study committees, whose reports inform decision makers in all levels of governance as well as the public and private sectors. Her recent focus areas include the clean energy workforce; energy and electricity use in the built environment; carbon utilization for next-generation building; construction materials and related research, development, and demonstration needs; advanced nuclear reactors; and vehicle fuel economy. From 2024 to 2025, DeBoer was on assignment to the Climate Crossroads Congressional Fellowship Program, contributing to curriculum development, volunteer expert and internal staff collaboration, and direct engagement with the 36 fellows from across Capitol Hill. DeBoer received a B.A. in environmental studies (social science emphasis) and political science from St. Olaf College in 2019 and in 2025 began working toward a master of urban and regional planning at Virginia Tech.

Brent Heard is a senior program officer with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Physical Sciences, Systems, and Infrastructure Program Area. Heard directed the 2023 National Academies’ consensus study The Role of Net Metering in the Evolving Electricity System, co-directed the 2021 consensus study The Future of Electric Power in the United States, in addition to supporting studies on topics ranging from the application of life-cycle assessment in fuels policy and regulation to a research agenda for atmospheric methane removal. He has engaged in multiple program development and fundraising efforts, including cultivating a group of co-sponsors for the 2025 National Academies workshop Electricity System Operability and Reliability Under Increasing Complexity, as well as developing and funding a standing committee for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity. Heard completed his Ph.D. examining the sustainability implications of expansions and innovations in refrigerated food supply chains from the University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Systems, publishing in high-impact journals including Environmental Science & Technology and having his research covered by news outlets including NPR, TIME, and The Guardian. He received a B.S. in economics with an additional major in environmental policy from Carnegie Mellon University.

Utopia Hill is the chief executive officer at Reactivate. Hill provides leadership and strategic direction to a diverse, rapidly growing, innovative team. In her role, she manages and fosters relationships with industry partners, businesses, and communities, while also growing the company to ensure positive environmental and social impacts to the communities served by Reactivate projects. Hill previously served as the head of engineering, procurement, and construction at Reactivate and as the vice president of renewables construction for Invenergy. After beginning her career at General Electric, Hill spent nearly two decades at Invenergy in roles within engineering, procurement, and construction. She has been involved in more than 10,000 megawatts of renewables projects including wind, solar, and energy storage. Hill has been recognized for her sharp intellect, detailed dedication to project execution, and ability to effectively

collaborate with cross-functional teams. She currently serves as an advisory board member for The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Distributed Energy Resources Advisory Council, a group dedicated to advancing renewable energy adoption through research and policy solutions. Additionally, she serves on the advisory board for Vote Solar and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Forum on Informed Investment, Technology, and Policy Pathways for the Electricity System and Interdependent Energy Infrastructure. She previously served as the board vice president for the Boys & Girls Club of West Cook County, where she championed STEM programming for youth from low-income and underrepresented communities. Hill holds a degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and has completed executive education coursework at Harvard Business School.

K. John Holmes is a senior scholar and energy team lead at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, directing work on activities including climate mitigation and assessment, electricity system modernization, vehicle technologies, and energy innovation. Holmes leads the cross–National Academies initiative on the technological, societal, and policy issues related to energy systems transformations and decarbonization in the United States. That work includes organizing public events on topics related to decarbonization and serving as the staff director on the reports Accelerating Decarbonization in the United States Technology, Policy, and Societal Dimensions (2023) and Accelerating Decarbonization of the U.S. Energy System (2021) both of which have been widely disseminated to the public and used by policymakers. Other major activities include co-directing studies on the future of the electricity system and negative emissions technologies; directing studies on electricity system resiliency and light-duty vehicle emissions and fuel economy technologies; and organizing workshops on sub-national climate assessment and rural and islanded electricity systems. He has directed studies and published on a range of topics including energy technologies, climate change, renewable electricity, sub-national climate assessment, air quality management, stratospheric ozone depletion, water resources management, integrated assessment modeling, and carbon emissions trading. He has a personal interest in the historical development of technology and policy and published “A Historical Perspective on Climate Change Assessment,” “A Century of Environmental Technologies for Light-Duty Vehicles,” and a thesis on the early development of systems analysis in natural resources management related to these interests. That thesis resulted in the publication “Early Development of Systems Analysis in Natural Resources Management from Man and Nature to the Miami Conservancy District,” which he authored with Dr M.G. Wolman, the long-running chair of the Johns Hopkins University transdisciplinary Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering. He received a B.S. from Indiana University, an M.S.E. from the University of Washington, and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University.

Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Power & Engineering Society. He is a recipient of the 2017 Utility Variable-Generation Integration Achievement Award and in 2016 was awarded the IEEE Power & Energy Society Leadership in Power Award.

Kirsten Verclas is a senior managing director at the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO). She leads NASEO’s electricity program, which informs and educates the states on issues related to generation, transmission, and distribution, and NASEO’s energy security program, focused on resilience, energy security planning, and cybersecurity. Prior to NASEO, Verclas was an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), where she worked on clean energy, state and local energy policy, cybersecurity issues, and emergency response. She also served as a program manager in the International Department of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners working on regulatory partnerships in Africa, as well as a senior program manager at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Verclas has written extensively on national and international energy and climate issues as well as security policy in the transatlantic context. She is a member of DOE’s Electricity Advisory Committee. Verclas holds a B.A. in international relations from Franklin and Marshall College, an M.A. in international relations from The George Washington University, and an M.S. in energy policy and climate from Johns Hopkins University.

Varun Rai is the Walt and Elspeth Rostow Professor in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin with a joint appointment in mechanical engineering. Through his interdisciplinary research at the interface of energy systems, complex systems, decision science, and public policy, he develops effective policy approaches to help accelerate the transition of the global energy system into a more sustainable and resilient one. He was a Global Economic Fellow in 2009. During 2013–2015 he was a commissioner for the vertically integrated electric utility Austin Energy and from 2019–2021 he served as the director of The University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute. In 2016 the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM) awarded him the David N. Kershaw Award and Prize, which “was established to honor persons who, at under the age of 40, have made a distinguished contribution to the field of public policy analysis and management.” He received his Ph.D. and M.S. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.