Sherry Stout Takes the Lead as State, Local, Tribal Program Manager

June 17, 2022 by Kerrin Jeromin

Long-time NREL research engineer, Sherry Stout becomes the new laboratory program manager for NREL's State, Local, and Tribal Program.

Her love for engineering came early in life. As a kid who always loved Legos, problem solving, and creating to solve challenges, Stout knew engineering was the right choice when she went to college.

While studying environmental and sustainability engineering at the University of Colorado, Stout took an internship at NREL working on water projects, where she discovered her love of the energy/water nexus and where the two intersect.

"I also fell in love with NREL, its mission, and working with stakeholders on the state, local, national, and Tribal level," said Stout, in a 2019 NREL profile article.

Stout officially joined NREL in 2013 and has led a variety of community- and place-based research efforts. Most recently, she worked as the Arctic strategic program manager and senior research engineer at NREL's Cold Climate Housing Research Center. Her research primarily focuses on resilient energy transitions at multiple jurisdictional scales. This includes leading climate change resilience assessments; integrated energy transition analysis and planning in rural, remote, and islanded communities; and researching the interaction of social science and infrastructure resilience.

"I've enjoyed translating the value of technical tools to a decision-maker and helping them understand why these high-tech tools matter and what they mean to them. I'm so excited to step into this new leadership role for the program," said Stout.

Stout has built and/or led multiple technical assistance programs and projects at NREL to serve a diverse range of needs and stakeholders, ranging from American Indian Tribes and Alaska Native Villages to international governments and federal agencies.

She is most proud of her work with communities to develop energy and resilience roadmaps to enable energy transition that meets broader community goals such as economic development, Tribal energy sovereignty, and environmental justice.

Stout has special interests in energy equity; integrated climate change and energy transition planning in rural, remote, and islanded communities across the energy/food/water nexus; climate and disaster recovery, risk assessment, and resilience planning; and distributed generation for rural electrification and energy resilience.

"This program means a lot to me, and I'm excited to see unprecedented growth in the program and our capabilities in the lab offering world-class collaboration, tools, resources, and analysis support to communities in need of clean energy support," said Stout.

Read more about Stout in her research bio.