2025-2026 Clean Energy Fellows: Pacific Northwest Clean Agriculture Cohort
Pacific Northwest
This cohort, consisting of leaders from across the Pacific Northwest, is tasked with reviewing and refining innovative and equitable tools for engaging students in clean agriculture energy use practices. Primarily taking the form of curriculum development and assessment, this process leverages the expertise of regional industry leaders, natural resource management groups, as well as the localized educational knowledge of Fellows to broaden public understanding of the how the clean energy transition and modern agriculture practices within the region in shaping the economy both past and present and what the future of this industry will look like. This project emphasizes equitable, values-driven stakeholder inclusion, offering students the opportunity to engage with varying community perspectives to draw their own conclusions about the roles of new technologies on local farms and ranches and the potential impacts.
Clean Energy Fellows in the Pacific Northwest Clean Agriculture Cohort work in a small cohort to collaboratively discuss the implementation and integration of energy curriculum and identify ways to increase the use of that curriculum across their states. This cohort works with existing curriculum and resources to build connections between the curriculum, students, the emerging energy workforce, and the advanced grid. Educators align their work with CE’s Leadership Priorities, incorporating place-based issues of justice in their final product.
Fellows complete this experience equipped with the capacity to share findings and outcomes that they develop with statewide and national educator and industry audiences. Starting with professional development in their home districts, Fellows will continue to expand the reach of the program and tools through additional trainings and conversations in educational conferences, industry circles, CE trainings, and Fellow mentorship opportunities.
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Collaborative Partners
Collaborative Partner
Collaborative Partner
Funding Partners
Bonneville Power Administration
Meet the Clean Energy Fellows
Carmen Lawson
Madras Elementary School, Madras OR
Carmen Lawson was born in Concord, CA and developed an early interest in teaching. Carmen moved to Oregon for college in 1998.
She pursued an education and training in Teaching with a focus in English as a Second Language and a Reading Specialist. This eventually led to a career in teaching the third grade at Madras Elementary School in Jefferson County, Oregon. Throughout her career, she has become known for leadership and advocating for equity in minimizing the opportunity gap.
In addition to her professional work. Carmen is a single mother of three sons. She loves to hike along the Deschutes River with her Bird Dog, eat tacos at area food trucks, and fosters Mustang horses.
Today, Carmen continues to lead at her school as an educator, advocate for the teaching union, and builds irreplaceable relationships with students.
Dong Lin
Associate Professor, Oregon State University, Corvallis OR
Dr. Dong Lin is currently an associate professor at Oregon State University. He earned his Ph.D. in manufacturing direction from the School of Industrial Engineering at Purdue University in 2013. Subsequently, he served as a research associate under the guidance of Professors R. Byron Pipes and Gary J. Cheng at Purdue until 2015. His current research focuses on microstructure control in laser powder bed fusion, 3D printing of aerogels, bio-inspired manufacturing of metal-graphene composites, and 3D printing of continuous carbon fiber composites. He has authored 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, many of which have been published in prestigious journals, including Advanced Materials, Nature Communications, ACS Nano, Advanced Functional Materials, Nano Energy, Small, and Acta Materialia.
Notably, Dr. Lin has led a collaborative effort resulting in the achievement of a Guinness World Record for producing the world’s lightest material (0.5 mg/cm³) through 3D printing. His research outputs have garnered recognition from over 136,000 websites, including Science Daily, Materials Today, and MSN, as well as from the TV station KSNT. In recognition of his significant contributions to the advanced manufacturing field, Dr. Lin has received the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, the Chao and Trigger Young Manufacturing Engineer Award (honoring young manufacturing researchers under 40 with the potential for fundamental contributions to the science and technology of manufacturing processes), and the Outstanding Paper Award at the SME 49th North American Manufacturing Research Conference (NAMRC). Additionally, he was selected to participate in the 2021 National Academy of Engineering (NAE) European Union-U.S. Frontiers of Engineering (EU-US FOE) Symposium. Dr. Lin also serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Manufacturing Processes (JMP) and was selected as Outstanding Associate Editor of JMP.
Laura Womack
Mansfield High School, Mansfield WA
Laura is a middle and high school science teacher at the Mansfield School District. She is passionate about Agriculture Science and the transition towards sustainable farming practices. She works on ways to integrate clean energy topics into agriculture lessons for her students. Laura is also the District 3 Representative for the Washington Association of Science Teachers.