Chéri Smith

She stood up the Indigenous Power and Light Fund for Energy Sovereignty, a collaborative giving fund deploying emergency clean energy grants and no-to-low interest loans to Tribal communities -- where strategic projects can dramatically improve quality of life -- and even mean the difference between life and death.Previously, Chéri led workforce development for SolarCity and Tesla, coordinating community, academic, and government partners to train over 1,400 employees for Tesla’s 1GW solar manufacturing plant in Buffalo, NY, and thousands more for the Nevada Gigafactory, the largest factory in the world. Earlier, she served as Director of Education and Outreach for the American Council on Renewable Energy, collaborating with governments and NGOs on clean energy best practices, and consulted for IREC, NYSERDA, and the U.S. DOE to build national solar workforce programs.Chéri is an honored recipient of the Forbes 50-Over-50 award. She serves on the Advisory Committee of Climate United, on the board of the nonprofit organization Atutu, and advises the Yale School of Business and the Environment. She is an MIT Solver, Indigenous Communities Fellow, Cordes Fellow, and Climate Leader trained by Al Gore. She has received the GM Prize for social entrepreneurship and was an Elevate Prize finalist. Chéri is the proud mother of three, including an Army wounded warrior, and lives on Narragansett homelands, where her husband continues her ancestors tradition of making his living as a fisherman.