Katherine Stainken is the vice president of policy at the Electrification Coalition (EC). She leads and manages the policy team at the EC, which focuses on transitioning our transportation sector to electric vehicles (EVs). In her time at the EC, she worked toward the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, wrote several in-depth reports, facilitated webinars, and grew the EC’s reach from five states to 12. Katherine also works with state agencies and the EC Business Council on various policies, including clean fuels policies, tax credits, implementation of federal policies from BIL and IRA, freedom to buy, fleet electrification, and many more.

Prior to the EC, Katherine was the policy director at Plug In America, a non-profit representing the voice of the EV consumer. She led the policy team in promoting policies that work for the EV driver at the local, city, state, and federal levels, including policies needed prior to the purchase of the vehicle and during the ownership of the vehicle. She also participated in numerous coalition efforts on behalf of EV drivers, including leading the Alliance for Transportation Electrification’s education & outreach subcommittee and policy & regulatory committee.

Before joining Plug In America, Katherine was a director of government affairs at the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), focused on policies to promote solar at the federal level as well as in the Southeast and Northeast regions, along with regulatory work at the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, and other federal agencies. Katherine was also the lead staff on the Clean Power Plan and chief liaison to the SEIA’s Solar Heating & Cooling and Environment, Health & Safety groups.

Katherine is a Fulbright and ThinkSwiss Scholar, received the Women in EVs award in 2022, participated on the advisory boards for EVGridX and VERGE ’22, and is a 2014 recipient of the Emnerging Leaders in Energy and Environmental Policy Network.

Katherine received her Master’s degree from American University in Global Environmental Policy and her Bachelor’s degree in chemistry and German from Boston College. Based in Prescott, Arizona, she also volunteers weekly with her church, has been a national champion in rowing, and is mostly fluent in German.