Getting ready for Empower Kentucky Summit, September 30-October 1 in Louisville

UPDATED - September 25, 2016

The Empower Kentucky Summit, which kicks off Friday evening in Louisville, is shaping up to be one of the largest and most diverse gatherings ever in Kentucky focused on ways to build a clean energy economy - one that works for all of us. More than 210 people are coming from communities large and small across our Commonwealth and at least 12 other states!

Registration is still open, so register now and invite your friends. The cost to register is a donation of any size. 

Kentuckians want an energy future that provides good jobs and health, advances racial and economic justice, and reduces the risks and harms of global climate change. This summit is an exciting opportunity to learn about solutions that are already working in communities around the country, and shape progress here at home towards that shared vision. 

The Summit starts 7 to 10 pm on September 30 and continues from 9 am to 5 pm on Saturday, October 1. 

Below is just a taste of some of the amazing presenters and performers we will enjoy and learn from:

On Friday night, Leyla McCalla will play a concert during the event kick-off.

Leyla McCalla plays cello, tenor banjo and guitar and sings in French, Haitian Creole and English. Her music is influenced by traditional Creole, Cajun and Haitian music, as well as American jazz and folk. She toured with the Carolina Chocolate Drops and played on their grammy-nominated 2012 album Leaving Eden. Her debut solo album, Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes, was named 2013’s Album of the Year by the London Sunday Times and Songlines magazine. She lives in New Orleans. 

Our keynote address will be delivered on Saturday by Curtis Wynn, CEO of Roanoke Electric Cooperative in North Carolina.

Mr. Wynn is the first African American in the nation to serve as the top executive of a rural electric cooperative. Under his leadership, Roanoke Electric has received many awards, including the 2000 and 2005 National Rural Electric Cooperative Community Service Network Award. Today his co-op is a national leader in providing affordable energy efficiency services to its customers.

Participants may choose among 12 exciting workshops, featuring dozens of innovative leaders from Kentucky and across the country, including:

• Emily Stiever, chief of staff for the Community Power Network, a national nonprofit that helps communities build and promote local renewable energy projects and policies, including efforts to bring solar to low-income communities and households.

• 

  Meegan Kelly, senior research analyst with Industry Program of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE). Meegan is an expert in policies and programs that affect energy efficiency of the US industrial sector.

• Ahmina Maxey, campaign coordinator with the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA). Previously, Ahmina worked to protect the health and environmental of her community in Detroit, Michigan with the Zero Waste Detroit coalition and the East Michigan Environmental Action Council.

• Jacqui Patterson, national director of the NAACP's Environmental and Climate Justice Program.

• Simon Mahan, director of the Southern Wind Energy Association.

• And many other leading voices from across Kentucky and around the country, including Josh Bills, Nancy Givens, Chris Woolery, Eboni Cochrane, Scott Drake, Joni Hazelrigg, Steve Wilkins, Beverly May, Sarah Lynn Cunningham, Cara Cooper, David Brown Kinloch, Matt Partymiller, Teresa Martin, Eric Dixon, Rebecca Peek, Donna Aros, Tim Darst, Susan Classen, Shannon Woolley, Bob Martin, Tammy Agard, Holmes Hummel, Michael Leon Guerrero, Mick Power and so many more. 

The ideas shared and gathered during this Summit will inform the Empower Kentucky Plan, a proposal for a just energy transition being developed by members of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth with input from more than 1,000 Kentuckians at events held in each congressional district earlier in 2016.

If you are interested in being part of an informed, creative, and justice-oriented conversation to shape an agenda and strengthen a movement for a bright energy future in Kentucky, please register now to join us in Louisville, September 30 – October 1.