Women of Water Power

Marisol Bonnet is a contractor engineer with DOE's Hydropower Program where she manages laboratory and industry projects in the Technology Development portfolio. Marisol has a bachelor's degree in environmental engineering from the City College of New York, and is originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Andrea Copping leads a group applying risk-based approaches to evaluate any potential environmental effects of marine energy and offshore wind, to facilitate establishing these industries responsibly in the United States and internationally. Andrea also leads efforts at PNNL on providing power to the blue economy from marine energy, through a series of end uses remote from national electricity grids. She is a Distinguished Faculty Fellow at the University of Washington, working with graduate students and faculty on renewable energy and climate change.

Elise is a project lead in the wind deployment team and currently leads the Collegiate Wind Competition project. Elise also manages NREL's role in the Fishermen's Atlantic City Windfarm, one of the first proposed offshore wind projects in the United States. She also supports several projects within the Wind and Water Power Program's environmental and hydropower portfolio. Prior to these roles, Elise supported the Wind and Water Power Program team as a program integrator, helping to manage and execute NREL's more than $50 million program. Her expertise is in planning, analysis, and project management. Prior to joining NREL, Elise worked for 17 years at a global environmental consulting firm, MWH, where she worked on municipal engineering assignments across the project lifecycle. She also worked on management consulting assignments in sustainability assessment, asset, management, and organizational network analysis.

Genevra Harker-Klimes leads the Triton Initiative, a capability set up by DOE to support the development of environmental technologies specifically for studies around marine renewable energy devices. She joined PNNL in 2015, having been an environmental consultant for renewable energy in Europe for the previous 13 years. Prior to that, she worked for an oceanographic survey company taking offshore measurements for numerous projects around the world (usually in high seas!). She has a PhD and MSc in physical oceanography from Bangor University, Wales, and a BSc in physical geography from the University of Sheffield, England. She is also studying for an LLM in Energy Law and Policy, from the University of Dundee, Scotland.

After her job as Program Manager of DOE’s Marine and Hydrokinetic Technology Program, Alison LaBonte became a supervisor at the California Public Utilities Commission. She is working to meet California’s aggressive climate goals and reduce hardships for vulnerable populations by securing the growth and value of residential energy efficiency.

Dana McCoskey is a contractor supporting DOE’s Water Power Technologies Office’s Hydropower and Marine Energy Programs where she manages laboratory and industry environmental research projects. Dana has degrees in Zoology from Portland State University and in Environmental Science and Public Policy from George Mason University, and is fascinated by animal migrations.

Lauren's focus is on Marine Renewable Energy and she manages research and development projects pertaining to materials development, performance metrics, and in-water device testing. Prior to joining DOE in 2017, Lauren worked as a civilian Naval Architect for the U.S. Navy at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division where she supported surface ship acquisition and in-service programs. Lauren holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from the University of Michigan and a Master of Science in Engineering Management from George Washington University.