Clean Cities Awards Virginia's Chelsea Jenkins Coordinator of the Year

For the first time in its 15 year history, The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Clean Cities program has given the honor of Clean Cities' Coordinator of the Year to two people. In recognition of their extraordinary achievements during the past year, Chelsea Jenkins from Virginia and Mindy Mize from Texas, were awarded the honor at the 2009 Clean Cities Coordinator Leadership Retreat in Gatlinburg, Tenn.  The joint honors were awarded as a result of exceptional accomplishments in their local and regional communities as well as for their leadership efforts to team up with other Clean Cities coordinators across the country in support of national initiatives.  Jenkins serves as the executive director of Virginia Clean Cities, which supports alternative fuel and vehicle deployment activities throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. Virginia Clean Cities provides technical, funding, and project management assistance to stakeholders ranging from individual vehicle owners to small government fleets to large commercial fleets.
 
"It is hard to believe that Chelsea has only been a Clean Cities coordinator for four years," says Dennis A. Smith, National Clean Cities director. "She has the energy and spirit of a real innovator and quickly earned the respect of her peers.  Her efforts have produced solid results in record time." One of these results is Virginia's reduction in petroleum use. In 2008, under Jenkins' leadership, Virginia Clean Cities reduced petroleum consumption in Virginia by 2.7 million GGE.
 
Among her accomplishments, Jenkins managed the VA-MD-DC E85 ethanol regional Infrastructure Project and her coalition will also be managing one of the large federal projects funded under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). The project will convert over 1,000 vehicles to run on propane in nine southeastern states, will create a propane refueling corridor from Maryland to Florida to Mississippi, and will launch a far-reaching professional marketing, education, and training campaign.
 
Jenkins hosts numerous workshops on alternative fuels and transportation technologies including idle reduction, natural gas, biodiesel, ethanol, and propane.  She also recently managed a critical DOE education and outreach project to host hydrogen and fuel cell workshops. In addition, Jenkins helps educate elected officials at the federal level as part of the Energy Independence Days initiative and helps with the Virginia General Assembly Education Day.
 
"It is a pleasure working with our stakeholders in Virginia and nationwide," says Jenkins. "We are making incredible strides in alternative fuel use and interest in petroleum reduction programs has gained considerable momentum recently." 
 
For Clean Cities, Jenkins serves on the national Clean Cities coordinator council where she leads the information resources team, which works to identify and help develop coordinator information and resource needs. In 2008 she was elected co-chair of the coordinator council.Her latest honor, Clean Cities Coordinator of the Year, was awarded on Nov. 4 during a Clean Cities retreat in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  At this same meeting she was re-elected by her peers to serve another term as co-chair of the coordinator council.
 
The Clean Cities program strives to advance the nation's economic, environmental, and energy security by supporting local decisions to adopt practices that contribute to the reduction of petroleum consumption. Clean Cities has a network of approximately 90 volunteer coalitions, which develop public/private partnerships to promote alternative fuels and advanced vehicles, fuel blends, fuel economy, hybrid vehicles, and idle reduction. For more information, visit www.eere.energy.gov/cleancities. 

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