Every spring, NEWIEE gathers to do something deceptively simple: say thank you out loud. 

In a field still working toward gender parity, recognition matters more than it might seem. NEWIEE’s Awards are more than just plaques. They are signals that tell the next generation of women entering energy and environmental careers that women+ belong at the table. They show what leadership looks like, and that this community is watching and cheering for diverse leaders.  

This May, at NEWIEE’s 15th Annual Gala, we’re proud to honor two women who embody exactly that —  a 25-year industry veteran whose leadership has shaped the region’s energy future, and a rising star who in just eight years has already rewritten what’s possible. 

Leadership Award: Maria Gulluni Vice President, General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer, ISO New England 

Maria Gulluni has spent 25 years as a quiet architect of New England’s energy infrastructure. 

A Springfield native and Georgetown Law graduate, Maria joined ISO New England in 2000 just one year into its existence.  She was hired as its third lawyer, to handle contracts and Board governance.  She rose to become its vice president, general counsel, and chief compliance officer. She is the only female general counsel among all Independent System Operators and Regional Transmission Operators in the country. Her legal work underpins reliable electric service for 15 million people across the region. In 2025 alone, her team managed more than 100 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filings, including the most substantial market transformation in the last twenty years.  The team also has a hand in all of the company’s significant projects, including the first-of-its-kind Asset Condition Reviewer initiative and the region’s first solicitation for transmission projects to address public policy needs.  Regarding the latter, in the words of one nominator, New England’s Longer-Term Transmission Planning reforms “would not have been possible without Maria’s strong voice, sound judgment, and trusted leadership.” 

If you ask the people who know her best, they’ll talk about something else. They’ll talk about the lawyers she’s mentored, the doors she’s opened, the women she’s helped believe in themselves. She empowers rising attorneys, invests in their visibility, and models what it looks like to lead with both conviction and humility. As a colleague put it, Maria “doesn’t simply talk about diversity and inclusion — she lives it daily.”  She is proud of the diversity of her team across a number of demographics.  As an example, the team is more than half female, as are two-thirds of its leadership.   

Her community commitments run just as deep. She remains a proud resident of Springfield, where she volunteers with organizations like the No One Dies Alone program at Bay State Medical Center and Horizons for Homeless Children, commitments she refused to step back from when she was promoted to the C-suite. 

Maria Gulluni is what NEWIEE’s Leadership Award was made to honor: a woman who has spent a career making the system work better while bringing others along with her. 

Rising Star Award: Alexis Washburn Northeast Regional Director, Emerald Cities Collaborative 

Alexis Washburn has already done more to advance energy equity in New England than many leaders accomplish in a lifetime. 

A graduate of Boston University and Tufts University, Alexis began her career at the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, where she helped launched the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council Equity Working Group which resulted in expanded access to energy efficiency for renters, moderate-income households, small businesses, and non-English speakers. 

She then joined Emerald Cities Collaborative, where she grew the E-Contractor Academy at the height of COVID, when women- and minority-owned businesses were hit hardest. The program connected more than 100 WMBE contractors to clean energy opportunities. 

Now Northeast Regional Director, Alexis leads a team of six focused on expanding Emerald Cities’ reach across four New England states. She secured U.S. Department of Energy funding for the Emerald Connections weatherization and health equity program, which is on track to retrofit nearly 60 Massachusetts homes. She sits on the Somerville Commission on Energy Use and Climate Change and is a full voting member of the Massachusetts Energy Efficiency Advisory Council. 

What distinguishes Alexis isn’t just what she’s built—it’s how she builds it: deep community partnership, equitable hiring, long-term relationships before big announcements. Alexis Washburn is exactly the kind of rising star NEWIEE exists to celebrate. 

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