Rachael Nealer

Deputy Director, Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (U.S. Department of Transportation)

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.