Josh Geyer

Degree & graduation year: Master of Public Policy and Administration, 2010

What I do: Most of my work goes toward removing barriers to deploying efficiency measures and renewables in affordable multifamily housing. I serve as the Multifamily Sector Lead for the Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge, in which organizations pledge to reduce energy use throughout their real estate portfolios by at least 20 percent over ten years. I’m also currently developing a small workforce development pilot targeted to public housing residents, and I work with a number of colleagues in the San Francisco Regional Office to provide strategic support and guidance to the South Stockton Promise Zone.

How I ended up working there: I was fortunate to be selected as a Presidential Management Fellows Program finalist and was offered a job by the HUD Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities during the 2010 PMF Interview Fair. I had never before considered entering federal service, but the PMF program was an amazing opportunity to work on exciting projects and start building a career.

The best part of my job: Collaborating with smart, committed public servants on impactful work.

A recent exciting work experience: In 2015 the California Assembly passed AB 693, authorizing up to $100 million a year of state cap and trade funds for ten years to provide financial incentives for installing solar photovoltaic systems on multifamily affordable rental housing homes. Unfortunately, a provision in the bill made HUD-assisted multifamily housing ineligible to participate because existing program regulations would prevent residents from receiving the benefits of any solar systems installed using funds from the new program. Over several years of consultation with partners at the state level and colleagues at HUD, I was able to develop a proposed interpretation of the net energy metering credits produced by these solar systems that would exclude them from tenants’ income and utility expenses, allowing residents to receive an economic benefit from the systems as required by the program’s authorization. In July 2019, the HUD Office of Housing released a memo codifying this exclusion, enabling tens of thousands of units of affordable housing in California to benefit from this massive investment in making solar energy accessible to low-income families.

How the School of Public Policy prepared me for my career: SPP equipped me with a suite of analytical tools and frameworks that can be applied to any policy question. These tools have allowed me to effectively analyze and propose solutions to issues in multiple domains in which I had limited prior experience, including multifamily energy efficiency financing and workforce development for residents of public housing.

Advice to students considering a degree in public policy: I believe a public policy degree is highly versatile and can serve people at various levels of academic and work experience.

Posted May 2020