Alan Verbitsky joined the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs as a general engineer in November 2020. Duty-stationed in Alaska, he serves as a senior technical expert, advising the Office and its constituents on the technical ramifications, limitations, and engineering requirements of tribal energy and infrastructure planning and management, project development, capacity building, and costs, as well as the electrification of Indian lands and homes.

Verbitsky’s responsibilities range from conducting policy reviews, studies, and analyses that inform key tribal decisions about tribal energy development projects to coordinating tribal financial and technical assistance programs and activities to supporting tribal energy conferences and training sessions and overseeing tribal energy projects.

Prior to joining the Office of Indian Energy, Verbitsky spent several years as a consulting engineer, working in Canada, China, and the United States.

Verbitsky graduated from North Dakota State University with a Bachelor of Science in electrical and electronic engineering and a concentration in chemical engineering and control theory. Following post-graduate studies and a brief stint in an oil field in the south-central United States, he served as the lead electrical engineer at Minot Air Force Base (MAFB) and also earned his professional engineering license in North Dakota.

After several years at MAFB, he transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Region 7 Headquarters in Anchorage, Alaska. There he served as the lead electrical engineer in the facility design section, which served bush Alaska. During this time, he received his professional engineering license in Alaska.

Verbitsky later transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard Support Center in Kodiak, Alaska, where he was the lead electrical engineer serving Coast Guard facilities in western Alaska and the Aleutian Chain.

After separating from civil service, he became the Director of Engineering and Facilities for the Kodiak Island Borough. After leaving this position, he fished commercially and provided engineering consulting services throughout Alaska and the Russian Far East.

In 2002, he returned to the lower 48, where he worked as the Director of Engineering for SRT Communications in North Dakota, as well as the Facility Manager for the Indian Health Service at the Quentin N Burdick Memorial Health Care Facility on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota.

Verbitsky’s broad and deep electrical engineering expertise and experience have helped advance energy and infrastructure efforts ranging from industrial electrical, geothermal, wind power, and hydroelectric design to municipal water treatment projects to marine and shore facility design, to conventional diesel power generation systems.