Who We Are

Gabe Klein is the executive director of the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. Previously, he served as the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation and director of the Washington, D.C., District Department of Transportation, where he revamped technology platforms and government processes while focusing on putting people (versus cars) first on city streets. This included launching two of the first and largest solar-powered bikeshare systems in the country and building protected bike lanes and better pedestrian infrastructure for vulnerable citizens citywide, as well as facilitating private services like carshares and rideshares to support city mobility goals.

He honed his creativity and leadership skills working in business as vice president at Zipcar and national director of stores at Bikes USA. He also co-founded CityFi, a consulting firm to help city leaders, chief executive officers, and others understand the complexities of 21st century challenges, facilitate people-centric solutions, and use new models and technology-based tools to deliver optimized results. Clients ranged from foreign governments to cities, states, start-ups, and publicly traded companies.

In 2015, he published Start-Up City: Inspiring Private and Public Entrepreneurship, Getting Projects Done, and Having Fun. The book focuses on revamping how we innovate in cities and rethinking public-private partnerships as technology shapes a dramatically different future. He received a bachelor’s degree in marketing management from Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business and an executive certificate in transportation/mobility management from The Wharton School. He also served on the 2020 Biden-Harris Agency Review Team for the U.S. Department of Transportation with a focus on innovation, including transportation electrification and program delivery.

Dr. Rachael Nealer is the deputy director for the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. She also chairs the Transportation Research Board’s Alternative Fuels and Technologies Committee. Throughout her career, she has focused on researching transportation as a system of systems and developing strategies around how to decarbonize transportation through technology development in concert with supporting policies.

Previously, she held various positions, including deputy director of transportation technology and policy for the White House Council on Environmental Quality and senior advisor and chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy, Hydrogen and Fuel Cell, and Vehicle Technologies Offices. She has also worked in the nonprofit sector, at the Union of Concerned Scientists, researching the lifetime environmental impacts of electric vehicles compared to gasoline vehicles. Before that, she worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuels Standard Office.

She received her joint doctorate in civil and environmental engineering and engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University, where she specialized in the lifecycle environmental impacts of transportation.

Sarah Hipel is the acting chief technology officer within the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, where she leads innovation and strategy to advance electric and connected mobility and infrastructure development. Previously, she served as the standards and reliability program manager, overseeing a portfolio that included reliability metrics, charging protocols and standards, cybersecurity guidance, best practices, and tools for collaboration and product development. An accomplished engineer with a passion for e-mobility, Sarah specializes in interoperable mobility infrastructure. She has extensive experience in the electric and connected vehicle fields, with strong technical proficiency in high-voltage charging, commercial vehicle design, and advanced security control strategies.

Sarah is recognized for her expertise in mobility industry strategy, program planning and development, resource management, technical system design, and performance evaluation. She is also an expert in regression, acceptance, unit, contract, and interoperability testing. With a career defined by leadership and technical excellence, Sarah continues to advance the vision of connected, electric, autonomous, and secure mobility solutions, positioning the Joint Office as a leader in the clean transportation revolution.

Sarah has a B.S. in analytic philosophy from Eastern Michigan University.

Jonathan Willingham is the chief of staff for the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. His career has focused on strategic planning, operational leadership, and political management. Serving as chief of staff to Mary Cheh for 14 years, he acted as Chair of the Committee on Transportation and the Environment at the Council of the District of Columbia, overseeing the operations of both her personal and committee offices.

In addition to a heavy focus on economic policy, he worked on issues related to electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, personal delivery devices, transportation network companies, and public-private partnerships for infrastructure. The committee advanced some of the most progressive multimodal and environmentally conscious transportation legislation in the country, including measures that expanded public electric vehicle (EV) charging and required make-ready EV charging infrastructure in all new buildings in the District of Columbia.

Before working in government, Willingham was a litigation attorney serving as law clerk to the Hon. Geoffrey M. Alprin of the District of Columbia Superior Court. He received his legal degree from the George Washington University Law school, where he taught legal writing and rhetoric as a visiting associate professor and professorial lecturer in law. He also served for ten years on the board of the GW Law Alumni Association, two years as president, and participated in two decanal searches. His bachelor's degree is from Wake Forest University, where he has served on several boards, including his current role on the Alumni Council.

