MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: CASSADY CRAIGHILL

Could you tell us who you are and what it is that you do?

My name is Cassady Craighill, and my most important job is being a mom to Jamie, 4, and Ward, 2 (and a dog mom to our Australian Shepherd Emmy)! My other full-time job is as Technical Education Director for a nonprofit called GridLab. GridLab is a boutique organization that provides pro bono technical assistance and expert capacity to those implementing clean energy policies. We mostly work at the state level - North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, Indiana, to name a few. My role is to develop education and communications strategies for regulators, advocates, and other stakeholders. Since my background is in communications and the energy transition, I attempt to close the gap between regulators and policy makers and technical experts. It’s hard! 

 What do you love about the work?

The electricity sector was somewhat stagnant for decades. We are now in the midst of an incredible and challenging transition of our grid and how we power our daily lives. There are tremendous kinks in this process. I’ve worked in the energy and communications field for over a dozen years now and, I believe we’re in the stage of this transition with the most tension. It makes my job endlessly interesting to work through all the wrenches towards a cleaner, more efficient grid – and if we really get it right, it should be a source of economic and consumer power for everyone who pays a power bill, not just electricity and utility executives.

How did you arrive at this point in your career? What’s your backstory?

I studied mass communications in college at UNC Asheville and found myself drawn to how society judges and adapts to technological change. I wrote my Georgetown M.A. thesis on the media perception of drones in our society - the recent New Jersey sightings would have made an interesting chapter! 

Before joining GridLab last spring, I was Deputy Director and Communications Director for five years at Clean Virginia, a Charlottesville-based nonprofit that does amazing work to reform Virginia’s utility regulatory environment. I loved working at Clean Virgina and playing a role in its founding days and development. I started my professional career on the communications team at Greenpeace USA where I got paid to talk shit about oil and gas companies for 7 years. Not a bad gig for a 20-something!

Has there been a light switch moment, a turning point (or two), professionally &/or personally along the way?

It sounds obvious, but the process of interviewing for a different job or being offered a new one have always been huge professional and personal turning points for me. I’ve loved all of my “big-girl’ jobs and was anguished to leave them and the people, but was ready for a new professional chapter. I am someone who changes parts of my life very deliberately (I don’t even like to change up my running route!) so both of my job transitions were very profound, soul-searching moments.

Who or what has been your greatest influence? 

I was just telling my husband recently that I felt like I didn’t have a lot of personal influences. There are people whose work I greatly admire - Lina Khan (FTC Commissioner with an antitrust, anti monopoly platform), Abigail Spanberger (running for VA Governor!), Leah Stokes (energy policy wonk who wrote about how the electric utility structure screws us and the environment), Beth Macy (Roanoke-based journalist who has covered the opioid crisis). My daughter is probably my biggest influence right now. I want her to think one day, “Wow. Mom did all that and made sure I ate my ‘grow foods’.” 

What are you currently working on, excited about, looking forward to?

GridLab has several projects that are essentially all related to rising electricity demand, mostly from AI. That keeps me up at night - we’re building massive data centers (that are already terrible for the environment) and all of those data centers need a ton of energy, some as much as cities! I struggle with AI a lot. Sure, it has discreet benefits, but I worry that it will be a net loss for society. I am motivated by the fact that GridLab is working in several states on solutions to this rise in demand that are low-carbon and better for the consumer. If anyone wants to have a coffee talk over AI, swing by!

I’m also trying to make more time for personal writing, which means trying to get up at 5am to squeeze it in. I try and fail a lot!

What are you reading these days?

I just finished “Crying in H-Mart” by the lead singer of Japanese Breakfast. It was beautiful and made me very hungry.

Anything we missed that you might care to share (closing thoughts)?

Although remote work has its benefits, especially with two young children, I miss talking to my colleagues in an office. I’m always down for a walk, coffee, lunch!