Regional Directors

Sandra Burton, Regional Director (Eastern US), 202.379.1637
Ms. Burton serves as SEPA's regional director for the Eastern US. Ms. Burton is a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) with over 15 years experience in the development, implementation and management of energy efficiency and renewable energy programs both in the U.S. and abroad. Her background stretches from Sandia National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy to the electric utility industry. Most recently, Sandra was the Managing Director of Utility Programs at SunEdison where she led the team that developed solar energy solutions for U.S. electric utilities.  Before joining the SunEdison team, Ms. Burton served as the Principal Deputy Assistant with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, where she developed and launched Delaware's award winning Energy An$wers program. Ms. Burton has a B.S. in economics from the University of Utah, attended graduate school in applied economics at American University, Washington, D.C., and has an MBA from the University of Delaware.

Kim Kiener, Regional Director (Western US), 202.559.2039
Ms. Kiener serves as SEPA's regional director for the Western US.  She brings over 25 years experience in the electric utility industry in the areas of renewable resource portfolios, short and long term strategic planning, green house gas regulation, integrated resource planning, resource adequacy, FERC open access polices, and transmission planning, siting and certificate approval. Her focus has been on state and federal energy regulatory and policy implementation, and legislative issues for both public power and investor owned sectors.  She has worked for both public power and investor owned utilities as well as doing stints with both a consumer advocate agency and a public service board. 

 
Tom Nicholas, Regional Director (Central US), 202.559.2029
Mr. Nicholas serves as SEPA's regional director for the Central US.  He has more than 20 years of executive level experience in the electric utility industry.  Tom worked for two utilities starting with Public Service Indiana, now Duke Energy Indiana, starting in Engineering, moving into the Operations area, field District Manager, Corporate Industrial Marketing and Economic Development, before joining Northern Indiana Public Service in the Corporate Marketing and Sales Manager roles, including both the regulated and unregulated sides of NISOURCE in Indiana.  More recently, Tom served as the Regional Operations Manager in the central US with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).  Tom has also served and chaired numerous EPRI and EEI utility committees.  Tom is a sought after speaker, speaking at numerous conferences both nationally and internationally.  Tom was also appointed in 2009 as an alternate, to the National Board of the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP).