Dawn Lippert

Dawn Lippert is CEO of Elemental Excelerator and Director of Innovation and Community at Emerson Elemental. Elemental Excelerator (EEx) is a startup program Dawn founded in Hawaii in 2012 that helps startups change the world, one community at a time. Each year, the program finds 12-15 companies and funds each company up to $1 million to improve systems that impact people’s lives: energy, water, agriculture, and transportation. EEx has awarded over $20 million to more than 50 companies that improve infrastructure in order to transform communities. EEx is a non-profit created in collaboration with Emerson Collective and is funded by a coalition of utility partners, corporate partners, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Department of Energy, state government, and philanthropic organizations. In addition to leading Elemental Excelerator, Dawn is the Chair of the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative Advisory Board, a board of key energy decision makers who ensure progress toward Hawaii’s goal of 100% renewable energy by 2045. Dawn is a recipient of the 2015 C3E Award from the Clean Energy Ministerial and was selected as an Omidyar Fellow by the Hawaii Leadership Forum. She also serves on the boards of WiRE (Women in Renewable Energy, an organization she founded in 2011) and Incubatenergy Network (a national network of clean energy organizations organized by the U.S. Department of Energy). Prior to Elemental Excelerator, Dawn was a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton’s alternative energy practice in Washington DC. She also worked on energy and environmental projects in various communities around the world, including Africa, India, and Latin America. Dawn graduated cum laude from Yale University with a B.A. in environmental studies. She received her Master’s degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Management.