About Us
Our Mission
The Illinois Science and Energy Innovation Foundation (ISEIF) was created through state legislation to inform and engage Illinois consumers in the transformation to a digital electric grid. ISEIF accomplishes this through funding innovative education, outreach, and research projects to increase energy literacy.
Our mission is to empower a community of organizations to ensure all Illinois residents are educated on and included in the benefits of cleaner, smarter, and more efficient energy use.
ISEIF’s Community of Practice
A community of practice is a group of people who work in a shared domain, share a concern or a passion for something they do, and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. It’s bound together through relationships, trust, history, and commitments. It shares tools, resources, and ways of doing and approaching things that are shared among community members.
Our community of practice is comprised of our grantees who represent a range of engagement approaches connected to amplifying the benefits of the smart grid to people. Two overlapping cohorts of organizations meet regularly, share approaches and tools, connect each other, and ultimately play a role in advancing the shared agenda of furthering energy literacy. The success of the smart grid will depend in part on consumers taking a more proactive role in managing their energy use—our community of practice is working on creative and inclusive ways to achieve that.
Background
In 2011, the Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act set the stage for Illinois to make a significant investment in modernizing its outdated electric infrastructure. These physical investments created a statewide smart grid that is more reliable and efficient, and delivers economic and environmental benefits to consumers in the form of more energy choices and new technology, including clean energy resources. One of the key building blocks for creating a smart electricity network is the smart meter. Illinois’ deployment of nearly five million smart meters represents a landmark effort – it is one of the largest and most comprehensive statewide plans for grid modernization in the nation.
Through our consumer education initiatives, ISEIF has fostered positive change for Illinois consumers. The fund has centered education and increased energy literacy initiatives in low-income communities, rural areas, and amongst seniors and people with disabilities. The majority of our funding is applied towards reaching these groups with attention to their specific engagement needs and sensitivities. We work closely with our grantee organizations on planning, strategy and collaborations so that all Illinois residents are educated and ready to take part in the benefits of advanced and clean energy technology.
ISEIF was created in the 2011 Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act as a private not-for-profit organization, funded by ComEd and Ameren to help consumers understand and harness the benefits of a more modern, efficient electric grid. The fund is on schedule to sunset in 2023.
Team
Management
Jason is Executive Director of ISEIF, and CEO and Managing Director of Energy Foundry, where he sets the firm’s vision, leads its investment activities, and advises its entrepreneurs. Jason is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he teaches energy and cleantech entrepreneurship.
He a Board member of multiple companies and is on the Advisory Boards of a number of leading industry organizations and co-led the effort to create Coalition: Energy, Illinois’ hub for Energy & Cleantech Innovation.
Prior to co-founding Energy Foundry, Jason co-founded Energy Results, where he was the company’s CEO. At Energy Results he built a leading residential energy business, which gained market traction and was adopted by industry leaders such as Best Buy. Before co-founding Energy Results, Jason worked at McKinsey & Co. where he was a member of the firm’s Energy & Climate Change leadership teams.
Earlier in his career, Jason worked for the CEO of GVW Holdings, an industrial and transportation platform of The Carlyle Group, where he led direct investments and was an active Board Member of GVW’s portfolio companies. Prior to working with GVW, Jason served as Vice President of Corporate Development at The Interpublic Group. Jason’s other experience include working for Sterling Partners and the Transaction Advisory Group at Arthur Andersen.
Jason is a frequent speaker at industry events on energy, cleantech and smart grid. He and his work have been featured in numerous media outlets (TV, Print & Radio) including NBC, New York Times. Entrepreneur, PBS, Forbes, Crain’s, Chicago Tribune, Greentech Media, INC and Bangkok Post. He was named by NBC as one of Chicago’s top “Eco-preneurs”, MwEN 40 under 40 and WGN as their “Entrepreneur of the Week”.
He received a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he received the Dean’s Award of Distinction and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Michigan State University.
Uzma implements ISEIF's grantmaking strategy, manages the grant portfolio, finds collaborative opportunities within the grantee network, and cultivates new grantees.
