Karen Wayland is the Chief Executive Officer of the GridWise Alliance.
Dr. Wayland is Chief Executive Officer of the GridWise Alliance, a coalition of U.S. electricity industry stakeholders focused on building a more secure, reliable, and affordable electrical grid. Wayland’s career in clean energy spans leadership across government and the nonprofit sector. She is an expert in energy and environmental policy and previously served as a senior advisor to former U.S House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Wayland also served as a member of the Senior Executive Service at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). At DOE, Wayland established a team under then-Secretary Ernest Moniz’s office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis to develop strategies for states, local authorities, and Indigenous tribes to analyze emerging state and local policy issues.
Most recently, Wayland was the Executive Director of the Clean Energy Project, a Nevada-based nonprofit that produced the National Clean Energy Summit, which convened business executives, government leaders, investors, and thought leaders around U.S. clean energy development.
