Rachel Smith

Policy Manager

An action-oriented policy and program manager tackling climate change through evidence-based policy design and execution. Most recently, Rachel led the implementation of the Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Credit (48C) Program at the U.S. Department of Energy which was expanded with a $10 billion investment under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). Prior to joining DOE, Rachel led climate impact due diligence assessments on $1.5 billion of TPG Rise Climate investments and advised senior investors on the impact of the IRA. Earlier in her career, she supported climate policy initiatives across the energy and agriculture sectors at the Bipartisan Policy Center. She has also contributed to international policy research on climate adaptation and nature-based solutions at the Basque Centre for Climate Change in Bilbao, Spain and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ in Leipzig, Germany.

Rachel holds a MS in Global Change: Ecosystem Science and Policy from a dual degree program through the University College Dublin and Justus Liebig University Giessen and a BS in Civil Engineering from Bucknell University. Rachel grew up in rural Pennsylvania and currently resides in Washington, DC.