Uzma began her career working for and later managing her family’s financial services business, which served the mainly unbanked and underbanked South Asian community in Chicago. Upon leaving the family business, she pivoted to the environmental nonprofit sector where she developed and taught sustainability and design-focused education programs at Foresight Design Initiative. She designed curricula incorporating systems thinking and design-based approaches for high school, college, and corporate students.
Uzma is a proud native of Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood - one of the most ethnically diverse in the country. She attended Von Steuben Metropolitan High School in Albany Park, graduated with a B.A. in Philosophy from DePaul University and an M.A. in Public Policy and Administration from Northwestern University. She was selected as a Boren fellow to study Arabic and political theory at The American University in Cairo, Egypt. Uzma previously served on the Advisory Council for Environmentalists of Color and on Storycatchers Theater's Board of Directors.Daniela works closely with ISEIF’s Program Director. She tracks grantee compliance and performance benchmarks, processes and manages organizational data, leads ISEIF’s communications, and reviews grant applications.
Daniela’s career began in ecological research when she moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan to work as a Research Technician at the Kellogg Biological Station. She led field sampling events, collected and analyzed samples, and organized and analyzed data on a D.O.E. funded project focused on understanding the nitrogen cycle of perennial grasses used for biofuels. She later moved back to Chicago and began working at Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation as a Program Assistant for Natural Areas and Energy Programs.
Daniela grew up in Cicero, Illinois and later moved to the northwest suburbs with her family. She received an A.S. from Elgin Community College and a B.S. from Loyola University Chicago. She was involved in social justice organizations throughout her academic career, interned at the Searle Biodiesel Lab, and conducted independent research using algae to remediate biodiesel wastewater. Daniela enjoys spending time in her Uptown neighborhood, cooking traditional Mexican dishes, sipping coffee, listening to Selena, and dancing Cumbia.
Peer Review Committee
- Kendra FreemanMetropolitan Planning CouncilKendra FreemanMetropolitan Planning Council
Kendra joined the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) in 2016. With more than 20 years of experience in program development and operations, she held leadership positions in the private and nonprofit sectors with a focus on affordable housing and capacity building. As Director of Community Development & Engagement, Kendra oversees MPC’s housing policy and equitable transit-oriented development (eTOD) programs and guides the organization’s approach to community engagement in research, policy advocacy and technical assistance.
Prior to MPC, Kendra worked in affordable housing development and management, where she invested in people to improve the quality of life in their communities. As executive director of Holsten Human Capital Development, NFP, she oversaw the nonprofit’s daily operations, including an annual budget of more than $1.5 million and 25 staff serving more than 1,200 households living in subsidized housing.
Kendra is a native Chicagoan and licensed real estate broker. She holds a bachelor’s in sociology and a master’s in public administration from DePaul University. Kendra serves as the co-chair of Elevated Chicago, is on the advisory committee for Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Greater Chicago, and the Board of Directors for Storycatchers Theatre
Mark Handy, Operations Consultant at DNVGL, has more than 15 years of experience in Sales, Business Development, Operations and Project Management for firms like Novell, Sun Microsystems, KenJiva Energy Systems and DNVGL. Mark currently manages front line Engineering and Administrative resources for Commercial & Industrial Energy Efficiency programs for Utility clients. Prior to his current role Mark led a small energy services start up in the Demand Management and Distributed Energy Resources space. He holds a BS in Management.
- Hyekyung (Clarisse) KimArgonne National LaboratoryHyekyung (Clarisse) KimArgonne National Laboratory
H. Clarisse Kim is a staff scientist and Grid Cybersecurity Program Lead at Argonne National Laboratory. She is responsible for coordinating the power systems cybersecurity portfolio and interfacing with crosscutting programs, external partners, and federal sponsors. She leads research projects for cyber security within electric power grid control environments and is a co-investigator developing dynamic phononic metamaterials for energy efficiency applications. Prior to joining Argonne, Clarisse Kim was a Science & Technology Policy Fellow of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine in Washington, D.C. Her original training is in experimental condensed matter physics, with a PhD in physics from the University of Chicago and BA in physics and mathematics from Columbia University in the city of New York.
