Julianne Szyper is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Nuclear Energy Policy Initiative and the founder and president of Navigator Consulting, LLC, with over two decades of C-suite experience across the public, private, political, and nonprofit sectors.
Previously, she served as a chief of staff and advisor to senior elected state and federal officials, and as a collaborator with global industry and civic leaders. As the deputy director of the Virginia Department of Energy, she established state financing programs, including the Virginia Clean Energy Innovation Bank, allocating key funding to pioneer next-generation energy technologies and strengthen domestic supply chains. She played a role in leading the deployment of energy infrastructure (including the first commercial fusion power plant and the largest small modular reactor nuclear control room simulator in the United States) and funding a research reactor that would expand in-state capabilities for advanced materials research and nuclear workforce development. Szyper also led the agency that provided the technical, analytical, communications expertise and legislative support for the All-of-the-Above Energy Plan for Virginia, which focused on energy reliability, security, and affordability during a period of historic economic growth and energy demand.
Szyper served as chief of staff to the lieutenant governor of Virginia, overseeing policy initiatives in aerospace, unmanned systems, education, regulatory reform, and maternal health. Her career includes extensive experience in government relations, commercial and residential development, and real estate investment markets. She also founded and led various private enterprises; political, educational, and civic nonprofits; and professional associations.
Szyper received the 2022 Outstanding Leadership Award from Regent University, the Architect of Society Award from the Women’s Public Leadership Network, and the ACNM National Public Policy Award. Beyond her executive mandates, she has served as a professor of government, dedicated to mentoring the next generation of policy leaders. Szyper holds a master of arts in government/law and public policy and is a graduate of the University of Virginia’s Sorensen Political Leaders Program.