Kerry C. Duggan

Kerry C. Duggan is a nationally recognized policy leader, strategist, founder, corporate board director and global public speaker with over two decades of experience working at the vital intersection of environmental stewardship and economic development. She specializes in translating complex policy into execution, leveraging deep expertise in place-based community engagement to break the silos that prevent markets and governments from acting at speed.

In 2017, Kerry founded Energy Security Partners (ESP.earth), a strategic advisory firm counseling CEOs, boards, investors, and public-sector leaders on energy security, resilience, and complex system strategy. She operates in high-stakes environments where execution risk is paramount. She is on the corporate boards of Perma-Fix (NASDAQ: PESI) and BlueGreen Water Technologies, and on advisory boards including Arctaris Impact Investors and Commonweal Ventures. She was previously a Partner at the firm of Hon. Tom Ridge.

Kerry’s career is anchored by service at the highest levels of the U.S. government. At the White House, she served as Deputy Director for Policy to then-Vice President Joe Biden and as Deputy Director of President Barack Obama's Detroit Federal Working Group, coordinating over 20 federal agencies, proving that execution at scale is possible, even under extreme constraints, by prioritizing community engagement over top-down approaches. At the U.S. Department of Energy, she held senior roles including Director of Legislative, Regulatory & Urban Affairs, and later served on the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board under Secretary Granholm.

A three-time appointee of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Kerry serves on the Michigan Council on Climate Solutions and the inaugural Detroit Women’s Commission (fmr Mayor Duggan appointee).

Her work today is driven by this core thesis: the Great Lakes, anchored by Detroit, represent a unique region of long-term stability. As market and physical risk reshape migration patterns, Kerry advances a deliberate “receiver-city” strategy to ensure growth strengthens communities rather than displacing them.

A former Division I basketball player at St. John’s University and the University of Vermont, Kerry earned her B.S. from UVM and her M.S. from the University of Michigan, where she now has a faculty appointment at the School for Environment and Sustainability.

She was the one coaches wanted on the court when the team was down with only seconds on the clock. Not much has changed.