Through the Community Resiliency Program (CRP), EPIXC aims to empower the working class and aspiring research institutions (ARIs) to be full participants in the Industry 5.0. transformation, which prioritizes new industrial technologies like electrification which advance manufacturing productivity, efficiency and economic expansion. Through CRP, EPIXC will embed low to moderate income community resilience and ARIs in all aspects of the institute’s plan, including its membership structure, governance, leadership, management and operations.
The EPIXC commitment to developing skilled laborers and economic prosperity as part of community resilience, is reflected in the very makeup of the Institute leadership team, which aims to represent, in part, the people and communities that host the industrial clusters that the Institute serves. To realize our innovative vision, the EPIXC CRP team will collaborate with and provide community centric programs and expertise to the EPIXC Governance Board (GB), Advisory Board (AB), leadership, management and operations staff and the teams that will carry out the Institute’s programmatic, communications, workforce development and outreach activities.
The EPIXC Community Resilience Plan directly and indirectly includes collaboration with local industry, community members, academicians, students and potential members of the local workforce and economic development infrastructure. By integrating these diverse stakeholders, we aim to ensure that the development and implementation of electric process heating solutions directly contribute to improving conditions in the host communities.
EPIXC Community Resilience Management team
Maria Curry-Nkansah, PhD, MBA
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Senior Research Advisor
At NREL, Maria serves as the co-lead for the Circular Economy for Energy Materials initiative along with Chief Community Resilience Officer for EPIXC. Prior to joining NREL, she was a COO for Argonne National Laboratory PSE Directorate; and at British Petroleum she served as a Business Development Manager, Market Development Manager, a Sr. Research Manager and the North America lead for Hydrogen Demonstration Programs between BP, Ford and Daimler Chrysler. She has also served on several related national boards and advisory committees.
Kristen Parrish
Arizona State University
Associate Professor and Graduate Program Chair for Construction Management and Technology
Prior to joining ASU in 2012, she was a Scientific Engineering Associate in Building Technologies at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). Parrish’s expertise is in energy efficient building design and construction. In particular, she explores how non-technological barriers to energy efficiency influence design and construction processes and develops novel approaches to address these barriers.
Daniel Bernal, MEng
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Research Engineer
At NREL, Daniel supports DOE’s Onsite Energy Program to assist manufacturers deploy energy assets on-site and supports EPIXC’s community resilience recruitment, training, and retainment strategies. Before joining NREL, Daniel worked with Utah State University’s ASPIRE engineering consortium supporting electric vehicle infrastructure deployment business modelling. Daniel’s research areas focus on: optimization methods, uncertainty modeling, onsite renewable energy generation and storage deployment, industrial decarbonization, and techno-economics (TEA).
Nehemiah Emaikwu, PhD
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Research Engineer
Nehemiah Emaikwu works at the intersection of building sciences, climate change, and equity. At NREL, he researches energy-efficient and resilient heating and cooling technology, supports the JUMP Into STEM student competition and the DOE Better Buildings Space Conditioning team as a technical contributor, and works with EPIXC to implement diversified workforce development programs.
Alexis R. Myers, PhD
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Research Scientist – Hybrid Energy Systems
At NREL, Alexis works at the intersection of community resilience, energy equity, and clean energy deployment. She supports hydrogen-based long-duration energy storage projects, provides technical assistance through the DOE Energy Transition Initiative Partnership Program, and implements workforce development programs with EPIXC. Her background also includes materials science research for solar applications and policy work as a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Academy of Sciences where she worked on the Board of Gulf Education and Engagement.