2026 Speakers

Kimberly M. Barrow was nominated to serve as Public Utility Commissioner by Gov. Josh Shapiro on April 14, 2023, and subsequently confirmed by the Pennsylvania Senate on August 30, 2023. Her term will expire on April 1, 2028. She was elected vice chair by her fellow commissioners on August 31, 2023. Barrow has been involved in the utility regulation industry for more than two decades.  Barrow serves on the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Board of Directors and she is a member of the NARUC Committee on Electricity. Barrow has served as a member of the NARUC Joint Federal-State Task Force on Electric Transmission as well as the FERC-NARUC Current Issues Collaborative, and in 2026 she joined the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition. She is a member of the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority, and has served as a member of the Pennsylvania Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council. Prior to her appointment as Commissioner, Barrow worked as Chief of Staff for Chairman Gladys Brown Dutrieuille. As part of her service in the Chairman’s Office, she provided advice regarding the legal and policy implications of electric, gas, water and transportation matters pending before the Commission; evaluated the impact of state and federal legislation on ratepayers, utility operations, and Commission functions; and communicated with consumers, utility executives and government officials regarding the Commission’s role and initiatives. From 2008 to 2013, Barrow served as Chief of Staff in the Office of Commissioner Wayne E. Gardner.   Vice Chair Barrow started as a staff attorney at the Commission in 2001. Vice Chair Barrow is an alumna of the University of Georgia with a bachelor’s degree in political science and Spanish. She received her law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law.

Helfgott is a principal at Lowercarbon Capital, where he invests in n-of-1 people building world-changing companies. He studied bioengineering and finance at UPenn and environmental engineering at Stanford, building deep technical literacy at the intersection of breakthrough science and billion-dollar businesses. Eric also advised utilities and industrial operators at McKinsey on decarbonization and R&D development. His passion for keeping the planet in one piece came from his childhood in New York, seeing too few trees and too much food inequality.

Joe Mastrangelo is driven by a vision of energy abundance as the foundation of human progress. He joined Eos Energy Enterprises as chief executive officer in 2019, bringing three decades of leadership across the global energy sector. His career spans technology innovation, industrial manufacturing at scale, and worldwide commercial deployment—providing the rare, end-to-end perspective required to steer energy systems from laboratory breakthroughs into real-world impact. Throughout his career, Mastrangelo has worked to build cultures that nurture the unconventional thinkers and committed doers needed to tackle problems others consider impossible. Whether integrating complex organizations or building teams from the ground up, Joe recognizes that people are the key to success and strives to create environments where bold ideas are matched by disciplined execution. Before joining Eos, Mastrangelo served as CEO of GE’s Power Conversion business and as president and CEO of Gas Power Systems for GE Power, leading global operations of more than 15,000 employees across 60+ countries. These roles reinforced a conviction central to his vision: revitalizing America’s ability to design and manufacture physical, industrial-scale technologies is critical—not only to economic competitiveness, but to addressing the world’s greatest challenges. At Eos, Mastrangelo is translating that conviction into action. The company is rebuilding U.S. manufacturing capacity to produce breakthrough zinc-based, high-density battery energy storage at gigawatt scale—creating American jobs while delivering technology the world urgently needs. He also serves on the Pittsburgh AI Strike Team 2.0 Board, helping connect advanced manufacturing with artificial intelligence to accelerate innovation and reclaim the region’s historic industrial leadership.

Originally from Medellin, Colombia, Paulina Jaramillo is a naturalized citizen of the U.S., where she has lived more than half her life. She is currently a professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Jaramillo is also a fellow of the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation and Research at CMU and a research affiliate of the Kigali Collaborative Research Center. She also holds a courtesy appointment in CMU Africa. Finally, Jaramillo is a lead author for the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report as part of Working Group III.

Jaramillo’s past research focused on life cycle assessment of energy systems with an emphasis on climate change impacts and mitigation research. As a professor at CMU, she is currently involved in multi-disciplinary research projects to better understand the social, economic, and environmental implications of policy-driven changes in the operations of the energy system. Over the past five years, her research and education efforts have expanded to include issues related to energy access and development in the Global South. She has also worked to incorporate values and beliefs in energy planning in historically disenfranchised communities and to understand the implications of energy access in gender equity.

Jaramillo’s interest in energy for the Global South stems from her firm belief that what happens in developing countries as they try to provide energy that supports development will have profound implications in global environmental systems. There is an opportunity, however, to build sustainable and equitable modern energy systems that benefit from decades of technological development and experience elsewhere while accounting for local conditions and stakeholder interests. Through her research, Jaramillo aims to create the knowledge that will be required to meet global energy needs and climate mitigation efforts.

Destenie Nock received her Ph.D. in 2019 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. There, she performed energy systems modeling in both New England and Sub-Saharan Africa, using multi-criteria decision analysis and applied optimization to better equip policy makers to understand energy planning options. Nock’s broad research interests are focused around using mathematical modeling tools to address societal problems related to sustainability planning, energy policy, and engineering for social good. She has a breadth of professional experience, having worked in industry, national labs, and government settings on issues related to energy systems and equity.