Rob Neumann is an Associate Director with Navigant in the Energy Practice Group focusing on energy-efficiency evaluation and developing technologies. His recent evaluation experience includes ongoing multiple year evaluations of the Commonwealth Edison energy-efficiency portfolio (residential, commercial and industrial) and the Integrys (North Shore Gas and Peoples Gas Companies) energy-efficiency portfolios, evaluation work for AEP-Ohio and a focus on bidding energy-efficiency savings into the PJM transmission network.
With more than 20 years of experience performing economic, regulatory, legal and financial analysis, Rob has specialties in energy and regulatory matters before state and federal agencies and commissions specifically focusing on energy efficiency, market analysis, implementation of new initiatives and legal and regulatory policy matters. This is in the areas of energy efficiency and demand-side management, generation, transmission, distribution, pole attachment pricing and analysis, district energy and other related energy issues.
Rob has managed numerous energy efficiency evaluations, rate cases and regulatory filings and is currently leading multiple energy efficiency evaluations and other energy-regulatory work. His work has been before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Department of Energy (DOE), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), numerous state utility commissions including South Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia, Texas, Michigan, Illinois, California, Florida, Minnesota and Ohio and many other government and regulatory agencies. his skills include the ability to manage legal and regulatory strategy in regulatory proceedings with a focused understanding of the implications of regulatory rulings on future orders, appeals and policy. His experience includes work with global management consulting firms and managing and growing companies in regulated markets.
Jenny is part of a dynamic Schneider Electric team delivering residential energy management solutions. Jenny’s current work leverages her 20 plus years of experience to focus on the integration of demand side management resources; working with utilities and customers to integrate demand response, storage, on-site generation and energy efficiency into a single approach.
Board of Directors
- Michelle BlaiseComEdMichelle BlaiseComEd
Michelle Blaise, senior vice president of Technical Services, is responsible for Engineering, Project Management and Smart Grid & Technology for ComEd.
Prior to her role as senior vice president of Technical Services, Blaise served as vice president of Engineering and Project Management and oversaw maintenance, reliability, and capacity planning. She was also responsible for planning and execution of transmission and substation projects as well as execution of Energy Infrastructure Modernization (EIMA) program.
Blaise has held a variety of positions with increasing responsibilities in customer operations, strategic planning, distribution operations and engineering including manager of Construction and Maintenance, Manager of Strategic Planning, and Manager of Business Planning.
Blaise serves as a member of the board of directors for the Women’s Business Development Center and on the board of trustees of the Chicago Architecture Foundation.
Blaise holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and a Master’s in Business Administration from DePaul University.
- Megan CliffordArgonne National LaboratoryMegan CliffordArgonne National Laboratory
Megan C. Clifford is Associate Laboratory Director for Science and Technology Partnerships and Outreach. Her focus areas in this role include: maximizing outcomes of existing collaborations and partnerships; supporting the creation of new collaborations and partnerships; and support of lab-wide strategy and program development – all with the goal of increasing the impact of Argonne’s work.
Prior to serving in her current role, Clifford served as Argonne’s Chief of Staff. Working with leaders across the laboratory, Clifford stewarded Argonne’s change initiative to deliver lasting impact through science and technology leadership, research and operations excellence, and people development. She promotes a culture of diversity and inclusion within the laboratory through values-based leadership.
Clifford joined Argonne in November 2013. Prior to becoming Chief of Staff, she served as Director of Strategy and Innovation for the Global Security Sciences division. In this role, she developed strategies and programs with multidisciplinary teams to address a range of energy and global security challenges.
Clifford’s career of more than 20 years has focused on national security and resilience policy and analysis, strategic planning, and program design. Her involvement in the national security mission dates back to the establishment of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, where she helped to create the foremost national preparedness doctrine.
Clifford previously held a senior executive position at Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. in Washington, D.C., where she served on the leadership team responsible for performance of the firm’s Justice and Homeland Security business.
Clifford received a BA in international business from The George Washington University and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Michael Cornicelli has served as Executive Vice President of the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago (BOMA/Chicago) and as its chief staff officer since 2007. From 2001 to 2007, he served as Director of Government Affairs and was responsible for the formulation and implementation of BOMA/Chicago’s regulatory and legislative agendas on city, county, state, and federal levels. He has 36 years of experience as a trade association executive, a lawyer and a management consultant in the commercial real estate industry. He holds a BA degree in Political Science from Miami University and a JD degree from Northwestern University School of Law. He is admitted to practice law in Illinois and California and is a resident of Chicago’s 36th Ward.
