Local Content Power List 2026: Karen J. Baker

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Karen J. Baker is advancing a vision for infrastructure and energy development in which complex projects and the communities around them move forward together. As Principal of KJ Baker & Associates, LLC, the consulting firm she founded following her retirement from federal service, Baker helps organizations navigate large infrastructure, environmental, energy, and coastal resilience projects through the complex permitting and coalition-building demands that often determine whether those projects reach completion.

Her perspective is shaped by her service as Associate Director for Renewable Energy Programs at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), where she oversaw the leasing and permitting of offshore wind projects along the U.S. coast. Seeing policy move from concept to concrete outcomes, new lease areas, approved construction plans, and ultimately steel in the water, made tangible the link between federal decision-making and local economic impact. Through direct engagement with coastal and historically disadvantaged communities, Baker worked to ensure that community voices informed leasing decisions and that developers committed to workforce pathways, local hiring, and supplier diversity.

Looking ahead, Baker sees significant opportunity in ensuring that offshore wind projects now under construction or already operating continue to generate sustained local work, supporting long-term jobs, regional suppliers, and economic growth well beyond initial development. Her leadership emphasizes building coalitions across energy, infrastructure, and environmental projects, partnering with organizations that treat community engagement as core strategy and align project success with lasting, trust-based community benefit.

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