George Bonner, PE and director of the NC Renewable Ocean Energy Program, was named a 2021-22 Veteran Advanced Energy Fellow by the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center. Bonner is among 15 Fellows from across the country.

“The Veterans Advanced Energy Fellowship continues to evolve into a world-class curriculum to develop our future leaders in the advanced energy space, building upon their national security credentials as veterans,” says Greg Douquet, co-director of the Veterans Advanced Energy Project and Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center. “We’re thrilled with the experience, expertise and potential of this cohort of Fellows — our third cohort — and expect them to shape our program in exciting and unexpected ways.”

The Fellowship focuses on developing leaders to become “peer mentors, advocates and spokespeople for other veterans, reservists and military spouses, and solidifies the advanced energy connection to national security and the mission-driven progress of veterans’ employment in advanced energy. The Fellows will take part in monthly policy webinars with experts from the Atlantic Council network; policy proposal development for publication in the Global Energy Center’s EnergySource blog; fostering veteran connections in the advanced energy industry across local communities; and participation at the 2022 Veterans Advanced Energy Summit.

“I‘m excited to work with this diverse group of leaders focused on advancing responsible energy solutions,” Bonner says. “Multidiscipline engineering collaboration with industry and government is critical to clean energy innovation and building a better tomorrow.”

Bonner, who retired from the U.S. Coast Guard in July 2019, is a national Fellow in the Society of American Military Engineers and was recognized as the American Society of Civil Engineers Norfolk Branch Government Engineer of the Year.