Join us for an inspiring conversation with three women leaders who are helping to shape California’s future.
This special event will offer a unique opportunity to gain valuable insights into their professional journeys, the challenges they have overcome, and the powerful lessons they have learned along the way.
Don’t miss this opportunity to celebrate the strength, resilience, and leadership of women who are shaping the future of water, energy, and the environment in California!
About Our Speakers:
Noemí Otilia Osuna Gallardo is serving her first term on the California Energy Commission. She was appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom in February 2023 to serve as the CEC’s attorney member. She is the first Latina appointed as a CEC commissioner.
Gallardo joined the CEC in 2019 as its Public Advisor. She later became chief of staff for CEC Chair David Hochschild.
Before joining the Energy Commission, she was senior manager of public policy at Sunrun Inc. Her professional experiences include serving as a program fellow at the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, a consultant at Gallardo Law and Policy Consulting, an energy and telecommunications legal fellow at the Greenlining Institute, and a principal investigator at the Public Law Research Institute at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (UC Law SF, formerly known as UC Hastings). Gallardo is also a state-certified interpreter in Spanish who established and ran a translation and interpretation services business in her native Ventura County.
She is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a proud mother of two. She is a first-generation college graduate who earned a Juris Doctor degree from UC Law SF, a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Southern California, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pepperdine University.
Karla Nemeth was appointed Director of the California Department of Water Resources by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. on January 10, 2018, and was reappointed by Governor Gavin Newsom on June 28, 2019.
Nemeth oversees the Department and it’s nearly 4,000 employees whose mission it is to manage and protect California’s water resources and support the reliability of California’s electrical grid. In cooperation with other agencies, DWR manages California’s water resources to benefit the state’s people and to protect, restore, and enhance the natural and human environments. Nemeth focuses on preparing the Department and state to adapt to more extreme weather as a result of climate change – investing in aging and green infrastructure, better management of groundwater supplies, and various programs to improve local water resilience. Nemeth is committed to ensuring a workplace that values diversity and inclusion, and provides for the equitable management of resources to meet the needs of California’s diverse population.
In March 2024, Nemeth was tasked by Governor Newsom to serve as advisor on the Administration’s water priorities and to lead implementation of key water projects to achieve the Governor’s Water Supply Strategy – Adapting to a Hotter, Drier Future, including modernizing California’s water conveyance infrastructure, executing Agreements to Support Healthy Rivers and Landscapes, and stabilizing Colorado River supplies. Nemeth continues to serve as Director of the Department of Water Resources in addition to this leadership role for the Governor. Prior to joining DWR, Nemeth worked at the California Natural Resources Agency as Governor Brown’s deputy secretary and senior advisor for water policy since 2014. She was the Bay Delta Conservation Plan project manager from 2009 to 2014.
Prior to her work in natural resources management, Nemeth lived, worked and traveled extensively in eastern Europe promoting the development of democratic institutions. In 2010 Nemeth traveled to the Philippines as an election monitor. She is passionate about good government and serving the public. Nemeth received a bachelor’s degree in political science and Latin American studies from the University of California at San Diego, and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Washington.
Nemeth grew up in San Diego, California where she learned to love baseball, the Pacific Ocean, and the eastern Sierra.
S. Pat Tsen was named the California Public Utilities Commission's Deputy Executive Director - Consumer Policy, Transportation, and Enforcement, effective September 15, 2022.
Pat joined the CPUC as an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) in 2013, then served as an Assistant Chief ALJ from 2018 to 2022. In these roles, she managed proceedings and drafted proposed decisions which set rates, implemented state policy goals, ensured public safety, and adjudicated customer complaints in the communications, energy, transportation, and water industries.
Before joining the CPUC, she was a Senior Corporations Counsel for the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation and reviewed securities offerings and merger/acquisition transactions of California companies.
She is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and McGeorge School of Law.
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Registration
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