Jennifer Garson Email & Phone Number

Washington, Dc, Us

Serve as the Executive Director of the Sustainable Maritime Coalition, focused on increasing attention and support of the federal government for funding and incentives to support the U.S transition to a decarbonized maritime sector.

Washington, Dc, Us

Leads BSP’s government funding practice focused on nondilutive funding mechanisms. Navigating federal funding can be complex, and our federal funding practice includes supporting landscape assessments and federal funding access support for applicants. The team leverages expertise and understand of federal funding. In addition to tailored federal funding support, provides insight and support for clients on innovation policy development, like examining how agency reform for internal policies can support climate and clean energy innovation. This also includes working with policymakers on strengthening the innovation ecosystem that is critical to startup success.

Washington, Dc, Us

Served as the Director for the Water Power Technologies Office. Responsible for overseeing the management and execution of the research, development, demonstration and deployment portfolio, which consists of the hydropower and marine energy subprograms. Worked with executive leadership in EERE and DOE to ensure that Water Power programs and activities align with Administration goals and objectives. Led efforts to grow office by doubling funding, and growing staff by more than 50%. Served as agency-wide Energy-Water Nexus lead, as Ocean Policy Council representative, and crafted blue economy strategies.

Washington, Dc, Us

Served as a senior advisor in the Water Power Technologies Office at the U.S. Department of Energy, including leading the Powering the Blue Economy initiative. Portfolio is focused on creating and managing competitive funding solicitations aimed at maturing both marine energy and hydropower technology innovation. This included developing and launched prizes, lab projects, and funding solicitations. The Powering the Blue Economy Initiative formally launched out of the Water Power Technologies Office in 2019. Built out of an analytically-driven process focused on near-term end-user needs to understand the potential for using marine energy within the blue economy, the program is strategically growing a portfolio of investments to accelerate development and deployment of marine energy technologies. Investments in the portfolio include supporting foundational research, access and upgrades to testing assets, entrepreneurial ecosystem development, and fostering the partnerships with government and private sector end-users needed for successful development and adoption of marine energy systems that power the blue economy.

Washington, Dc, Us

Served as the Chief of Staff to the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Renewable Power in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Advised on operations, communications, strategic planning, budget and execution activities for renewable power sector of EERE. Portfolio includes the Solar Energy, Wind Energy, Water Power, and Geothermal Technologies Offices.

Washington, Dc, Us

Served as the Senior Advisor for Open Innovation in the Office of Technology Transitions. The mission of the Office is to expand the commercial impact of DOE’s portfolio of research, development, demonstration, and deployment activities over the short, medium, and long term. Supported agency-wide use of prizes, challenges, and other open innovation tools to advance the commercial impact of DOE's and the National Labotories' RDD&D. Advised on topics related to entrepreneurship, early-stage commercialization, and worked with key stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem, including accelerators and incubators.

Washington, Dc, Us

Served as an advisor on detail in the DOE's Office of Technology Transitions (OTT), focused on supporting the agency's approaches to increasing the commercial impact of DOE's investments in energy and national security technologies. Advised and supported the office by drafting the Secretary's Technology Transitions Policy Statement, crafting a strategy for the role of OTT for supporting the use of prizes and challenges to incentivize open innovation, and working with the Clean Energy Investment Center on opportunities to connect with the innovation ecosystem. Worked with the team supporting the execution of the Technology Commercialization Fund, a $20M annual fund aimed at transitioning DOE National Laboratory developed technology into the market through targeted funding and strategic partnerships.

Washington, Dc, Us

Served as a program manager in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Technology to Market team, a crosscutting office bridging clean energy technologies from research institutions into early markets across energy efficiency, renewable power, and sustainable transportation sectors. Led and coordinated the design of new models to support entrepreneurs and attract new forms of investment into early stage companies in clean energy. Managed and developed more than $25 million in grant programs, focused on developing networks and programs to support entrepreneurs developing clean energy solutions. Programs included: Innovation Ecosystem Initiative, i6 Green Challenge, National Incubator Initiative for Clean Energy, National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition, Cleantech University Prize. Programs under management have seen more than a 40:1 ROI; supported hundreds of startups; resulted in new coalitions between private, public and nonprofit partners; and demonstrated new models to spur economic development. Awardees include novel clean energy incubators and accelerators, university business competitions, and regional ecosystems. Supported DOE and other agencies' initiatives in entrepreneurship, including prize programs, serve as a grant reviewer, and serve on the working group for the Clean Energy Investment Center – a program seeking to mobilize impact investors in clean energy.

Washington, Dc, Us

Served as a policy and budget analyst for a large portfolio focused on applied energy programs for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer. Primary areas of concentration included grid and efficiency portfolios. Responsible for providing comprehensive public and private sector analysis on clean energy and grid-related technologies.Supported the annual budget process for the DOE, including cross-program analysis on technology portfolios, providing mandatory and private sector spending analysis for comparison with the portfolio, and other analysis as needed. Created a database of all DOE RD&D spending across a six-year time horizon, which informed other analyses released by DOE.Served as the CFO representative on the Undersecretary for Energy’s Grid Tech Team, an intra-agency working group tasked at developing R&D and policy roadmaps for the DOE. Led a project-level analysis of all grid activities across the major offices, including OE, EERE and ARPA-e, focused on grid. Additionally, developed market analysis on electric-grid related technologies, including grid-scale energy storage in support of the Undersecretary and the Chief Financial Officer.Developed public policy analysis for the Office of Chief Financial Officer on relevant tax subsidies, Recovery Act incentives, and other policy proposals in the President’s Executive Budget and on Capitol Hill. Research included overseeing an analysis of federal government expenditures on energy, including mandatory, discretionary and procurement funding.

Columbia, Maryland, Us

Served in the Department of Energy Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (DOE OE), conducting policy analysis on topics of electric transmission, smart grid, and other electricity policies, and supporting program execution. Coordinated various DOE OE programs, including: the Federal Smart Grid Task Force; the planning of the Multi-Year Program Plan for the Office of Electricity Smart Grid Research & Development program; the Smart Grid Investment Grid program; and coordination of smart grid activities within DOE OE.Served as a reviewer, and helped to coordinate review of, the $3.2 billion Recovery Act DOE Smart Grid Investment Grant Program; tasked with the project execution of the Investment Grant Program.Organized and developed the 2009 and 2010 National Electricity Forum, a joint Department of Energy and National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners forum. Work outside of the DOE included providing consulting for the World Bank Global Environmental Facility and their climate adaptation planning efforts.

Researched and analyzed topics in climate change, biofuels, and federal and state renewable energy policies & practices. Analyzed and mapped out federal grant programs pertaining to renewable energy. Contributed to, edited, compiled, and circulated daily report distributed to clients and consultants consisting of news pertaining to energy policy, carbon markets, renewable energy, and biofuels. Supported senior executives at the consulting company.

Washington, District Of Columbia, Us

Supported a team of attorneys, including document preparation and review.

Mpp, Environmental Policy

Ba, Anthropology, Environmental Studies