Dana-Marie Thomas is a researcher in the Resilient Systems Design and Engineering Group in NREL’s Energy Security and Resilience Center. Her myriad of professional expertise includes a policy background in cyber and energy security, including cybersecurity for critical infrastructure, regulatory compliance, behavioral science, and public health. She is interested in community resilience and social vulnerability, the intersection of energy, resilience, the built environment, and health, as well as metrics and return on investment for all of these topics.

At NREL, Thomas develops tools and research to enhance stakeholder participation and equity in the clean energy transition and address community vulnerabilities in an evolving threat landscape. She conducts energy security and resilience assessments that help partners improve energy system reliability and performance at their facilities, considering supply chain disruptions, natural hazards, security risks, and other factors. Thomas also studies cybersecurity best practices to inform policy, implementation, resilience, and good governance for securing critical infrastructure.

Research Interests

Energy resilience

Energy access and equity

Clean energy technologies

Technical assistance for community decision-making

Stakeholder and community engagement

Nexus of energy, water, and food systems

Artificial intelligence applications for renewable energy systems and natural disaster resilience

Cybersecurity in manufacturing

Human dimensions of cyber resilience

Agrivoltaics

Education

Ph.D., Public Policy and Administration, Virginia Commonwealth University

M.S., Cybersecurity Management and Policy, University of Maryland Global Campus

B.S., Marketing, Morgan State University

Associations and Memberships

Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Member, Cloud Security Alliance

Member, Association for Data and Cyber Governance

Member, Women in Cybersecurity

Member, Scrum Alliance

Featured Work

Measuring and Valuing Resilience: A Literature Review for the Power Sector, NREL Technical Report (2023)

Guide to the Distributed Energy Resource Risk Management Framework, NREL Technical Report (2022)