Contact RERC Council Members

The council consists of up to 20 members representing people across the Tennessee Valley who are interested in TVA’s management of the region’s energy resources.

The council’s purpose is to gather advice from all sectors so that TVA can respond in a responsible way to the needs of people across the region. The council invites public input into its deliberations. In fact, the main reason the body exists is to increase public participation in the decision-making process.

TVA appoints a designated federal officer to facilitate the planning of the council’s meetings and reporting of its activities to the public. That office is currently held by Melanie Farrell, Vice President of External Strategy & Regulatory Oversight.

5th Term Council Members

Michael Butler

Butler is a native Tennessean who grew up in Jackson and has since lived in each grand division of the state. His enthusiasm for Tennessee’s wildlife and the great outdoors, fostered by his early outdoor experiences, prompted him to study wildlife and fisheries science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and then to obtain a master's degree in fish and wildlife management from Montana State University.

In 2002, he was promoted to the chief executive officer, a position he holds presently at Tennessee Wildlife Federation, formally Conservation League. Over the years with the Federation, his work has allowed him to engage with and solve some of Tennessee’s most critical wildlife and conservation concerns.

He has served on several conservation and community-oriented boards and was a presidential appointee to the board of trustees of the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation from 2006 until 2012.

He and his family live outside of Franklin.

Erin Gill

Gill is the Chief Policy Officer and Deputy to Mayor Indya Kincannon of the City of Knoxville. She is responsible for a number of strategic initiatives aimed at making Knoxville a vibrant and sustainable city where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. She formerly served as Director of Sustainability for the City, where she led initiatives to promote the environmental, economic, and social health of the Knoxville community via municipal leadership and community partnerships. Her professional experience focuses on improving the efficiency and resilience of urban systems and includes roles at EPA’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer and ICF International.

She has participated in numerous TVA stakeholder groups, including the 2019 Integrated Resource Plan Working Group, the Solar Stakeholder Advisory Group, and the Energy Efficiency-Information Exchange; she is also a member of the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance’s Policy Committee. She serves on the Steering Committee for the Urban Sustainability Directors Network’s Innovation Fund and served as co-chair of the Southeast Sustainability Directors Network, both of which seek to connect and support municipal sustainability professionals around the country.

She earned a B.A. in both Forestry & Environmental Studies and History from the University of Notre Dame.

Rebecca Goodman

Goodman, Kentucky Cabinet Secretary of Energy and Environment was appointed by Gov. Andy Beshear as the state’s top environmental officer in December 2019. She has served the commonwealth for more than four decades. She most recently advocated on behalf of Kentucky utility ratepayers as executive director of the Attorney General’s Office of Rate Intervention. Through her work on state and federal cases, she regularly dealt with social and environmental justice issues, which frequently concerned low-income, disadvantaged, and residential customer needs.

She formerly served as general counsel for the Kentucky Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, the Kentucky Executive Branch Ethics Commission, and the Kentucky Electric Generation and Transmission Siting Board. She formerly served as the executive director of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Office of Legal Services after beginning her career as a staff attorney for the Kentucky Public Service Commission.
She earned a Juris Doctor from Salmon P. Chase College of Law and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Kentucky State University with a B.S. in Business Administration.

Rodney Goodman

Goodman is the executive director of Habitat for Humanity in Bowling Green, Kentucky. He is responsible for promoting the affiliate’s overall vision and direction, ensuring its ability to increasingly serve families in need of simple, decent, affordable housing. The affiliate has constructed over 75 homes. They have sought out energy efficiency solutions to guarantee that their homeowners can afford to live in and own their houses. They are currently constructing a passive home that will save the homeowner 70 to 90 percent on their heating and cooling costs.

Prior to this role, he worked as the supportive housing manager for LifeSkills Inc. of Bowling Green, Kentucky. In this capacity, he and his staff were responsible for providing supportive services and housing solutions to persons experiencing homelessness and mental illness. The goal of these efforts was to assist individuals in finding decent, safe and affordable housing to aid them on their road to recovery.

He graduated from Welch College with a B.A. in Cross-Cultural Ministries.

Mary "Chrissy" Heard

Heard is a businesswoman and documentary filmmaker. Currently, she is President of HEARTS After School Tutoring Center, which provides free service for at-risk students K-5 in Columbus, Mississippi. An avid equestrian, Chrissy owned and operated Oatland Stables in Maryland, which was dedicated to training, lessons, and boarding up to 55 horses, and worked as a head wrangler at Town Creek Farm in West Point, Mississippi. Additionally, she was the head coach for a large Special Olympic Equestrian team in Maryland.

She is very active in county politics serving as Chairman of the Lowndes County Republican Party and was a delegate to the 2020 Republican Convention.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Maryland.

Dana Jeanes

Jeanes, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Administrative Officer (Secretary-Treasurer), is responsible for establishing, monitoring, and maintaining Memphis Light, Gas, and Water’s financial and administrative objectives, policies, programs, and practices. Additionally, he is responsible for Shared Services and Information Technology.

He began his career with MLGW in December 1987 as an Energy Engineer, Rates Engineer, Supervisor of Rates and Regulatory Affairs, Manager of Budget, Plant, and Rates, Director of Analysis, Strategy and Performance, and Controller.

He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Christian Brothers University in 1979 and an MBA with an emphasis in Finance and Accounting from the University of Memphis in 1994. He is a Tennessee-licensed Professional Engineer in Tennessee. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

He serves in several industry associations. He is a Board member and Past President of the Tennessee Municipal Electric Power Association. He also serves on the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association Government Relations Committee and Rates and Contracts Committee.

Jonathan Levenshus

Levenshus is the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign director of federal campaigns. The Beyond Coal Campaign is a nationwide effort to eliminate coal and gas from the electric sector by 2030 and replace the existing fossil fuel infrastructure with a clean energy economy fueled by renewable resources, such as wind and solar power and other clean technologies.

In this role, he is responsible for developing and managing campaigns to advance and defend Beyond Coal’s federal policy priorities before the White House and federal agencies, Congress, independent regulatory bodies, and regional wholesale electricity markets. He also directs the Sierra Club’s coal-to-clean energy campaign in the Tennessee Valley. Previously, he served as the organization’s senior Southeast campaign representative. He formerly worked for Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-CA) in the U.S. House of Representatives before joining the Sierra Club. He served Congresswoman Capps in a variety of capacities from 2000 to 2013, including deputy chief of staff and legislative director, where he oversaw policy, communications, and legislative matters.

A native of Southern California, he graduated magna cum laude from California State University, Long Beach, in 2000. He currently lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, with his wife and two young children.

Candy C. Johnson

Johnson has over a decade of experience as a leader in nonprofit, government, education, and various civic roles. A native of Clarksville, Tennessee, she was the youngest member of the Clarksville City Council ever elected at the age of 25. Prior to taking the helm of the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga as President and CEO in January 2021, she served as a senior advisor to Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke, where she acted on the Mayor’s senior leadership team. There she oversaw community-focused initiatives to create sustainable partnerships and external investments to advance the administration’s economic, racial and social agendas. She also led the COVID-19 Economic Recovery Alliance in partnership with Bloomberg Associates, co-created the Styles L. Hutchins Black College Student Fellowship, and led other public engagement efforts during her tenure with the Berke administration.

Prior to joining the City of Chattanooga in 2019, she worked as an independent consultant, providing strategic planning, diversity and inclusion initiatives, resource development, and educational equity advocacy services to nonprofit organizations. She also served as the policy director for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce before relocating with her husband and two children to Chattanooga in July 2017. She spent seven years as executive director of a nonprofit organization, the Clarksville-Montgomery County Education Foundation, prior to pursuing a career in policy.

She graduated from Austin Peay State University with a B.A. in public management and a Master of Public Administration from Murray State University. Additionally, she is a graduate of Leadership Clarksville, Leadership Middle Tennessee, and the Complete Tennessee Leadership Institute and is a current participant in the Harvard Young American Leaders Program. She has served as an adjunct professor for the University of Tennessee System and presently serves on several local and state boards.

Sen. Steve Livingston

Senator Livingston has been a Jackson County businessman for more than 25 years and he has distinguished himself as a community servant. Senator Livingston is a long-time member of the Scottsboro Rotary Club and has served as President of the Greater Jackson County Chamber of Commerce. He is a founding member of Leadership Jackson County and a Leadership Alabama Class 10 Class Member. Senator Livingston has also served on the Boards of the United Way, Boy Scouts of America, and on the Board of Directors of the FNB Bank of Scottsboro.

