Clara Smith

Dr. Clara Smith is Senior Policy Director at the Council on Competitiveness.  Clara supports the Council’s dedication to developing public policy recommendations to enhance American competitiveness through her work in the American Energy & Manufacturing Competitiveness Partnership with the Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the National Engineering Forum with Lockheed Martin and the National Academy of Engineering.

Prior to her position at the Council, Clara led the hpc4energy initiative at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), an initiative showcasing the benefits of applying High Performance Computing (HPC) modeling and simulation to the energy industry.  As part of the hpc4energy initiative, Clara led 6 collaborations between selected energy companies of all sizes and LLNL through one year pilot projects to demonstrate the power of HPC to spur innovation and increase U.S. competitiveness in technology development.  As an Energy Systems Analyst at LLNL, Clara analyzed global and process-specific complex systems including the determination of Energy Return on Energy Invested for nuclear fuel reprocessing.  

Clara also worked as an environmental consultant at ENVIRON International Corporation, specializing in air pollution in their Los Angeles, California office for two years.  In this capacity, she worked with clients in manufacturing and transportation to ensure air quality compliance and risk management.

Clara is a chemical engineer with a doctorate degree in engineering from Dartmouth College and a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from University of California, Los Angeles.