I was born and raised in
Washington, D.C., actually,
and lived there my entire life,
went to college at the
University of Maryland
in College Park.
I can deal with a pretty high
level of chaos
or chaotic atmosphere and stay
very focused.
And I do think that's because
when you grow up
the last child of eight,
you pretty much grow up 
in a circus. 
I have a very low 
laugh threshold. 
I laugh like my mother. 
She had this great belly laugh
and you would hear her
throughout the house
and it would just make you laugh
just to listen to her.
The best decision I made was to
decide at the age of 40 
that I was not too old 
to have kids. 
Lauren is going on 15 and then
she's going to be 30. 
And she is very 
dedicated to school
and she's a great soccer player.
My son Nicholas is 
quite the opposite. 
He would like to never have to
go to school again. He's 12.
My husband was also in the
nuclear energy field
for many years, 
he's retired now. 
And my husband
and I both golf, 
and we're teaching the 
kids to golf. 
My husband is a 
far better golfer. 
I travel quite a bit, I spend a
lot of time at work, 
and so rather than go 
someplace on vacation
to find a happy place,
I decided that I would invest my
time, energy and effort 
to really create an environment
here at home. 
I am passionate about
landscaping. 
And what I enjoy about
landscaping is that you have 
the opportunity to really 
bring out the best
in a situation that 
you're looking at,
to set a very strong foundation,
but then to watch it 
come to fruition.
Very much like the industry that
we're a part of, 
where we're being very attentive
to the foundation 
that we're setting,
and how can we make this same
environment thrive and grow, 
and are there different ways
that we can look at it
to really bring out the best?
Clean energy is something 
that I think about
for my children's future.
In fact, that's one of the
reasons that I'm so passionate
about nuclear energy.
I'm sort of inspired by I guess
the underdog, you know, 
I'm inspired by things that feel
like they haven't been given
due credit or due attention.
It's a bit what the industry 
is going through, 
that I feel like it is a bit 
of an underdog, 
that it hasn't been given 
the due credit 
and the due attention, a 
bit of an unsung hero. 
So I think it actually 
matches very well, 
that it makes me passionate to
want to make sure
that it's very clear all
the value that's being
brought to the table,
and how important that that is
to us as a nation.
I'm really excited about 
this conference. 
We have a great group of folks
that are coming together. 
We have policymakers, 
we have NEI members,
utilities, supplier members,
just a great group of folks that
are coming together 
to create dialogue and
discussion about the industry - 
our challenges and positive
moves for the future. 
There's just a lot to talk about
- really excited about it.
