Awards and Current Winners
Senator Susan Collins (ME)
Additionally, during the Annual Conference, NEUAC recognizes the extraordinary work of our members and partners for their contributions to the goal of providing energy assistance to those most in need:
Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD)
The Corporate Excellence Award recognizes outstanding achievements by a company or corporate entity on behalf of its economically challenged customers. Utilities or other corporate partners may be nominated who demonstrate innovative practices, outstanding community partnership, or impressive depth of programming directed at lowering the energy burdens of vulnerable populations or addressing household energy crises in their communities.
Rhonda Harper
The Sister Pat Kelley Achievement Award recognizes a person with exemplary achievement in furthering the National Energy and Utility Affordability Coalition’s (NEUAC) objectives of increasing public awareness of access issues related to heating and cooling, advancing energy assistance policy, and promoting charitable energy assistance. Sister Pat Kelley was a nun based in St. Louis, Missouri, with the Sisters of Charity order. She founded the national effort to advocate for vulnerable households for energy assistance. After the summer of 1980 when hundreds of vulnerable citizens died during a terrible midwest heatwave, Sister Pat Kelley started an organization, Missouri EnergyCare, that would eventually become the National Fuel Funds Network and later NEUAC, with a mission to advocate for energy assistance.
The Heat and Warmth Fund (THAW)
The Victorine Q. Adams Award spotlights institutional innovation and achievement among non-profit NEUAC members. NEUAC presents the Victorine Q. Adams Award to a nonprofit organization that displays an innovative spirit towards raising public awareness and generating financial aid for people in need of energy assistance. Victorine Q. Adams was a woman of distinction; a public leader and testament to good will who founded one of the nation’s first fuel fund programs in Baltimore, Maryland. With grace and compassion, the late Mrs. Adams dedicated her life to bringing about energy justice and change for the betterment of her community.
Häly Laasme
The Edward G. Gingold Award was created in 2023 to recognize outstanding achievements by a government entity or employee of a government entity on behalf of economically challenged families and individuals. Government entities including municipal utilities, state LIHEAP offices, local government offices, federal government offices, and/or the specific employee(s) of these entities may be nominated who demonstrate commitment to the mission of NEUAC, lowering the energy burdens of vulnerable populations, and addressing household energy crises in their communities. Mr. Gingold spent more than 40 years at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and was a long-time NEUAC board member.