He was elected to the Alabama State Senate in November 2014, representing Senate District 8, and was re-elected in 2018. District 8 includes DeKalb, Jackson, Eastern Madison, and parts of South Huntsville.

GOPAC, a national organization focused on advancing conservative ideas and policy solutions, has selected him for its 2019 Emerging Leaders Class. He is the current chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development Committee and serves as a member of several other committees.

Additionally, he is vice-chairman of the Tennessee Valley Caucus. He serves on a number of interim committees dealing with a wide array of energy, water, state parks, and aerospace issues.

He is a member of First United Methodist Church and has served as chairman of the church’s Board of Trustees. He is a 1974 graduate of Scottsboro High School and a 1978 graduate of the University of Alabama where he earned a B.S.in History and Political Science.

Pete Mattheis

Mattheis is the chairman of the Tennessee Valley Industrial Committee's Strategic Planning Committee. He is also a principal in the Washington, D.C. firm of Stone, Mattheis, Xenopoulos & Brew P.C., where he has over 30 years of experience serving as counsel to Nucor Steel, the nation’s largest steel producer. As Nucor counsel, He has been involved with various energy-related matters, including evaluating and negotiating energy supply agreements; state and federal energy-related legislation; and utility resource and fuel use decisions. He has provided regulatory assistance to the Federal Energy Regulatory Council and Nuclear Energy Regulatory Council with regulatory matters, as well as other customer-specific power supply matters.

Dan Miller

Miller is the Director of Innovation Crossroads at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Innovation Crossroads is an entrepreneurial fellowship program that recruits energy and advanced manufacturing entrepreneurs to work collaboratively with ORNL while building their early-stage startups. He previously led multiple industrial engagement strategies for ORNL. He served as the initial director of both the Oak Ridge Carbon Fiber Composites Consortium and the TennSMART Consortium.

Before joining ORNL, he managed intellectual property at Rice University and was a mechanical design engineer at Wright Industries in Nashville. Dan holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Kettering University. He received his MBA and MS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Tennessee.

Doug Peters

Peters is the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association’s president and CEO(TVPPA). A native of Rossville, GA, he joined TVPPA in 2001. In addition to his Technical Services responsibilities, he has also served as TVPPA’s Education & Training director and as vice president of Distributors Insurance Co. (DIC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of TVPPA. He will also serve as president/CEO of DIC and Seven States Power Corporation in addition to leading TVPPA.

He holds an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Bailey Recktenwald

Recktenwald was appointed as Chief Strategy Officer for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality in January 2022. Previously, She served in various roles in state government including Policy Development Analyst for the NC Department of Administration and Special Assistant to Governor Roy Cooper’s Policy Director. In 2021, she was appointed by Governor Cooper to the North Carolina Internship Council.

She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she received dual Bachelor's degrees in Geography and Public Policy and a minor in Social and Economic Justice. During her time at Chapel Hill, she served on various student advisory boards in her capacity as president of Chapel Hill’s environmental honors fraternity. She is currently pursuing a Master of Public Administration from Clemson University where she is concentrating in Regional Sustainability.

Kari Babski-Reeves

Dr. Babski-Reeves joined the Industrial and Systems Engineering Faculty at Mississippi State University in June 2006. Prior to joining MSU, she was an assistant professor in the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech.

Her research efforts are focused on the areas of human factors, ergonomics, and safety. Specifically, her research interests include industrial ergonomics, work-related musculoskeletal disorder prevention and control, occupational biomechanics, psychosocial risk factors, work physiology, occupational safety and health, total body fatigue, localized muscle fatigue, and thermography applications in ergonomics. Her research has been funded by entities such as NIOSH, Honda, Hyundai, UPS, ClimaTech Safety Inc., Revealed Knowledge Inc., John’s Hopkins Public School of Health, and the Virginia Institute for Critical Technologies.

Her research has been published in journals including Ergonomics; IEEE Transactions: Man, Systems, and Cybernetics; Human Ecological Risk Assessment, and the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics. She is a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the Society of Automotive Engineers, and the Institute of Industrial Engineers.

She received her Ph.D., MS, and BS degrees in Industrial Engineering from Mississippi State University in 2000, 1998, and 1995 respectively.

