Speaker Bios

Regional and National SEM Program Successes Session Speakers

Giselle Procaccianti

Giselle Procaccianti is the Technology & Market Solutions Manager at NEEP. She focuses on the development, implementation, and tracking of regional strategies to accelerate the adoption of strategic energy management (SEM) practices, smart energy homes and buildings and variable refrigerant flow (VRF) technology. Prior to joining NEEP, Giselle served as the first Director of Energy, Technology, and Management at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and an energy program manager at Draper. Giselle holds a Bachelor of Science degree in environmental physics and analytical chemistry and a Master’s degree in environmental engineering from the University of the West Indies.

Assigning a Measure of Life to SEM Program Savings Session Speakers

	Layne McWilliams Layne started his career on the jobsite of a large wastewater construction project and was involved in the design and construction of water and wastewater infrastructure for 15 years. For the past 10 years, he’s worked at Cascade Energy trying to atone for the energy sins he committed as a designer. As part of that effort, he spends a good deal of time helping water and wastewater systems through strategic energy management engagements.
	Jess Burgess Jess Burgess is a technical expert with Econoler in Montreal, where he supports US and Canadian DSM program administrators with their portfolio planning and evaluation. Prior to Econoler, Jess launched and led the Strategic Energy Management Initiative and the Commercial Whole Building Performance Committee at the Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE).
	Erika Kociolek Erika Kociolek is an Evaluation Sr. Project Manager at Energy Trust of Oregon, and has been with Energy Trust since 2011. While at Energy Trust, Erika has worked on a myriad of evaluation, market research, and data projects spanning the residential, commercial, industrial, and renewable sectors. Erika has managed a wide variety of evaluation and research projects related to Energy Trust’s industrial sector, including its industrial SEM offerings.
	Derek M. Okada Derek Okada is a Senior Manager with SCE’s Energy Efficiency (EE) Products team and currently oversees a team of program managers responsible for serving the Commercial, Industrial, Agricultural, and Public sectors and customer financing offerings including On-Bill Financing and new finance pilots. Derek formerly worked for the Los Angeles Times/Tribune Company, Ingram Micro, Toyota Motor Sales, USA and Arthur Andersen LLP and has a Bachelor of Arts degree from UCLA and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Chicago. Derek has worked for SCE for the past 12 years.
	Peter Therkelsen His work focuses on understanding how organizations create and use energy management systems to achieve energy performance, GHG, and other economic objectives. He has developed multiple SEM program designs and M&V guides, participated in SEM program evaluations, and is a leader of US engagement with the international committee responsible for ISO 50001.

Emerging SEM Opportunities Session Speakers

	Rory Schmick Rory is Stillwater Energy's client operations lead, ensuring successful delivery of Strategic Energy Management (SEM) programs to utility clients throughout North America. Rory has over fifteen years of experience in sustainability and energy management, including several years spent as an executive energy program sponsor at a major food processing manufacturer. There, Rory supported SEM implementation through the development and coaching of energy champions. Rory holds a B.A. in Geography from University of Colorado.
	Marie Abdou Marie Abdou has worked at National Grid since 2009, focusing exclusively on Massachusetts energy efficiency. Marie is the manager of the Massachusetts Customer Energy Management team, which helps customers meet their energy needs through energy efficiency, demand reduction, and beneficial electrification offerings. She has in-depth experience with planning and regulatory processes, benefit-cost modeling, and performance incentive models. Prior to National Grid, Marie spent two years working at ISO-NE in internal market monitoring. Marie received her MBA from Bentley University and graduated from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
	Zoe Dawson Zoë has 13+ years of experience in optimizing energy use among commercial and industrial customers across the Northeast. She is a project and program manager who leads stakeholder engagement, market research, and commercial program design for VEIC customers and clients. Within New York State, she is a senior advisor and key contributor to many NYSERDA initiatives, most recently NYSERDA’s Pay for Performance Pilot, the Flexible Technical Assistance (FlecTech) Program, the Strategic Energy Management (SEM) Program, and the efficient snowgun incentive program. She also supported the design and delivery of the National Grid Energy Treasure Hunt Pilot, and has also led the collaborative stakeholder engagement for Missouri’s first statewide Technical Reference Manual, including the technical review of all prescriptive measures and policy and evaluation impacts.
	Katie Dooley Katie Dooley works at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) in the Industrial and Agriculture Team. Presently, she is responsible for managing the Strategic Energy Management (SEM) program under New York’s Clean Energy Fund. This program consists of a range of SEM program offerings including cohorts, an SEM on demand option, and isolated virtual treasure hunt events. In addition to her work on SEM, Katie has managed projects under the Industrial and Process Efficiency Program, Industrial FlexTech program, the Cleaner Greener Communities Program, and PV Incentive Program during her time at NYSERDA. Katie has a B.A. in Political Science from the State University of New York at Albany, and a M.B.A. in Sustainable Business from Marylhurst University.
	Jason Snyder Jason Snyder is a Manager within TVA’s EnergyRight for Business and Industry Team where he primarily focuses on leading efforts toward transformational impacts with Local Power Company consumers. Prior to this assignment Jason served as a Senior Program Manager, leading up the innovation efforts with the team he now managers and prior to that as a Power Utilization Engineer within TVA’s Customer Delivery team where he performed detailed energy audits for local power companies’ (LPCs) end-use customers. More recently, Jason has been focusing on the roll out of a digital customer engagement platform and strategic energy management initiatives to create opportunities for local power companies (LPCs) to experience deeper customer interactions with business and industry customers.