For Black History Month, Five Leaders Describe Black Mentors Who Inspired Them To Fight for Equity
February is Black History Month, when we elevate the voices, experiences, accomplishments of Black Americans — and spotlight the barriers they have faced and overcome, including in industries like clean energy.
To lift up some of those stories, we talked to five clean energy professionals, who work across the sector. Each of them has worked to welcome more Black men and women to the industry.
We asked them to share the Black leaders or mentors in clean energy whose example has inspired them. And, the stories of Devin Hampton, Danielle J. Harris, Walter McLeod, Rose McKinney-James, and Antoinette West illustrate a profound truth: The path to a clean energy future is inseparable from the inclusion and leadership of Black voices.
Read below to learn how they’ve been inspired by David K. Owens, bell hooks, and Hazel O’Leary and how those influences empowered them to remove barriers to Black leadership in clean energy.
Rose McKinney-James, managing partner of Energy Works LLC:
“I frequently reflect on those who inspired me during my early career and Hazel O’Leary is definitely someone who comes to mind. She was the first African American woman to lead the US Department of Energy. I was a former state utility Commissioner and freshly minted CEO for CSTRR (Corp for Solar Technology and Renewable Resources) my goal to create a path to expedite commercially viable solar in Nevada and transform the Nevada Test site. She was a seasoned, sophisticated and savvy cabinet secretary. Her goal was to find a path to leverage agency resources and facilitate and support that transition. We became uncommon partners. I admired her steady, focused and consistent leadership of the agency. She tolerated my youthful and inexperienced exuberance. That partnership served to elevate industry interest and propel public support for solar development to our mutual benefit. It was a meaningful and memorable match indeed.”
Walter McLeod, managing director of Eco Capitol Energy:
"The person who has most profoundly impacted my career in clean energy is David K. Owens. David is one of the foremost authorities on electric utility restructuring and transformation in America. He has been a leading voice for African Americans in the energy industry for decades. At the start of the Obama Administration, as Executive Vice President of Business Operations for the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), David brought me into the AABE community where we used the collective power of black professionals to shape public policy. He has opened countless doors of opportunity for many of us, and I for one am very grateful for his help. He is my colleague, my mentor, and my good friend."
Danielle J. Harris, managing director of engagement and innovation at Elemental Excelerator:
“Today I'm heartened to see so many young Black environmentalists because I never thought of myself as an environmentalist or rather thought I didn’t fit within those presented to me. But my inner environmentalist felt the strongest sense of inspiration in the writings of bell hooks. bell hooks, an unrecognized environmentalist herself, is the foundation of my environmental stance. She is known for examining intersectionality, prioritizing Black women's experience and healing through love. Throughout her work she touches on nature's inherent healing power and her call for candid conversations about our connection with the Earth. In her version of environmentalism, it's necessary for us to "break the habit" by confronting the root of our exploitation of nature and to interrogate our own (lack of) connections to place, land, and the natural world for its protection. Her words, "When we love the Earth, we are able to love ourselves more fully. I believe this. The ancestors taught me it was so" from her essay 'Touching Earth' in, 'Belonging,' feels like "home" for my inner environmentalist.”
Antoinette West, senior manager of career pathways at Elemental Excelerator:
“Mari Copeny, affectionately known as Little Miss Flint, continues the tradition of climate leadership as a Gen-Z Climate Activist. She is the youngest Women’s March Youth Ambassador, a National Youth Ambassador for the Climate March, a Youth Ambassador for Equality for Her, and the list goes on. She was 8-years-old when the Flint Water Crisis began, and decided to use her voice to fight for the kids in her community. Since 2016, Mari has fundraised over $840,000 to impact over 100,000 children in Flint, and has distributed the equivalent of over 100 MILLION bottles of water through her own brand of water filters with water filtration company Hydroviv. Mari is a testament that climate talent can truly come from anywhere, and motivates me to continue empowering diverse climate talent through Elemental Excelerator's Career Pathways programs.”
Devin Hampton, CEO at UtilityAPI:
In my career I have had the pleasure to work for and closely with Chris Smith. I met Chris when he was the Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy at the US DOE. He is now the Chief Government Affairs Officer at Ford. He graduated from West Point, served in the Army, and got an MBA at Cambridge. I’m leaving some things out, but you get the point. I could say that his resume alone is an example that I have worked to follow, but that would miss the true spirit of his leadership. Instead, I’ll share something he taught me. One day I was updating him on a project, at the end of the meeting he simply said, “All right, let me know what you need, “I work for you”. This gave me a pause, since he was the Assistant Secretary and I was the staffer. But, he made it clear that his job as a leader was to use his position to further my goals. That stuck with me and is something I practice daily in my role as a CEO. A big part of my job is to not just set the strategy, but to block and tackle to clear the way for my team so that they can achieve their goals.
