The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is celebrating the Hispanic and Latinx community’s contributions to our society and culture during Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15 to October 15.
The theme for this year is “Unidos: Inclusivity for a Stronger Nation,” a reminder that representation is key to moving the country forward. (Read President Biden’s Proclamation on National Hispanic Heritage Month for 2022.) Diverse perspectives drive innovation, which is essential to tackling the climate crisis, and the Hispanic community in the United States is especially diverse, with roots in more than 20 Spanish-speaking nations around the world. It’s also the largest minority group in the United States, with more than 62 million people.
EERE is proud to feature some of our team members who are paving the way to our clean energy future.
Ivette Gonzalez
ENERGY EQUITY & ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COORDINATOR, WIND ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES OFFICE
Ivette Gonzalez
Ivette Gonzalez
What does your heritage mean to you?
I love to celebrate my Colombian heritage. It’s part of who I am and the values I live by every day! The Colombian culture is intertwined with Indigenous, European, and African roots. It reflects in our art, traditions, cuisine, and music, including cumbia, salsa, joropo, and vallenato. The food is amazing! My favorite dish is frijoles con coles (cargamanto bean soup with collard greens). The value of family is taught at an early age to be paramount, so Colombians love to get together for celebrations. Christmas is one of the biggest holidays in the Colombian culture, especially December 7, Noche de Las Velitas (Night of the Little Candles)—a celebration that dates back to 1854.
What do you think about DOE’s efforts to increase energy justice?
I am happy to see that DOE has elevated itself as a government agency to help those who are affected the most by the effects of climate change and manmade pollution. Energy democracy should be available to all. No one should have to choose between keeping the lights on and their nutrition or medication. It is great to see DOE continue to create new programs and initiatives to provide technical assistance and energy access to disadvantaged communities. Energy justice should be a permanent solution that benefits current and future generations.
How do you think diversity and equity affect DOE’s efforts to increase energy resilience?
Diversity and equity matter because people matter! Diversity and equity have different meanings, but when joined together, they create better opportunities to generate and produce a clean energy future, in which the supply of energy is distributed evenly for everyone’s benefit. It involves everyone’s effort to work as one to overcome the challenges caused by natural disasters, weather, equipment failures, or even human error. Mother nature is not forgiving, and resilience is the key to avoiding power outages so communities are less impacted by disruptions. It should be human nature to help others!
What motivates you to work at DOE?
What motivates me to come to work at DOE every day is that you get to interact with many wonderful people of different cultures and races, and they all have the same goal in wanting to make a positive impact with renewable energy. This goal will be accomplished by attempting to reach the greatest technological potential to create a cleaner and greener place for us, my children, our children, and future generations.
Vanessa Arjona
OPERATIONS MANAGER, HYDROGEN AND FUEL CELL TECHNOLOGIES OFFICE
Vanessa Arjona
Vanessa Arjona
Why do you feel DOE’s work is essential to our future?
DOE’s work cannot be more important and urgent than it is today. Just last week, Hurricane Fiona hit the Caribbean, causing devastation and blackouts for many people on the coast—and that is just one example of the increasing number of record-breaking climate events happening across our country and threatening people’s lives, homes, and dreams. Clean energy, zero-carbon energy solutions are crucial to tackling this climate crisis. DOE’s support of innovative approaches and technology demonstrations in this field are the catalyzer we need to create the right opportunities to get us back on track.
What is your proudest accomplishment?
One of my most fulfilling experiences has been witnessing exponential growth in interest and support across DOE, our country, and the world in hydrogen as a key piece of the puzzle to help us get to a clean energy future. Over the past couple of years—and partly due to that interest and support—we have been able to launch exciting and important initiatives, like H2@scale, the Hydrogen Shot, and H2Hubs. We have also been able to see historical pieces of legislation, like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, pass—all of which will make it possible for hydrogen to play a larger role in the way we think about transportation, power, energy storage, and industrial manufacturing in our country. I also feel very proud (and lucky!) to be able to work alongside some of the brightest, most committed, mission-driven people. Their collective work and unwavering dedication have really built the foundation of where we are with hydrogen today. Their work is what has made the difference in putting hydrogen on the national and global radar, so that hydrogen is now an integral part of the clean energy conversation.
What does your heritage mean to you?
I am proud of my Colombian heritage and the richness of the Latino culture in which I grew up. I specifically admire how Colombian culture emphasizes the importance of embracing others and making them feel welcome, working hard for what you want, putting family first, taking the time to enjoy sipping on a good coffee, knowing the healing power of a good homemade meal, and always keeping music and dance in your blood!
Marissa Morales-Rodriguez
SYSTEMS INTEGRATION TECHNOLOGY MANAGER, SOLAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES OFFICE
Marissa Morales-Rodriguez
Marissa Morales-Rodriguez
What part of your work do you feel is most important in terms of helping people?
Research and innovation for the development and deployment of new clean energy technologies are critical elements to help people live healthy and sustainable lives. As a native of Puerto Rico, an area prone to hurricanes, I see the need to continue to work on the development of clean energy technologies that can increase the energy resilience in frontline communities. Recent hurricanes have showed that smaller distributed solar systems can offer some electricity to people during weather-related emergencies. The work I do helps people by providing them with real solutions to mitigate the impacts of extreme weather and manmade events by improving survivability and resilience in these scenarios.
What do you think about DOE’s efforts to increase energy justice?
DOE energy justice efforts are focused on the integration of diversity, equity, and inclusion into technology development. This is an extremely important effort to ensure everyone benefits from technology innovation. In addition, taking an energy-justice approach to innovation helps increase visibility to the needs and challenges within underserved communities. The understanding of these challenges set the base for the tailoring of new research programs engaging communities.
What motivates you to come to work at DOE every day?
Innovation is my motivation. The work I do at DOE allows me to innovate every day by researching technologies to develop programs addressing real-world challenges.
William “Iam” Gaieck
ORISE SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND POLICY FELLOW, ADVANCED MANUFACTURING OFFICE
William Gaieck
William "Iam" Gaieck
What aspect of your work would you like to highlight that really helps people?
One important aspect of my work is that I help ensure projects, demonstrations, and pilots we fund have the social licenses to operate in their local communities. Social licenses ensure that the communities are knowledgeable about and engaged with a project and are aware of its potential benefits and costs to the community.
What do you think about the work DOE is doing to increase energy justice?
Under the current administration, DOE has made energy and environmental justice a priority. Significant progress has been made to address systemic issues through transformative and impactful work that ensures disadvantaged communities are involved and engaged, and their contributions are valued, in designing DOE-led initiatives.
How do you think diversity and equity affect DOE’s efforts to increase energy resilience?
DOE’s emphasis on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging allows for every American to be seen, heard, and represented in the work we do. Providing more opportunities for people with diverse experiences and backgrounds to have a seat at the table creates better solutions for the big and complex problems we are trying to tackle. When everyone who wants to participate can, we can achieve a cleaner, more affordable, and resilient energy future faster than when people are stuck on the sidelines.
What does your heritage mean to you?
It is said that “you cannot be what you cannot see.” So it means a lot to me that DOE supports employee resource groups like the Community for the Advancement of Latinos at DOE, where I can see role models that look just like me—throughout DOE—and know what is possible for me to achieve.
Original source can be found here.
