Regina Galer is the director for the Siting, Transmission, and Environmental Protection (STEP) Division.
The division conducts permitting for electric generation, storage, and transmission facilities, ensuring they comply with licensing conditions. It also provides planning, policy analysis, and program administration that support the state’s transition to 100-percent clean and reliable electricity.
Galer became the director of STEP in November 2025. She previously served more than 22 years in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), including as program manager over the Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas in the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations.
Between 2003 to 2022, she served in the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration, where she managed nuclear security and non-proliferation work with Russia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and others. Throughout this period, Galer also served as a White House National Security Council director under Presidents Donald Trump and Joseph Biden, and covered issues of energy, arms control and weapons of mass destruction nonproliferation in U.S. Embassies in Pakistan and India. She served as visiting faculty in the National Defense University College of International Security Affairs from 2020 to 2021.
Galer obtained her bachelor of science from Iowa State University before earning a master of public administration and master of arts degrees at Indiana University Bloomington. She participated in the Tahoe-Baikal Institute Environmental Exchange during the summer of 2002.