As part of the NETL Energy Markets Analysis Team, Amanda J. Harker Steele helps ensure America’s historic power-producing communities aren’t left behind as the nation transitions to a decarbonized energy sector and economy.

Growing up in Fairmont, West Virginia, Harker Steele, a first-generation college student, attended West Virginia University (WVU), majoring in environmental and natural resource economics and minored in economics and communication studies. She also attended the University of Georgia (UGA) where she earned a doctorate in agricultural and applied economics. At both WVU and UGA the bulk of Harker Steele’s studies were focused on energy economics.

“I took an energy economics course at WVU, which is what really inspired me to embark on my chosen career path,” she said. “As far as a particular scientist who served as an inspiration, I would have to say Elinor Ostrom who was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in economics for her work on the commons, which is the study of how the resources accessible to all members of a society, such as air, water, and earth are managed.”

During her career, Harker Steele worked as a senior scientist for site-support contractor KeyLogic and later as a federal research economist with the Energy Markets Analysis Team.

“The challenge that is currently closest to my heart is ensuring energy communities are not left behind during the energy transition,” Harker Steele said.

“NETL has been doing some great work through the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities in providing communities with the tools they need to plan and respond to the economic and social challenges resulting from this transition, while recognizing that every community brings different challenges and opportunities to the table. The impact NETL is having in these communities is impressive to say the least.”

Looking to the future, Harker Steele’s team will be developing an innovative new tool that can be used to assess the energy justice impacts of power producing technologies. Funded by the DOE’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, the tool will hopefully conduct life-cycle, technoeconomic, energy markets, infrastructure and economic impact assessments, to generate a set of criteria for evaluating the justice implications of power producing technologies, specifically those designed to aid in meeting current decarbonization targets.

Harker Steele’s favorite vacation spot is Lake Tahoe and added that the person she would want to meet most is First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She also possesses some secret ambitions outside of her work with NETL.

“A little-known fact about me is I am a Level 1 Cicerone certified beer server,” she said. “In another life, I’d love to own and operate my own brewery or tap house. I’ve also been skydiving and hang gliding.”

When it comes to others considering a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, Harker Steele shared her own words of wisdom.

“Figure out what subject or subjects you are most passionate about and how you enjoy applying them and then attempt to focus your efforts there,” she said. “If you can’t narrow it down immediately, don’t feel discouraged. Try different things until something clicks and take advantage of any opportunity you have to learn something new.”

NETL is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory that drives innovation and delivers technological solutions for an environmentally sustainable and prosperous energy future. By leveraging its world-class talent and research facilities, NETL is ensuring affordable, abundant and reliable energy that drives a robust economy and national security, while developing technologies to manage carbon across the full life cycle, enabling environmental sustainability for all Americans.