Organization: 
Stephen Atha Consulting, LLC

Steve Atha is a retired attorney who spent most of his 40+ year career in various business operating roles and industries. He has a background in government contracting with federal agencies, including General Services Admin., US Forest Service and DOD (Defense Logistics Agency), railroad services, printing and packaging, bulk materials handling, river barge terminal operations, private equity, acquisitions and divestitures. He started a business providing logistical services to purchasers of ores and minerals from the Defense Strategic Materials Stockpile program, mostly international trading companies and end users. The materials included: manganese, bauxite, copper, tin, asbestos, chromium, lead, tannin, crude rubber and several other commodities including rare earth elements and monazite sand. 

In the last ten years he has worked as an independent buy-side “finder” (intermediary) working under consulting contracts with a few private equity funds and some closely held family corporations. He is a shareholder and currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Critical Materials, LLC, an affiliate of Great Plains Partners Venture Group, LLC, which is engaged in bringing venture capital solutions to the commercialization of technology. Steve is a graduate of Washburn University and Washburn University School of Law. In 2004 he was admitted to the US Supreme Court.

Job Title: 
Senior Director of Research
Organization: 
University of Wyoming - School of Energy Resources

Scott Quillinan is the Senior Director of Research at the School of Energy Resources, University of Wyoming. Quillinan has been with the School of Energy Resources since 2012 and has held various leadership roles, including Director of the Center for Economic Geology Research, Director of Operations, and Senior Research Scientist. In his current role he is responsible for increasing campus-wide faculty engagement in energy research activities, organizing interdisciplinary teams on research topics, managing and maintaining a diversified sponsored research portfolio, administering private and state funded research programs focused on energy.

With 15 years of experience, Scott has broad experience is subsurface R&D in university research, energy consultancy and with a geologic survey. Scott holds a B.S. and M.S. degree in Geology from the University of Wyoming and is a licensed professional geologist. Scott focuses his research interests on the energy transition and thoughtful approaches to decarbonize fossil fuel energy systems where he has secured and managed over $60M in research contracts over his professional career ranging from small seed funding to large-scale field demonstration projects through the Department of Energy. Scott’s current programs include Wyoming CarbonSAFE (a commercial-scale CO2 geologic storage project at a coal-fired power plant), exploration and production of rare earth elements and critical materials, and identifying low-carbon approaches to traditional energy resource development in the U.S and China. Scott co-chaired the Center of Advanced Energy Studies’-Innovative Energy Systems Work Group housed at Idaho National Laboratories, is Wyoming’s Chair for the Intermountain West Energy Sustainability & Transitions (I-WEST) housed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and is a faculty member for the Department of Energy Program-Research Experience in Carbon Storage.

Profile Type: 
Speaker
June 29th, 2022
The electric utility industry is roiled by supply chain chaos. Across the industry, there are tales of operation and maintenance delays, shortage-induced rescheduling, and crews standing idle, waiting for materials as conventional as bolts.
Job Title: 
Management and Program Analyst
Organization: 
U.S. DOE - Office of Fossil Energy & Carbon Management

Holly Buck is a Management and Program Analyst in the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. She is on leave from the University at Buffalo, where she is an Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability. She holds a Ph.D in Development Sociology from Cornell University.

Profile Type: 
Speaker
Job Title: 
Senior Transportation Policy Analyst
Organization: 
Colorado Energy Office

In her role as Senior Transportation Policy Analyst for the Colorado Energy Office, Maria develops and evaluates policy and studies on clean fuels and zero emission vehicles and technologies.  She serves as chair of the Colorado Electric Vehicle Coalition and its Policy and EV Equity subgroups.  She represented the office in the development of the Western Inter-States Hydrogen Hub with three other western states.  She was also lead in the development of the 2021 Colorado Low-Carbon Hydrogen Roadmap and 2020 Colorado Electric Vehicle Plan.  Prior to her employment at the Colorado Energy Office, Maria was Coordinator Northern Colorado Clean Cities a US Department of Energy Resource.  She also spent 7 years at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington DC in the Office of Compliance working on air regulatory issues, rulemakings, and voluntary compliance incentives.

Job Title: 
Program Manager, Energy
Organization: 
India Climate Collaborative

Shweta Srinivasan is the Energy Program Manager at the India Climate Collaborative (ICC), where she anchors the India Just Transition Programme with a focus on transition impacts on the coal ecosystem, mobility sector, and land-use sector. The ICC is a first-of-its-kind, India-led, and India-focused collective of business and philanthropy working to accelerate climate action in India. Shweta is a climate change researcher and sustainability professional with 10 years of experience in technology, and policy aspects of the energy and environment sectors.

Shweta has a postgraduation in science and development studies from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. Her prior professional stint was at the Center of Science, Technology, and Policy (CSTEP), a leading Indian think-tank where she led CSTEP’s low carbon pathways team on several projects to inform low carbon policy at the national and state level since 2012.

Job Title: 
Senior Principal Attorney
Organization: 
Salt River Project

Karilee is Senior Principal Attorney with the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District (SRP), one of the largest public power utilities in the United States. SRP serves more than one million residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, and mining customers in Arizona. 

Karilee has practiced in the public utility industry for more than 25 years, with an emphasis on public utility regulation and environmental and natural resources law. Her legal practice includes both regulatory compliance and complex commercial and environmental litigation. Karilee currently supports SRP’s power system – both generation and transmission – on a wide array of issues including providing legal guidance on regulatory matters related to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Arizona Corporation Commission, and electric reliability. She also provides legal guidance relating to co-owned generation and transmission projects and on power plant and transmission line siting.

Karilee is active in several organizations. She is a member of the Energy Bar Association, American Public Power Association, and the Association of Women in Water, Energy & Environment, and has represented SRP on several industry committees. Karilee also is active in the community and currently serves on the boards for Child Crisis Arizona and the Desert Mission Food Bank. 

Before joining SRP in 2007, Karilee worked in private practice and as in-house counsel at other companies. She received her Juris Doctorate, Masters of Science in Finance, and Bachelor of Science degrees from the University of Arizona.  She is a member of the Arizona bar association.

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