Jenn is a founding partner at Waypoint Strategy Group and founder of Aquila Innovation Strategies. She is a former government senior executive who spent 15 years at the U.S. Department of Energy, working across four Administrations. She advanced ways to manage major federal programs, increased efficiency in government through innovative funding mechanisms, and led major initiatives at the agency to develop programs and policies to support technologies, including water and blue economy-focused efforts. She was the Director of the Water Power Technologies Office at the U.S. Department of Energy, where she led the office’s strategy, management, and execution of the $200M office with more than 85 staff and oversaw $150M in additional supplemental funding. She also influenced the structure of the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, including leading the $1B Energy Improvement in Rural or Remote Areas program, and supported the Grid Deployment Office $800M Hydropower Electric Incentives program.
She worked across DOE, the federal government, and in partnership with the private sector to launch and create new programs, prizes, and commercialization approaches for blue economy and cleantech technologies and applications, leading to billions in follow-on funding. She led the implementation of the Water Power Technologies Office’s Powering the Blue Economy initiative, which was the agency’s first program focused on power applications across the entire blue economy spanning from ocean observations to aquaculture to maritime decarbonization. She served on the White House Ocean Policy Committee, which during her tenure released the federal government’s first Ocean Climate Action Plan.
She was the Chief of Staff for the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Renewable Power in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in the Trump Administration. She was previously a Senior Advisor for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Technology Transitions. She was in EERE serving as a program manager, standing up new networks for incubators, and leading business plan competitions. She served in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer and the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability on their smart grid portfolio during the Recovery Act. Jennifer earned her B.A. in Anthropology and Environmental Studies Concentration at Kenyon College and her Master of Public Policy at George Washington University.
