Introduction to Stallard

Hello fellow students and Dr. Etienne. My name is Christine Stallard, and I will refer to myself as Christine (used professionally) or Christy (used in some circle of friends). While I grew up in Meadville, PA, I have lived nearly 35 years in the Pacific Northwest. For 25 years, my husband and I lived in Ephrata, WA, which is in the desert area of Washington state (yes, there is a desert there). We now live on the southern Oregon coast, near Pistol River which is about 30 miles north of the California border. My career, of nearly 30 years, has been in the electric utility industry. In Washington state, I worked for a public utility district that owns and operates two major hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River. I am now the marketing and member services department manager for a small electric cooperative. I am passionate about the electric utility industry and my career in the industry has been interesting, exciting and rewarding. I am pursuing an undergraduate degree in Energy and Sustainability Policy because I feel it is very relevant to what I have done professionally during my career. In particular, some of my most rewarding experiences during my career have been in the area of government affairs, so the focus on sustainable policy was very intriguing. While this course is a requirement for the ESP degree program, I think the focus on entrepreneur possibilities is also intriguing.

I started a limited liability corporation in 1999 where I was a sole proprietor consultant offering public affairs and strategic planning services in areas related to natural resources, hydropower, electric utility issues (including wind generation and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hydropower licensing), political campaigns and agriculture. I haven’t given much thought in the past to the final question about what type of business might have a significant impact in the renewable energy world, but I think it might be a business that would figure out how to provide and market adequate battery storage so distributed generation might be more feasible.