Lara is passionate about technologies that meaningfully reduce carbon emissions and contribute to a cleaner environment. At Actuate, she designs and runs programs that get emissions-reducing technologies on the ground faster: experimenting with systems innovation approaches that will speed demonstration, deployment, and scale-up of climate change mitigation infrastructure. Prior to Actuate, Lara worked on energy technology innovation at Exelon. She led the Corporate Strategy technical team, advising the company on energy technology trends, investing in early- and mid-stage energy storage companies, and running Exelon’s partnership R&D program. Before her time at Exelon, she directed the Office of Energy Supply Security in the U.S. DOE Office of Policy and Systems Analysis, where she was responsible for policy and analysis related to coal, gas, and nuclear power and energy cyber and physical security. She served as AAAS Congressional Science and Engineering Fellow for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, focusing on nuclear power and waste issues, energy finance, and electricity storage. She received her PhD from MIT in Engineering Systems, studying deployment of advanced technologies for nuclear waste recycling, and she holds dual masters degrees from MIT in nuclear engineering and technology policy. She completed her B.S. in physics at UCLA.