Andrea Luecke
President & Executive Director
The Solar Foundation
Paula Glover
President & Chief Executive Officer
American Association of Blacks in Energy
Karla Loeb
Chief Policy and Development Officer
Sigora Solar
The United States has 242,343 solar workers and more than 3 million workers employed in clean energy jobs. But the renewable energy sector is behind in representing the country's diverse demographic makeup. The latest National Solar Jobs Census found only 26 percent of U.S. solar workers are women and only 8 percent are African American. The U.S. Solar Industry Diversity Study, released this spring by The Solar Foundation and SEIA, found there is a large gender gap in wages, career advancement, and job satisfaction. In order to diversify this sector, which studies show makes industries more profitable and competitive, organizations must shift gears and implement best practices to attract and retain personnel from diverse ethnicities and backgrounds. In this session, industry leaders will share successful case studies about equitable, inclusive, and diverse practices and approaches they have applied in order to make clean energy jobs and the renewable energy industry accessible to underrepresented groups.