In addition to his role with BOMA/Chicago, Cornicelli was appointed by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn in 2011 as a member of the Illinois Smart Grid Advisory Council and as a trustee of the Illinois Science and Energy Innovation Foundation. Both organizations were created to promote the development of smart grid technology and related energy innovations in the State of Illinois.
BOMA/Chicago is a trade association representing the owners and managers of commercial office buildings, institutional and government buildings, and their allied suppliers and professional firms. Membership includes over 260 buildings, representing 80% of the commercial square footage in Chicago’s Central Business District, and over 170 suppliers and professional firms that service them. The organization’s mission is to enhance the value and impact of the commercial real estate industry and its professionals through thought leadership, advocacy, professional development, research and civic engagement. Founded in 1902, BOMA/Chicago is the oldest and largest of 93 local associations in the United States and 13 international organizations affiliated with the Building Owners and Managers Association International.
Sharon Hillman is a semi-retired energy industry executive with extensive energy business start-up experience. Prior to her retirement, Sharon was a VP of Regulatory Affairs and Business Development at The AES Corporation. In 2010 Sharon sold mc2, a retail start-up business, to a subsidiary of AES. Prior to founding mc2, Sharon was Vice President Corporate Development at Exelon Corporation and Vice President Marketing and Environmental Programs at Exelon, subsidiary Commonwealth Edison. Prior to her tenure at Exelon, Sharon was a Senior Vice President at AES NewEnergy (now Constellation New Energy), responsible for the Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Texas Markets. Sharon also spent 15 years at MidCon Corp. (parent of Natural Gas Pipeline of America) where she held several officer positions, including President of MidCon’s retail energy subsidiary and Vice President of Marketing, Sales and Trading.
Mark Laufenberg is a co-founder of PowerWorld Corporation and has been its president since its inception. PowerWorld was founded in 1996 to develop and commercialize technology originally developed in the ECE Department at Illinois.
In his role with PowerWorld, a Champaign-based company specializing in developing and distributing software to the electric energy industry, Laufenberg manages the daily activities of the company, directs the future development of its products, and participates in consulting projects for the industry.
PowerWorld has had over 500 separate corporate entities as customers and users of PowerWorld Simulator, its flagship product. It has been sold in 57 different countries around the world. PowerWorld’s customer list includes many regulatory agencies, consulting firms, foreign and domestic utilities, trading and investment firms, and universities.
He has been the principal investigator on five National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research Grants, and has previous industrial experience at Pacific Gas & Electric and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. From 2000 to 2003, he was a visiting professor at Illinois, teaching a course on technical entrepreneurship.
Brendan Reilly serves as Alderman of Chicago’s 42nd ward. Alderman Reilly’s career in public service began shortly after he graduated from Hobart College in 1994, when he joined the Illinois House of Representatives’ staff in Springfield. Reilly helped shape efforts by state government to protect our air and water and preserve our parks and open spaces, working with lawmakers, environmentalists and the Illinois EPA and Department of Natural Resources. Following this, he served as Communications Director for the Illinois House Democrats, where he played a key role in efforts to strengthen education, improve public health, expand economic opportunity, ensure equal rights, and protect the right to privacy.
Reilly left the Illinois House to serve as Press Secretary and Communications Director for Paul Vallas in his campaign for Governor in 2002. In that capacity, Reilly helped refine and articulate a vision of government reform in the tradition of the great Senator Paul Simon. In 2002, following the Vallas campaign, Reilly was recruited by AT&T to serve as Midwest Vice President of Public Affairs. At age 30, Reilly became AT&T’s youngest regional vice-president in history. In this role, he managed a multi-million dollar budget and staff for a five state region, directed all public relations for AT&T regarding public policy, consumer services and business services, and worked closely with Illinois lawmakers and consumer advocates to make Illinois telecommunications market more competitive, bringing consumers and businesses more choices, lower prices and better service.