Meet the Shultz Energy Fellows

2023 Cohort

Named in honor of former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, one of the most widely admired American public servants of the past half-century, the program offers a suite of paid, energy-related public service fellowships for Stanford students in California, Colorado, Utah, and Hawaii during the summer. We co-administer this program with the Precourt Institute for Energy, the Haas Center for Public Service, and Stanford in Government. The Bill Lane Center 2023 Shultz Fellows and their placements include:

Jack Rehnborg
Western Interstate Energy Board

Jack Rehnborg is a co-terminal MS student in Earth Systems, focusing on energy and commodity market design. Prior to pursuing a master's degree, Jack completed a BS in Bioengineering. Jack is one of the founding members of The Farmlink Project, a non-profit that has moved over 100 million pounds of fresh produce to food banks across the country since its inception in 2020. Jack also founded a company aimed at helping energy construction contractors optimize their pricing strategy when responding to request for proposals. Jack is excited to work at the Western Interstate Energy Board (WIEB) this summer, where he will be focused on researching how electric utilities use bilateral forward contracts.

 

 

 

 

Chloé Romero
California ISO

Chloé Romero is a rising junior from Montevideo, Uruguay. Chloé is majoring in Earth Systems on the Energy, Science and Technology Track. Her interests align around renewable energy, and ensuring that energy policies will be tailored to the context in which they will applied, ensuring that social and economic efficiency is achieved. Seeing how her home country was able to reach a 98% renewable electricity matrix opened her eyes to the importance of collaboration between public and private entities for a society's well being. Chloé hopes to pursue a career in energy policy aimed towards helping developing countries in Latin America secure a just transition. This summer, Chloé will be working at the California ISO in Market Analysis and Forecasting.

 

 

 

 

Julio Contreras
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

Julio Contreras is a first year M.S. student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department's Atmosphere / Energy program. Prior to pursuing his Master's, he earned a B.S. in Engineering (Atmosphere / Energy) at Stanford where he also completed significant coursework in economics and comparative literature. Julio enjoys all of these subjects on their own, but his biggest strength lies in bringing them together to create interdisciplinary solutions to environmental issues. He strongly believes that the stories we tell about the environment shape the way we construct our policy and his goal is to help realize a future where everyone has access to unpolluted air and clean, affordable energy. This summer, Julio will work with the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, Program Analysis and Administration Team analyzing the effects changing weather conditions — especially extreme weather events — have on variable generation in the West.

 

 

 

Ye Zheng
California Department of Water Resources

Ye Zheng is a second-year MS student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Stanford University, pursuing a degree in Sustainable Design and Construction with a focus on Energy. She holds a BS in Civil Engineering from McGill University, where she co-founded McGill Student Energy and McGill Engineers in Action. Her graduate studies are related to energy efficient building designs, energy system optimization, and grid decarbonization. Ye has prior experience as a Schneider Fellow at the USGBC LEED Technical Development team and is currently working on Solar and Battery Energy Storage System optimization modeling at Noria Energy. This summer, she will intern at the Power and Risk Office at the California Department of Water Resources, studying operational strategies for the State Water Project, such as the integration of battery storage and solar generation at select pumping plants.

 

 

 

Camden Burk
California Energy Commission

Camden Burk is a sophomore planning on studying Earth Systems: Energy, Science and Technology with a minor in Public Policy. His primary academic focus is within the energy transition, and the deployment of clean energy technologies to help combat climate change. He is especially interested in the intersection of clean energy development with other land use considerations such as sustainable agriculture, or conservation goals. Camden has conducted research with the Bill Lane Center on the growth of electric vehicles in Bay Area municipalities, and is currently working on a project studying university climate action plans. This spring, he is interning for the House Energy and Commerce Committee Democratic Staff through the Stanford in Washington program. Outside of academics, he can most often be found playing trumpet, playing unnecessarily complex board games, or walking around lake Lagunita. This summer, Camden is excited to be working with the California Energy Commission in the Office of Noemí Gallardo.

 

 

Jillian Anderson
California Public Utilities Commission

As a 3rd year PhD student in the mechanical engineering department at Stanford University, Jillian Anderson studies interfacial heat transfer and surface engineering towards improved efficiency in passive thermal management technologies. Jillian originally pursued this field with hopes that such advancements would lead to a reduction in the energy demand of various industries, but she has recently sought opportunities to broaden her perspective. Jillian would like to discover how policy can expedite the development of robust and flexible solutions for the decarbonization of energy systems because she believes these efforts may make a more immediate and substantial contribution to a net-zero emissions future. This summer, Jillian is excited to work in the Office of President Alice Reynolds at the California Public Utilities Commission

 

 

 

Abhishek Kumar
California Air Resources Board

Abhishek Kumar is a second-year MS student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department. He is passionate about developing data-driven solutions to address the terrifying issues of air pollution and climate change. Prior to joining Stanford, Abhishek worked at Tata Steel in India to improve the sustainability key performance indicators of the Ferro-Alloys and Mineral division. He earned his B.Tech in Environmental Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (ISM), Dhanbad. This summer, Abhishek will be working with California Air Resources Board on assessing the existing greenhouse gas emission regulations and incorporating analytical models to simulate and evaluate compliance pathways.

 

To learn more about the 2023 Shultz Fellows, visit the Precourt Institute for Energy's Explore Energy page.