Teryn Norris

Teryn Norris is a nationally recognized social entrepreneur and policy analyst.  He is a recipient of the Truman Scholarship, the highest award in the United States for young public service leaders, and he graduated from Stanford University in 2011 with a B.A. in Public Policy.

Over the past five years, Teryn has served as one of the country's leading young voices for federal policies to strengthen U.S. energy innovation and economic competitiveness.  In 2009, he founded Americans for Energy Leadership (AEL), a nonprofit organization that advanced federal investments in clean energy research and trained young energy policy leaders.  He served as the organization's President until 2012, when it merged with the Pew Charitable Trusts to launch a new national policy initiative.

Teryn previously served as Senior Advisor and Project Director at the Breakthrough Institute, a public policy think tank, where he co-authored several acclaimed reports on economic competitiveness policy, and founded the Breakthrough Fellowship Program. In 2007, the Obama Campaign adopted a proposal he co-authored to invest $150 billion in clean energy technology, which eventually shaped the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009.  In 2008 he co-authored the National Energy Education Act proposal, leading to the Department of Energy's Re-ENERGYSE initiative.

Teryn has co-founded and advised several other nonprofit projects.  He served on the Johns Hopkins President's Task Force on Climate Change and the Advisory Board to Focus the Nation, and in 2011 he catalyzed a national "Stop The Brain Drain" movement to encourage more young people to pursue careers in entrepreneurship and public service instead of Wall Street.

Teryn has appeared on national television and radio and published in the Harvard Law & Policy Review, National Journal, Issues in Science & Technology, Forbes, San Francisco Chronicle, Huffington Post, Yale E360, The Plain Dealer, Baltimore Sun and other publications.  He currently lives in Washington, DC.