Briggs White, Ph.D., serves as deputy executive director of the Biden Administration’s Interagency Working Group (IWG) on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization. In this role, he works hand in hand with the 11 federal agency members of the IWG to advance its mission. The IWG is identifying and coordinating opportunities to connect energy communities for federal investments to help ensure the shift to a clean energy economy creates good-paying union jobs, spurs economic revitalization, remediates environmental degradation and supports energy workers in coal, oil and gas, and power plant communities. Prior to being appointed deputy executive director, White was central to a multi-agency effort to prepare the IWG’s initial report, which described existing mechanisms and provided recommendations for future actions that could support and revitalize the economies of energy communities.

White joined the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in 2007 and most recently served as a technology manager for three research and development programs, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management: High Performance Materials, Water Management, and Energy Storage. He is currently based out of NETL’s Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, site and worked at NETL’s Morgantown, West Virginia, site from 2007 to 2015. White holds degrees in materials science and engineering from Alfred University (B.S.), the University of Florida (M.S., Ph.D.) and the University of Rome (Ph.D.) with an emphasis on solid-state high-temperature electrochemical devices.