Unlocking a GEBs Future: Accelerating Coordinated Utility Programs: A Practitioners’ Perspectives Series

As Director, Strategic Projects, Research & Industry Strategy, Kate works across SEPA’s research portfolio and with SEPA’s members to identify key strategies and opportunities to advance a clean, affordable, and resilient energy system for all. In 2024, Kate was on detail to the Biden-Harris White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Office of the Federal Chief Sustainability Officer (OCSO), serving as the Deputy Director, Clean Energy.

Kate has a master’s degree from John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in International Relations & Economics, with a concentration in Energy, Resources & Environment, and graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College, Columbia University. She lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Ann Rendahl was appointed by Gov. Inslee in December 2014. She previously was the Director of Policy and Legislation for the UTC. 

Prior to leading the UTC’s Policy and Legislative Affairs Section, Ann served as the Director of the Administrative Law Division, as an administrative law judge for the UTC, and as an assistant attorney general representing the Utilities and Transportation Division. 

Ann currently serves on the Electricity and Critical Infrastructure Committees for the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC). She recently served as co-chair of NARUC’s Task Force on Transportation, focusing on railroad safety issues.   She serves as the vice-chair of the Body of State Regulators for the California ISO’s Energy Imbalance Market, having served as the chair from 2015 to 2017, and serves as a voting member of the EIM Nominating Committee. Ann also serves as the chair of the Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System (WREGIS) Committee.

Ann is a graduate of Wellesley College and received a master’s degree in Public Policy from the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. She received her law degree from Hastings College of the Law, University of California, San Francisco.

Jocelyn Durkay is the Manager of Regulatory Affairs in the Policy Unit at the Colorado Energy Office, where she has been employed since January 2018. In her current role, she helps fulfill the Office’s mission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and consumer energy costs by advancing clean energy, energy efficiency and zero emission vehicles to benefit all Coloradans. Jocelyn supports the Office’s regulatory strategies before the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, manages the day-to-day operations of CEO’s regulatory staff, and facilitates the Office’s approach to regulatory strategy development.

In her time at CEO, Jocelyn has contributed to the Office’s regulatory strategy in Commission proceedings concerning performance incentive mechanisms, electric resource planning, demand side management, renewable energy plans and rules, interconnection, gas infrastructure planning, electric and gas utility decarbonization, electricity markets, transportation and building electrification, utility line extensions, and other topics. She has previously served as a Senior Regulatory Analyst in the Policy Unit at CEO and a Policy Analyst in the Low-Income and Residential Energy Services Unit.

Previously, Jocelyn was a member of the Energy Program at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) for five years, which is the nation’s largest bipartisan policy research organization for state legislatures. At NCSL, Jocelyn provided technical assistance on legislative actions and state programs, authored numerous publications and reports, and has presented on state perspectives and trends in energy policy before various audiences. Jocelyn holds a Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College and a Master of Social Work from the University of Denver.