Katie Jereza is Vice President, Corporate Affairs for the Electric Power Research Institute, providing executive direction and leadership for EPRI's external stakeholder relations, and for communications in support of member engagement, marketing, media relations and technical products.

She brings to EPRI more than 25 years in the energy, water and manufacturing industries, and in the public sector. Most recently she led the U.S. Department of Energy policy and technology team responsible for Transmission Permitting and Technical Assistance in the department’s Office of Electricity. She served as a key leader in expanding and diversifying the office’s Electricity Advisory Council, with responsibility for aligning research with clear benefits to the public.

Prior to that she was Director, Infrastructure Resilience for the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), where she led initiatives supporting the North American Cyber Mutual Assistance Program, working closely with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to enhance the delivery of information regarding potential threats. She was also instrumental in deploying EEI's Smarter Energy Infrastructure Initiative.

As a director for McLeod Group she worked with CEOs of U.S. utilities in developing recommendations to enhance the capabilities of the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center, with emphasis on gathering and analyzing intelligence regarding threats to the electricity sector.

She served as Program Director, Strategic Initiatives for Energetics, which provides technology and management services in energy, manufacturing, climate and environment, infrastructure protection, security and resilience, and metrology. Her professional experience also includes the Maryland Department of Environment, GE Water and Process Technologies, and Lincoln Electric Company.

Jereza earned a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and a Master of Business Administration from Loyola University Maryland.

Ms. Uwera Rutagarama has over 18 years of technical experience in the field of mining and renewable energy projects and has been involved in Lake Kivu methane gas project and in the initiation and development of geothermal programme as well as in the management of grid extension projects. She holds a Master degree in Metallurgy from the University of Pretoria, SA and a MSC degree in reservoir engineering from the University of Iceland. Currently, Ms. Rutagarama is the Director of the department of Primary and Social Energies Development dealing mainly with off grid and clean cooking sector development at Rwanda Energy Group. She is a member of the Board of Directors of a local private energy company, a member of the Steering Committee of the African Geothermal Development Programme (ARGeo) and a member of the Steering Committee for the establishment of the Africa Geothermal Centre of Excellence. Ms. Rutagarama also holds membership in Women in Geothermal Energy (WING), Africa branch and Women in Rwanda Energy (WIRE).