Clara works with faculty to develop and expand their research agendas, assess and match funding opportunities, build multi-disciplinary teams, and develop relationships with the state and federal governments, industry, foundations, and non-profits.

Clara works with faculty at the Polytechnic Institute to develop the research portfolio of individuals and interdisciplinary teams leading to the expansion of funded support for research at the Polytechnic Institute from state and federal government, industry, foundations, and non-profit organizations. She works with the leadership team and faculty in the college to identify core competencies and pursue opportunities with other colleges, Discovery Park and external audiences. In this role, she develops potential activities of interest to both the Polytechnic team and external partners, while creating strategies to increase external funding and stakeholder engagement.

Reported to the Deputy Assistant Secretary as his Chief of Staff;Managed the $2 billion Major Demonstration portfolio of publicly and privately co-funded first-of-a-kind commercial-scale projects integrating carbon capture, utilization, and storage.Led and executed the development of the strategic plan for the Office of Clean Coal and Carbon Management outreach to individual states and other stakeholders. In our outreach, I shared the results of funded research and development, funding opportunities, and ways to collaborate in the future.

Responsible for creating the intellectual underpinnings and leading the development of the policy agenda for the American Energy & Manufacturing Competitiveness (AEMC) Partnership. The AEMC Partnership - a collaboration between the Council and the U.S. Department of Energy - aims to increase U.S. competitiveness in the production of clean energy products and to increase U.S. manufacturing competitiveness across the board by increasing energy productivity. A key element of these responsibilities is to lead in the development of public-private partnership concepts that have the potential to foster innovation and support the growth of high technology manufacturing in the United States.I also contribute to the development of the agenda and distillation of concepts for the Technology, Leadership & Strategy Initiative (TLSI). The TLSI dialogue series brings together CTOs of major U.S. companies with Vice Presidents for Research of academic institutions and Chief Research Officers of national laboratories to discuss topics ranging from global collaboration in industry and academia to STEM education and workforce development with a strong emphasis in connecting the skills needs in industry with educational and research programs in academia.

hpc4energy incubator Program Lead- Developed a hpc4energy initiative to advance and innovate energy technologies by integrating the use of High Performance Computing (HPC) in the research, design, and development cycle.- Managed six projects in the hpc4energy incubator as the Principal Investigator, with teams of LLNL technical experts and business development leads working with industrial collaborators. Projects range from improving models of fuel injection in combustion engines to subsurface drilling for geothermal energy to improving models to describe the electricity grid.- Worked with members of the Howard Baker Forum, the Council on Competitiveness, industry and LLNL leaders to develop strategies to advance the adoption of High Performance Computing by U.S. energy technology companies.- Managed contributions to the www.hpc4energy.org website.Energy Systems Analyst, LLNL, Livermore, California- Global systems analysis: used informatics to develop energy use, carbon dioxide from energy use, and water use flow diagrams. - Atmospheric chemistry analysis: researched atmospheric methane sources in the Arctic to develop possible mitigation methods. - Chemical processes analysis: participated in the National Summit on Advancing Clean Energy Technology, edited the National Clean Energy HPC Roadmap, represented LLNL in China visiting partners in the US-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC) for Advanced Coal Technology, assisted in analyses of Energy Return on Investment (EROI) for the nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear fuel reprocessing.

Air Quality Compliance: Prepared Annual Emissions Reports detailing inventory use and manufacturing processes, California Business Plans, REgional CLean Air Incentives Market (RECLAIM) reports detailing NOx emissions, permit applications, and an environmental long-range plan based on projected production for an aerospace manufacturing facility Risk Management: Prepared a document to satisfy the General Duty Clause responsibilities for a facility with a small anhydrous ammonia tank stored onsite; completed an Air Dispersion Modeling course to become proficient in modeling for Health Risk Assessments Environmental Emissions Trading: Examined and analyzed five different U.S. emissions trading markets for the sale of greenhouse gas sequestration credits; analyzed the feasibility of a carbon sequestration program for a sustainable forestry project in Central America

Assisted with upgrading the design for a refinery; analyzed the equipment at the refinery for its capabilities in a new refining process Investigated the applicability of a new computer program in modeling the behavior of fluids in pipes