WASHINGTON – The U.S. Clean Energy Education & Empowerment Initiative has announced the selection of nine accomplished women who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in clean energy. The U.S. C3E Initiative—celebrating its 10th year—is led by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in collaboration with Stanford University’s Precourt Institute for Energy, the Texas A&M Energy Institute, and the MIT Energy Initiative. The U.S. C3E Initiative aims to close the gender gap and increase the participation, leadership, and success of women in clean energy fields. The winners will be honored at the Tenth Annual U.S. C3E Women in Clean Energy Symposium, Justice and Equity in Clean Energy, available on c3e.org/2021.
“Generating an equitable and sustainable clean energy transition requires a diversity of talents, perspectives, and ideas,” said Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “I’m proud to honor the winners of this year’s C3E awards who are an exemplary group of innovators and trailblazers working to achieve the cleaner, greener future of our dreams. Collaborative initiatives, like C3E, that advance women’s leadership in clean energy are critical to building the workforce of tomorrow and increase our solutions to reaching net-zero by 2050.”
The 2021 award winners are rising and established leaders who are having an impact across clean energy fields:
Business – MEGHAN NUTTING is executive vice president of government and regulatory affairs at Sunnova Energy Corporation, a U.S. residential solar and storage services provider. She works with industry leaders, nonprofits, state legislators, federal policymakers, and regulators to craft and implement policies that provide a more stable and sustainable business environment for solar electricity generation. She has worked with stakeholders to move critical pieces of policy and legislation forward in more than 20 states, including Arizona, California, Connecticut, and Puerto Rico.
Education and Advocacy – MARINA BADOIAN-KRITICOS is a research scientist at the Houston Advanced Research Center and assistant director of the DOE Upper-West Combined Heat and Power Technical Assistance Partnership (CHP TAP), where she engages with utilities, regulators, and policymakers to provide no-cost independent engineering support to help advance technical solutions using CHP.
Entrepreneurship – STEPH SPEIRS is co-founder and CEO of Solstice, a company focused on expanding the number of U.S. households that can take advantage of clean energy through community-shared solar programs. Solstice has created innovative financing solutions, advocated for the creation of inclusive solar policy across multiple states, and enrolled customers in more than 25 community renewable projects across Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Washington, D.C.
Government – FAITH CORNEILLE is a global Power Sector Program manager at the Bureau of Energy Resources at the U.S. Department of State, where she leads technical assistance to foreign partner governments to strengthen electricity markets and power systems, and advance power sector decarbonization, resiliency, and clean energy investment.
International – RHONDA JORDAN ANTOINE is a senior energy specialist at the World Bank, where she works on energy investment and advisory projects across Sub-Saharan Africa. She also leads modeling and geospatial electrification planning efforts, using cutting-edge geographic information system analytics to inform World Bank energy engagements in 30 countries and underpin comprehensive electrification strategies and plans in 20 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Law and Finance – JOHANA AFENJAR was most recently a senior director of capital markets at Clearway Energy Group, where she was the transaction lead in the financing of Clearway’s 140 MW Hawaii portfolio, raising over $500 million in debt, tax equity, and investor capital.
Social, Economic, and Policy Innovation – KATE ANDERSON is chief of staff for Energy Systems Integration at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), supporting activities focused on power systems, systems analysis, decision science, energy security and resilience, and energy justice.
Technology Research and Innovation – MARYAM SAEEDIFARD is an associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where she conducts research into technologies that can address challenges in large-scale grid integration, storage, and transmission of renewable energy.
Lifetime Achievement – CHERYL A. LAFLEUR was one of the longest-serving commissioners on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), nominated in 2010 and serving until 2019. At FERC, she helped lead the evolving transformation of U.S. energy markets and infrastructure, working to remove barriers to clean energy technologies such as demand response, storage, and renewable energy. She is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors at ISO New England and an adjunct senior research scholar at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy, where she focuses on the adaptation of the electric and natural gas sectors to the challenges of climate change.
