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Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis Staff

The Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA) seeks to guide the transformation of the global energy economy through comprehensive, transdisciplinary research focused on the nexus of energy, finance, and society.

Elizabeth Doris, Ph.D.—Director

Elizabeth Doris is the director of JISEA and has worked in domestic and international energy efficiency and renewable energy policy research for over 20 years. Doris has worked at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) since 2005, most recently serving as the laboratory program manager for NREL's State, Local, and Tribal Program. Doris has spearheaded several large initiatives at the laboratory, including the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project to support remote, island, and islanded communities in transforming their energy systems and increasing energy resilience. Doris also served as the NREL lead of the National Laboratory Directors' Council Community-Engaged Research initiative—a 17-laboratory group that identifies areas where national laboratories can increase mission effectiveness through engaging communities. Most recently, Doris served as senior advisor on energy justice within the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

 
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Debbie Brodt-Giles—Group Manager for Prizes, Networks, and Vouchers

Debbie Brodt-Giles is the Group Manager for Prizes, Networks, and Vouchers within JISEA and NREL. Brodt-Giles manages the American-Made program, a comprehensive prize program dedicated to advancing diverse and inclusive clean energy technology innovation, supported by a robust technical and business network of incubators, accelerators, national labs, and facilities. Brodt-Giles also developed and manages a voucher program, called VELOCITI, that enables innovators to utilize vouchers at national lab facilities, thereby opening the front door of our national labs to innovators across the country.

Her long career at NREL includes many years leading teams that develop leading-edge data-driven software platforms, data accessibility standards, cloud computing practices, data management systems, data visualizations, and modeling solutions. She is excited to continue to grow programming and partnerships that will further advance the clean energy economy, accelerate innovation, speed commercialization, and open opportunities for diverse and inclusive participation.

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Kristin Wegner Guilfoyle—Rural Network Development

Kristin Wegner Guilfoyle joined JISEA as a Project Leader in 2023. In this role, Wegner Guilfoyle uses her over 15 years of project leadership experience to lead the development and implementation of rural research networks.

Before joining JISEA, Wegner Guilfoyle worked at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, leading networks of researchers from diverse communities—including rural/remote communities, Indigenous communities, academic institutions, and industry professionals—to co-create and implement collaborative research agendas at the intersection of the environment, technology, society, and equity and justice. She also consulted for Fortune 500 companies and mentored startups, and was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic, a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in Colombia, and an Energy Fellow through the Colorado Cleantech Industries Association. In her free time, Wegner Guilfoyle chairs a clean tech angel investment committee and enjoys spending time with her husband, two kids, and dog.

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Sarah Gomach—American-Made Prize Program Lead

Sarah Gomach joined NREL in 2019 as a prize leader for the American-Made Challenges program. These prize programs, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, focus on technologies and support needed for the United States to lead the clean energy transition. Gomach leads prizes across a range of industries, including solar, geothermal, direct air capture, utilities, wind, and the incubator/accelerator community. She also works with an ecosystem of national laboratories, universities, accelerators, and industry experts across the United States to support clean tech entrepreneurs and innovators.

Sarah has spent more than a decade focused on different aspects of sustainability. Prior to NREL, she worked in corporate social responsibility, managing the grantmaking portfolio at a corporate foundation and at a leading nonprofit social enterprise as well as managing projects that enabled smallholder farmers to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

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Jared Temanson—Catalyzers Initiative

Jared Temanson joined JISEA as a Project Leader in 2023. In this role, he uses his experience designing and managing RDD&D programs to identify and foster new capabilities across JISEA and its network of university and industry partners.

Temanson started his career in clean energy in 2009 at NREL's Integrated Applications Center. During his eight years at the lab, Temanson supported several key DOE programs and offices, including the Federal Energy Management Program, the Integrated Deployment program, and the Office of Indian Energy. His work focused on supporting communities in defining and deploying appropriate clean energy solutions to address specific environmental and energy security needs. Temanson left the lab to build and lead customer success teams at two smart building startups, building cutting-edge energy efficiency and demand response programs for commercial and institutional real estate customers.

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Nick Langle—Senior Technical Product Manager

Nick Langle is an experienced technical leader in web application development and digital product management. As the technical lead for the American-Made Program and other NREL web projects, Langle advocates for a performance-focused culture, aiming to achieve net-zero goals by minimizing the impacts of the web.

Langle joined NREL in 2010 as a member of the Geospatial Analysis Team and later transitioned to front-end web development. He took on the technical leadership of the American-Made web efforts in 2018 and joined JISEA in 2022. He is known for his expertise in user experience design (UX) and developer experience (DX) and has a track record of delivering industry-recognized, high-performing web applications using a variety of technology stacks. Langle also has rich experience in service management and automation programming, having previously directed service operations and provided technical support for low-voltage automation systems.

Nick Langle

Azine Askarinya—Project Controller

Azine Askarinya joined NREL in 2018 as a business support professional in the Computational Science Center. In 2020, Azine moved to the Center for Integrated Mobility Sciences as a project controller where she provided program-wide support tracking milestones and deliverables, managed project budgets, processed resource allocations, and tracked project finances. Azine furthered her project controller career at the end of 2021 when she joined JISEA. Her responsibilities now include subcontract management, analyzing and monitoring budget health, and organizing a variety of efforts and processes. She is an active member of several employee resource and mentorship groups within NREL and helps run and organize a series of training programs as well.

Azine's background predominantly lies in project management, process improvement, and client relations. Prior to joining NREL, Azine managed project deliverables and contract negotiations in the construction and semi-conductor industries. She is a member of the Women's Energy Network of Colorado, along with the Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainability community. Outside of work, Azine enjoys traveling, learning new languages, painting, and reading.

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