Brown is no exception in this regard. She has published ground-breaking research on the integration of energy efficiency and demand response resources. She directed Oak Ridge National Lab’s efficiency and renewables program and was a two-term presidential appointee to Tennessee Valley Authority’s Board of Directors, where she promoted the concept of energy efficiency as a virtual power plant.

An awards gala was held in Washington, D.C. on September 19, 2019, with more than 400 energy efficiency executives, advocates, and government officials. “We’re honoring the leaders who spurred decades of energy efficiency gains, together with those making aggressive energy-saving advances today,” said ASE President Jason Hartke. “Without these awardees’ leadership, we’d be using and paying for more energy unnecessarily every day.”

Founded in 1977 by Sens. Charles H. Percy (R-Ill.) and Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.), the Alliance to Save Energy was launched following the oil embargo of the 1970’s – a pivotal time in our nation’s history that exposed fundamental weaknesses in our nation’s economic security and challenged us to develop innovate energy solutions. The ASE is a nonprofit, bipartisan alliance of business, government, environmental and consumer leaders with a mission to promote energy productivity worldwide – including through energy efficiency – to achieve a stronger economy, a cleaner environment and greater energy security, affordability and reliability.

The School of Public Policy is a unit of Georgia Tech's Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

This article, originally written by Brent Verrill at the Brooks Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems, has been edited and condensed.