Lauren Hughes is the deputy director of the Nuclear Energy Policy Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center. In this capacity, she is the principal investigator for the center’s grant from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. She also managed the Atoms for Appalachia project that was enabled by the Breakthrough Energy Foundation.

Prior to joining the Atlantic Council, Hughes was chief operating officer of Washington Policy and Analysis, a consulting firm led by former US Deputy Secretary of Energy William F. Martin. Hughes’s expertise includes nuclear energy and nonproliferation policy, and her previous work focused on US-Japan civil nuclear cooperation. Hughes holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia in foreign affairs and a master’s degree in conflict management from the School of Oriental and African Studies.