FERC Chairman Willie Phillips today announced Nicole Sitaraman will be acting director of the Commission’s Office of Public Participation (OPP). She will succeed Elin Katz, who has served as the inaugural director of OPP since its formation in 2021 but will depart the Commission March 3.
“We are sorry to see Elin Katz leave the Commission, but her legacy will live on with an Office of Public Participation that has accomplished a great deal to establish dialogue and credibility with people and entities in its mission to empower, promote and support public voices at FERC,” Chairman Phillips said. “We cannot thank her enough for her federal service.”
Sitaraman, who joined FERC as Deputy Director of OPP in February 2022, worked closely with Katz to establish OPP and get its programs running.
“Nicole is a brilliant and dedicated leader who understands how vital it is to broaden the public’s access to and understanding of the FERC process,” Phillips said. “The decisions we make as a Commission will be much stronger for it.”
Sitaraman has significant experience in clean energy policy, environmental justice, consumer advocacy and stakeholder engagement. Before joining FERC, she served as Vice President of External Affairs and Policy at Sustainable Capital Advisors. Prior to that, she served as Senior Manager of Public Policy at Sunrun, Inc. Sitaraman also served as an Assistant People’s Counsel in the Office of the People’s Counsel for the District of Columbia.
Sitaraman is a member of the District of Columbia Commission on Climate Change and Resilience, and she is an advisory board member at the Yale Center for Business and Environment.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University, and has a Juris Doctor from Boston University School of Law.
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