Nelson Falkenburg believes in finding fair and fast ways to build clean energy. A leader in state-level siting and permitting reform, he previously worked as a Senior Associate at Clean Air Task Force (CATF), where he helped shape practical solutions to speed up clean energy deployment. Before that, Nelson served as the Legislative Coordinator at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and as staff to the Washington State Senate Ways and Means Committee. Nelson’s experience in state government grounds his work in the practical realities and challenges of policy design and delivery—and he knows exactly how decisions made by policymakers ripple out to the people they affect.
Nelson earned his Master of Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, where he served as the inaugural Graduate Sustainability Fellow in the Dynamic Sustainability Lab. His research focused on critical mineral and battery development—core challenges of the clean energy transition—and today, he brings that same forward-looking focus to accelerating the buildout of energy infrastructure across the country.