Susan F. Tierney (born 1951) is an American academic and government administrator of energy policy. In the

United States federal government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

, she reached the rank of Assistant Secretary for Policy in the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...

Early life and education

In 1973, Tierney received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History from

Scripps College Scripps College is a private liberal arts women's college in Claremont, California. It was founded as a member of the Claremont Colleges in 1926, a year after the consortium's formation. Journalist and philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps prov ...

. She received a Master's of Regional Planning from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

in 1976 and a Ph.D. in Regional Planning from Cornell in 1980.

Career

Academia

Tierney worked as an assistant professor at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...

from 1978 to 1982 and as a researcher for the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

in 1982. Tierney is an expert in the regulation and economics of the electricity and natural gas industries.

Government

From 1982 to 1993, Tierney held a variety of positions in the government of

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, including as Executive Director of the Energy Facilities Siting Council, Commissioner of the Department of Public Utilities, and Secretary of Environmental Affairs. In 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated Tierney to be Assistant Secretary of Energy for Policy. She co-led the Department of Energy Agency Transition Team as part of the Obama/Biden Presidential Transition Project, and then assisted Energy Secretary Steven Chu during his first six weeks in his position. During this period, she was on leave from her position as a managing principal and energy and economics consultant with the

Analysis Group Analysis Group, Inc. (AG), founded in 1981 by economists Bruce E. Stangle and Michael F. Koehn, is an economic consulting firm based in North America. It provides economic, financial, and strategic analysis and expert testimony to law firms, cor ...

since 2003. From 1993 to 1995 she served as the Assistant Secretary of Energy for Policy in the

Clinton administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory ove ...

. Previously, she was appointed to roles in state government in

by both Republican governor

William Weld William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conq ...

and Democratic governor

Michael Dukakis Michael Stanley Dukakis (; born November 3, 1933) is an American retired lawyer and politician who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history a ...

. Early in her career she was an assistant professor at the

. Tierney was expected to be named

Deputy Secretary of Energy The deputy secretary of energy is a high-ranking position within the United States Department of Energy. The Deputy Secretary is the second-highest-ranking official of the Department and assists the secretary of energy in the supervision and dire ...

under

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese f ...

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

, until she withdrew her candidacy for the position in March 2009. In September 2009, Dr. Tierney was elected to the Board of Directors of

World Resources Institute The World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global research non-profit organization established in 1982 with funding from the MacArthur Foundation under the leadership of James Gustave Speth. WRI's activities are focused on seven areas: food, fo ...

.Biosketch of Dr. Susan Tierney
at

. Accessed May 16, 2017.

Caterpillar President, Experts in Clean Tech & Energy Markets Named Directors at WRI
Accessed March 27, 2012.

Personal life

She is the sister of

James Fallows James Mackenzie Fallows (born August 2, 1949) is an American writer and journalist. He is a former national correspondent for ''The Atlantic.'' His work has also appeared in ''Slate'', ''The New York Times Magazine'', ''The New York Review of Book ...

, the noted journalist and author.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tierney, Susan F. 1951 births American women in politics Cornell University alumni Living people Massachusetts Secretaries of Environmental Affairs Scripps College alumni United States Department of Energy officials