Patrice Jordan Robinson

Robinson, Vice Chairwoman of the Memphis City Council, was elected to the council in November 2015. From 2000-2013, she served in her elected role on the Memphis City/Shelby County Schools Board of Education Commissions where she was Board President in 2004 and 2007. She distinguished herself as a Board member by chairing the Policy, Personnel, Audit, and Capital Improvements Committees and serving as an active participant on the Prevailing Wages Commission. While on the Tennessee School Boards Association’s Board of Directors, she also served as the MCS Board representative on the 2010-2011 Tennessee Legislative Network as the President, which is composed of school board members statewide who determine the Tennessee School Boards Association’s legislative agenda. She is one of roughly 50 of the 900 board members in Tennessee who have achieved the distinction of Master School Boardman in Tennessee.

Her professional expertise spans more than three decades in Human Resources, Training and Development, Counseling, Job Development, and Grant Writing. She is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources. She retired from Memphis Light Gas and Water Division as a Supervisor in Assessment & Development.

She chairs the MLGW (Memphis Light, Gas & Water) Committee, serves as Vice-Chair of the Environment Committee, and as Vice-Chair of the Planning and Zoning Committee. Additionally, Councilwoman Robinson acts as the liaison between the Healthcare Oversight Board and the Memphis Light Gas & Water Board.

She earned a Master of Science degree in Technological and Adult Education from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, with an emphasis in Management and Industrial Relations, from Memphis State University.

Alexa Voytek

Voytek is the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s (TDEC) Energy Program Administrator. She has considerable expertise working in the Electric Vehicle sector. She is knowledgeable about battery storage, integrated resource planning, electric vehicle infrastructure planning, energy-efficient mobility systems, and resiliency planning and data analytics. Among other things, she represented the state as the Tennessee Delegate at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s 25th Conference of the Parties (COP25) in Madrid (December 2019), where she spoke on State-led efforts to reduce carbon emissions and the energy impacts of the transportation sector.

She holds a M.A. from Columbia University in Russian, East European, Balkan, and Eurasian Studies and a B.A. from Duke University with high honors in History & Russian Language.

Clay Walker

Walker is the CEO of NETWORKS Sullivan Partnership, where he leads the economic development efforts of Sullivan County, Tennessee as well as the marketing and recruitment in neighboring Hawkins County. He has been in his current position since January 2014. Over the past four years, NETWORKS and its community partners have helped generate more than 3,500 jobs becoming known as “Where Tennessee Begins Its Business Day!”

He has more than two decades of expertise in economic development, having worked at the community and regional levels and leading his own consulting firm. Accepting the position of Executive Director for the Gallatin Economic Development Agency in 2005, Walker relocated to Tennessee from Kentucky. In KY he had served as Vice President, Economic Development for West Kentucky Corporation, a 45-county organization.

He chaired the Tennessee Economic Partnership last year and is a member of the Tennessee Economic Development Council, the Southern Economic Development Council, and the International Economic Development Council. He was recognized as one of the Top 50 Economic Developers in North America by Consultant Connect in 2017.

He is from Paducah, Kentucky. He is a graduate of Murray State University and the Economic Development Institute at Oklahoma University. Additionally, he is a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD), as designated by the International Economic Development Council.

John Warren

John is the director of the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy. He previously served as the director of government affairs for Greenbiologics, offering expertise in government programs and regulations.

As director of project development and government relations with Osage Bio Energy from 2008 to 2011, he worked to expedite plant development, direct permit, and compliance activities, fulfill renewable fuel producer requirements, and establish industry and government relationships. From April 2001 to 2008, Warren served as the state energy office director in the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy.

He holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech, a diploma in energy management from North Carolina State University/Virginia Tech, and an M.P.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Lloyd Webb

Lloyd is the Director of Energy Procurement for Olin Chlor Alkali, in Charleston, Tenn., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Olin Corporation. The company is primarily involved in the production and sale of caustic soda, chlorine, and derivatives thereof in North America.

In addition to his position at Olin Chlor Alkali, he serves as chair of the Strategic Planning Committee for the Tennessee Valley Industrial Committee (TVIC). He has also served as chairman of the Electricity Consumers Resource Council and the East Tennessee Energy Consumers. In addition to his TVIC duties, he is treasurer of the Louisiana Energy Users Group.