Energy Innovation Board
The Energy Innovation Board (EIB) is diverse network of ecosystem developers. The board will be comprised of 10 members charged with sharing insights from leaders across industry, the investor community, and academia. The EIB collaborates closely with Sandia National Laboratories to pinpoint communities facing significant energy challenges, identify future industry trends and technologies that have the potential for commercialization. The EIB aims to advise on the strategic direction of the program and drive progress in energy innovation, ensuring that solutions developed through the DOE Boost Platform are both effective and equitable. EIB members will learn about exciting innovations coming out of the DOE labs as well as the startup teams involved with Boost.
Chris McConnell
Alaska Network for Energy Education and Employment
Mr. McConnell is the Director of the Alaska Network for Energy Education and Employment (ANEEE), which was launched by the Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP) in 2017. ANEEE works to identify, map, and more deeply connect a network of energy champions in Alaska, including industry, schools, municipalities, state and federal agencies, utilities, Alaskan Native corporations and non-profits, villages, public and private organizations, trades and individuals. In his role, Mr. McConnell focuses on expanding energy literacy and training opportunities for Alaskans at the K-12, vocational, and university levels, creating pathways to energy careers. He aims to unite private, non-profit, state, and federal organizations around energy education and employment goals and efficiencies.
Dana DeRego Catron
Deputy Director, Arrowhead Center
Dana Catron is the Deputy Director at Arrowhead Center, New Mexico State University, where she leads multiple federal projects aimed at technology commercialization, particularly focusing on SBIR/STTR programs and technology maturation. She founded the NM Clean Energy Resilience and Growth cluster, supported by DOE, showcasing her proficiency in technology commercialization, strategic planning, and grant management. As NMSU’s site director for Accelerating Solutions for Commercialization and Entrepreneurial Development (ASCEND) Dana focuses on biomed tech commercialization, evidencing her skill in fostering public-private partnerships across academia and government sectors, including with the Department of Defense and Department of Energy. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science from Washington State University and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Professional Communication at NMSU.
Suzanna Caldwell
Tech Deployment Track Manager, Launch Alaska
Suzanna Caldwell is the Tech Deployment Track Manager at Launch Alaska. She is a lifelong Alaskan with over 15 years experience in communications and sustainability programming in Alaska. Before joining Launch Alaska, she spent four years as the recycling coordinator at the Municipality of Anchorage Department of Solid Waste Services (SWS). At SWS she worked to raise the city’s recycle rate through new programs, recycling end-market development, and improved education and outreach. Before that she spent 10 years as a reporter in Alaska, working at publications that include Alaska Public Media, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and Alaska Dispatch News. Suzanna grew up in Wasilla and is proud to call Anchorage home. In her spare time she's either cuddling her dog, Rosie, exploring Alaska's amazing wilderness or cooking something elaborate in the kitchen.
William J. Barber III
Director, Equitable Investments and Energy Justice, Coalition for Green Capital
William J. Barber III currently serves as the Director of Equitable Investments and Energy Justice at the Coalition for Green Capital, a non-profit that works to halt climate change by accelerating investment in clean energy technologies. In 2019, he founded The Rural Beacon Initiative,—a social enterprise that provides consultation on operationalizing equity frameworks within sustainable solutions, and works to increase BIPOC ownership in the growing supply chains of regenerative agriculture and renewable energy. Rural Beacon has evolved, exploring the role of green finance as a vehicle to address social disparities. He holds a degree in environmental physics from North Carolina Central University and a degree in environmental law and policy from UNC School of Law.
Travis Kellerman
Chief Commercial Officer at Somos Solar
Mr. Kellerman is a co-founder of an innovation-focused, Energy Transition startup specializing in sustainability data, renewable finance structuring, and energy asset management. He is an early-stage advisor to multiple startups with environmental and social impact focuses. He believes Environmental, Social, and Governance variables will become the new, bottom-line metrics capable of adapting us to climate change and addressing social inequity. His experience as a serial entrepreneur has seen the full spectrum of challenges and accomplishments. He led 4000% revenue growth and global expansion into eighty countries in his first successful startup. He has since built global data platforms and scaled multilingual and multicultural teams within startups in Southeast Asia, parts of Europe and Africa, and across the US. He uses those lessons and experiences to advise founders and executives at the strategic level in New Mexico, from practical philosophy to continuous iteration of mission, communications, product, and business model.
Mayane Baudin
Executive Director & Founder, Sovereign Energy
Mayane, a proud member of the Kewa (Santo Domingo) Pueblo in New Mexico, is the founder of Sovereign Energy, a native-led nonprofit aimed at promoting energy sovereignty and sustainability for Indigenous peoples through an inclusive clean energy transition. Her advocacy is rooted in her work with the United Nations Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (SPFII) and her experience with her Pueblo and other Tribal Nations. Mayane has played a crucial role in legislative campaigns like the successful passage of New Mexico’s 2021 Community Solar Act, which, under her leadership in consultation with Tribal Nations, significantly benefited Tribal communities. With a background in the private energy sector and nonprofit organizations, she possesses deep expertise in clean energy project development, finance, coalition building, and stakeholder engagement. Mayane holds a Master of Science in Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder.