Prior to FTI, Ms. Bañaga lead the Washington office for TECO Energy/Emera Inc. as Director of Federal Affairs, with responsibility for formulating and executing the company’s U.S. federal affairs strategy including tax, national security, environment, trade, markets, and other energy issues within Congress and the Administration.

Preceding TECO/Emera, Ms. Bañaga was Senior Manager, Public Policy and Governmental Affairs, at PSEG where she worked with stakeholders throughout Washington D.C. to formulate and advocate PSEG’s position on environmental & energy policy issues involving the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and other federal statutes.

Before Ms. Bañaga’s tenure in the utilities industry, she represented energy companies, state commissions, and quasi-governmental organizations while she was with the law firm Husch Blackwell LLP.

Ms. Bañaga began her career at the Department of Energy working on energy and environmental matters primarily involving nuclear waste. Subsequently, she joined the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Enforcement as an Attorney-Advisor where she investigated violations of the Federal Power Act, Natural Gas Act, Natural Gas Policy Act, Interstate Commerce Act and the Commission’s regulations.

Ms. Bañaga holds a B.S. in Environmental Studies from Florida State University, an M.S. in Environmental Law and a J.D. from Vermont Law School.

ABOUT MILOS

Dr. Manic is a Professor with the Computer Science Department and Director of VCU Cybersecurity Center at Virginia Commonwealth University, He completed over 50 research grants in AI/ML in cyber and energy and intelligent controls. He authored over 200 refereed articles, has given over 50 invited talks around the world, authored over 200 refereed articles in international journals, books, and conferences, holds several U.S. patents and has won 2018 R&D 100 Award for Autonomic Intelligent Cyber Sensor (AICS), one of top 100 science and technology worldwide innovations in 2018. He holds Joint Appointment with Idaho National laboratory, is an inductee of US National Academy of Inventors (senior class of 2023, member class of 2019), and a Fellow of Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (specialty in AI & Cybersecurity).He is an IEEE IES President, IEEE Fellow (for contributions to machine learning based cybersecurity in critical infrastructures), Senior Inductee of US National Academy of Inventors (NAI), recipient of IEEE IES 2019 Anthony J. Hornfeck Service Award, 2012 J. David Irwin Early Career Award, 2017 IEM Best Paper Award, associate editor of Transactions on Industrial Informatics, Open Journal of Industrial Electronics Society, and Senior Life AdCom member. He served as AE of Trans. on Industrial Electronics, was a founding chair of IEEE IES Technical Committee on Resilience and Security in Industry, and was a General Chair of IEEE ICIT 2023, IEEE IECON 2018 (record breaking, over 1,100 participants), IEEE HSI 2019.