Linda Bailey is the program manager for technical assistance within the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. Linda leads efforts to help states, cities, counties, and tribes succeed as the United States expands infrastructure for a low-carbon transportation future.

Prior to this position, Linda served as the Vision Zero director for the District of Columbia Department of Transportation (DDOT). She led efforts to accelerate and innovate traffic safety improvements throughout the District. Before that, she served as the executive director of the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), where she worked on policy initiatives to support more sustainable city transportation at the national level, including everything from regulatory support for multimodal street design to automated vehicles.

During her tenure as executive director and previously as an adviser, NACTO published three new national design guides for bicycle facilities, urban streets, and transit-first streets. These publications enabled cities to hone best practices for building city streets that further each community’s vision for its future. Previously, she worked for the City of New York on projects including climate policy, vision zero, expressway removal, advocacy for better federal support of city transportation projects, and collaboration with the State of New York on federally funded projects.

Overall, Linda has over twenty years of experience working on sustainable transportation policies with work that has spanned research, advocacy, and implementation. Her publications include The Broader Connection between Public Transportation, Energy Conservation and Greenhouse Gas Reduction, Aging Americans: Stranded without Options, and Improving Metropolitan Decision Making in Transportation: Greater Funding and Devolution for Greater Accountability. She also contributed to the NACTO Urban Street Design Guide, the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide, Mean Streets, Measuring the Health Effects of Sprawl, Clearing the Air; and Driven to Spend.

Ms. Bailey has a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Michigan.

Alice Friedman is the program manager for data and analysis for the Joint Office. During her nearly 20 years of experience in public policy and technology, Alice has focused on efficient and effective public service delivery and policy implementation. She was most recently a Product Manager in the technology sector, where she worked with a team of data scientists to develop traffic metrics based on probe data to support multi-modal transportation planning. Previously, she has worked as a planner at the NYC Department of Transportation, Baltimore City Planning Department, and Planning & Community Development Department in Easton, MA.

Alice holds both a master’s and a bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies and Planning from MIT and a master’s degree in Data Science from the City University of New York School of Professional Studies.

Steve Lommele is the communications and education program manager. In this role, he leads communications and stakeholder engagement, supports technical assistance and capacity building, and collaborates with internal and external partners.

Steve joined the Joint Office as program manager in 2024, but previously supported the Joint Office from 2022-2024 as interim communications and stakeholder engagement lead through a detail assignment from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

He joined NREL in 2008 and is a project leader in the Center for Integrated Mobility Sciences. Previously, he led collaborative efforts with end-users of NREL and U.S. Department of Energy transportation and mobility research to deploy innovative solutions for advanced transportation projects, encompassing alternative fuels, mobility systems, electric vehicles, fleet operation, and transportation efficiency. He also worked with Clean Cities coalitions and other industry stakeholders on efforts related to the energy impacts of evolving transportation technologies, managed the Alternative Fueling Station Locator, and coordinated standards development for electric vehicle supply equipment data sharing.

Before joining NREL, he worked as an outreach and education field programs manager for the International Mountain Bicycling Association, where he traveled the country and worked with advocates and land managers in 43 states. He also spent six years working in public relations, supporting clients in the technology industry. He holds a master’s degree in environmental policy and management from the University of Denver and a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Jacob Mathews is the acting program manager for standards and reliability within the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. Prior to this role, Jacob served as the senior advisor in the standards and reliability group focusing on charging communication standards, interoperability and charging system security, and reliability.

Jacob is an experienced electrical systems engineering professional with a passion for vehicle electrification. Before joining the Joint Office, Jacob had a long career with Ford Motor Company where he served as a Manager of Electrification and Test Technologies responsible for developing advance test methods EVs, conducting advance research in connected EVs, vehicle to grid/home technologies, interfacing with standards development organizations, external entities, agencies, utilities, and policy makers to help shape regulations, standards, and policies for EV infrastructure that would promote EV adoption. Jacob served on the board of CharIN NA, Inc., and as a founding member, helped to promote consistent EV charging standards across North America.

With over 30 years of experience in product design and development, he holds numerous patents, many in EV technologies. Jacob earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Temple University and a Master of Science Degree in Electrical & Computer Controls Engineering from Wayne State University.