Bernadette Del Chiaro has been executive director of the California Solar & Storage Association (CALSSA) for ten years. Prior to that she spent over a decade as the Director of Clean Energy and Global Warming Programs at Environment California and the Western States Regional Director for Environment America. Ms. Del Chiaro has been a leading voice on several clean energy initiatives including the Million Solar Roofs Initiative (SB 1) and the resulting California Solar Initiative, the Solar Water Heating Initiative (AB 1470), state and local renewable portfolio standards, and a variety of other policies aimed at spurring investments in distributed solar and storage technologies including net energy metering.
Over the past thirty years, Del Chiaro has also held positions with Toxics Action Center (now Community Action Works), the Fund for Public Interest Research, and Communities for a Better Environment. Out of college, she spent a formative year volunteering with the Save Ward Valley office in Needles, California, in partnership with the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe to successfully stop a proposed radioactive waste dump just miles from the Colorado River. She’s authored several clean energy reports and has been quoted widely in the media including MSNBC, NPR, BBC, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and dozens of local and trade outlets.
Bernadette is a California native and a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. She is a graduate of Green Corps, the field school for environmental organizing where she currently serves on the board of directors. She lives in Sacramento with her husband and two fast-growing teenagers.