Gina Cady

Fellow and MBA Candidate, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

2024 C3E International Award Winner

Gina Cady is a Fellow and MBA Candidate at the University of Massachusetts’ Isenberg School of Management. She aims to bring sustainability and partnership to the private sector in new ways, building on years of experience leading high-level climate and energy initiatives in government and not-for-profit institutions.

Prior to her return to academia, Cady served as a U.S. Diplomat for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Foreign Service, where she led several USAID initiatives to support clean energy deployment and climate investments. She led Power Africa’s Health Electrification and Telecommunications Alliance (HETA), a $150 million public–private partnership to electrify and digitally connect 10,000 health facilities across sub-Saharan Africa. The Alliance is the first-ever partnership to coordinate Sustainable Development Goals 3 (health) and 7 (energy) to strengthen health infrastructure and reduce energy poverty. During her 13 years at USAID, Cady successfully negotiated large conservation and energy partnerships with industry and national governments, managing more than $200 million of partnership funding. While in Peru, Cady served as a U.S. representative to the U.S.–Peru Trade Agreement that facilitated the conservation of more than one million hectares of forested lands to support legal forest management. In Mexico, she led the U.S. Embassy’s humanitarian emergency response, supporting Mexico in responding to natural disasters and complex crisis.

Before joining USAID, Cady worked in the Wind and Water Office at the U.S. Department of Energy, supporting the deployment of new hydropower technology, and at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission within the licensing and compliance divisions, ensuring the protection and safety of energy projects across the United States.

While with USAID, Cady served as a new hire mentor to Foreign Service Officers. Previously, she served as a board member of Fundo de las Americas, a Peruvian organization dedicated to sustainable environmental development, forest conservation, water sanitation, and child development.

Cady holds an MS in Environmental and Energy Policy from Johns Hopkins University and a BS in Environmental Science from the University of Maryland, College Park.