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Staff...
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Lisa Jacobson, President
Lisa Jacobson serves as the President of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy and brings over ten years of experience on the design of environmental and emissions markets. She is the author of numerous publications focusing on greenhouse gas risk management, emissions trading policy and clean energy market development.
Ms. Jacobson served on the California Climate Action Registry Power Sector and Utility Protocol Advisory Committee and has advised states and federal policymakers on the incorporation of clean energy and energy efficiency into market-based emissions programs.
Prior to her position with the Council, Ms. Jacobson was a legislative aide to the U.S. Congress; received a Masters in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science; and a Bachelors degree in Political Science from the University of Vermont.
Ms. Jacobson lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with her husband Chris Jones and their children.
Ruth McCormick, Senior Policy Associate
Ruth McCormick serves as the Senior Policy Associate for the Council's State and Federal Policy Programs. Ms. McCormick brings to the Council over twenty years of experience in energy and environmental issues before Congress and the Western states. Having worked as a congressional legislative aide and legislative director from 1983 to 1990, she was active in House Energy & Commerce Committee issues, including the development of critical clean air laws.
Upon leaving Capitol Hill, she led the Western Regional Council's coalition of businesses through the implementation of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, including the evolution and adoption of EPA's regional haze regulations. She participated in the work of the Grand Canyon Visibility Transport Commission and the Western Regional Air Partnership. Ruth comes to the Council with direct experience in leading business coalitions on complex and dynamic energy and environmental issues, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act, among others. She enjoys working on behalf of clean energy industries, especially at this formative time.
Ruth lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her husband and three children.
Rebecca K. Blood, Senior Policy Advisor
Rebecca Blood serves as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Council. She has more than thirty years of public policy, legislative and regulatory experience at the local, state, and federal levels of government, with expertise in energy and environmental issues.
For nearly 14 years Ms. Blood worked at the American Public Power Association (APPA), the national service organization representing the interests of the nation's not for-profit state and locally-owned electric utilities. She served most recently as a Senior Policy Advisor, focusing on utility restructuring, renewable energy, energy conservation, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, hydropower licensing reform, and global climate change issues. She participated in climate change negotiations with industry and the executive branch and managed various task forces on hydropower, air quality and renewable issues. She also directed APPA's Policy Makers' Council consisting of locally-elected officials and mayors from public power member communities.
Ms. Blood was graduated from the George Washington University in 1986 with a M.P.A. in legislative and regulatory affairs and from Michigan State University in 1979 with a B.A. in political science. In addition to her consulting business, Ms. Blood currently teaches a government class through the Arlington County Public Schools, Adult Enrichment program.
Laura Tierney, Senior Policy Associate
Laura Tierney serves as a Senior Policy Associate for the Council's International Policy programs and other initiatives. Ms. Tierney holds a Masters of International Environmental Policy and China from the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) at the University of California, San Diego; and an undergraduate degree in Asian Studies from Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. She is conversationally proficient in Mandarin Chinese, and has done development work in Mexico, the Philippines and China.
Jack Thirolf, Policy Associate
Jack Thirolf works as a policy associate for the Council, focusing on Federal legislative initiatives, member coordination, and policy research. From 2006 until 2008, Mr. Thirolf was a lecturer at Kiên Giang Community College in Rạch Giá, Vietnam. He completed his coursework in comparative literature at Princeton University in 2006 and plans to submit his thesis, “Hidden in Plain Sight,” a historical-literary analysis of the works of Machado de Assis, shortly. Along with his degree, Mr. Thirolf also will receive certificates in Judaic studies and Spanish and Portuguese languages. He serves on the Board of the Cần Thơ Youth Empowerment Program, an orphanage education initiative for which he was previously in-country director.
