Sandra is the President of Slipstream, leading the organization on its mission to accelerate climate solutions for everyone. She brings decades of experience working within utilities, nonprofits, and government offices to unite stakeholders across the industry and advance a more equitable and just clean-energy future.
Previously, she was Senior Director of Energy and Sustainability at Elevate, where she led the implementation of clean energy initiatives. As the first Black woman to serve as Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Chicago, Sandra led the charge to advance the city towards 100% clean energy by signing onto Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 campaign, committing Chicago to electrify its bus fleet by 2040 and to a community-wide transition to 100% renewable energy by 2035. She guided the effort to build ground-mounted solar systems on city-owned underutilized land and steered Chicago to a win in the Bloomberg Philanthropies American Cities Climate Challenge.
Sandra is deeply committed to advancing energy efficiency in buildings as evidenced by her leadership in directing Accelerate Performance, a national initiative that brings performance-based procurement to scale for commercial new construction. Sandra also understands the importance of creating space to have crucial conversations and led the development of a Net Zero summit for private developers in Chicago that now serves as a platform for convening meaningful market transformation conversations with key stakeholders.
For more than 20 years, Sandra designed and managed energy programs for utilities in Minnesota and Illinois. She embraces market-driven strategies that integrate with the green building movement. Sandra has extensive knowledge of applied sustainability practices that can be measured successfully. She is a high-performance leader who has the unique ability to engage stakeholders at multiple levels and inspire constituents to embrace sustainable practices. She currently sits on Institute for Market Transformation Board of Directors and serves as Chair-Elect.
