPhillips from the inside" and specifically referenced the Willow project.

In a statement, she said she would focus on her research at Harvard and pursue new opportunities, including a book about environmental challenges and ideas for further progress.