Andrea Watson is director of the Strategic Partnerships Office at NREL. In this role, she leads a team that works to expand the lab’s mission impact through work with non-U.S. Department of Energy partners.

Prior to this role, Watson served as the laboratory program manager for strategy where she facilitated the development of NREL’s lab agenda and worked with NREL’s leadership team to manage execution of the strategic plan. She spent 11 years in NREL’s Energy Systems Integration Directorate, as both a researcher and group manager for the Integrated Decision Support Group. Watson also led the portfolio of work NREL does in collaboration with USAID. Her experience lies in strategic planning, change strategies, and decision-making support as applied to clean energy projects and programs. She has specific expertise in clean energy solutions for emission mitigation, international climate change strategies, and renewable energy applications applied to the mining industry.

Watson was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2014 to study renewable energy in the mining industry in Chile. In 2017, she was honored with an NREL Chairman’s Award for exceptional performance; and, in 2018, she received an NREL Staff Award for outstanding performance. She was highlighted as one of DOE’s Women @ Energy in 2019.

Education

Masters of Engineering in Engineering Management, University of Colorado at Boulder

B.A. Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley

2014 – Completed a U.S. Department of State Fulbright Scholarship to Chile focusing on renewable energy decision-making in the mining industry.