Dr. Howard Dickenson is Director, Business Operations for the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED). In this role, he is responsible for the budget, workforce management, and administrative support services to help OCED deliver more than $20 billion provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support large-scale clean energy demonstration projects.
Dickenson has worked in the field of national and energy security at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for 12 years. Prior to OCED, Dickenson served as the Acting Associate Administrator for External Affairs in the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Before that, he served as NNSA’s Acting Deputy Associate Administrator for Management responsible for NNSA human resources, business operations, and overseas operations.
Dickenson has more than 20 years of government experience in energy, national security policy, and budget formulation. He previously served as NNSA’s Deputy Associate Deputy Administrator for Budget, overseeing a staff of 118 federal employees responsible for NNSA’s budget formulation process, budget execution, NNSA financial accounting, and NNSA’s auditing divisions. From mid- 2009 through October 2011, he was the Assistant Director for Recovery Act Operations at DOE tasked with supporting the Department’s execution of $36.2 billion appropriated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“Recovery Act”). From mid-2004 through mid-2009, he worked at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the International Affairs Division, with responsibilities for the Iraq reconstruction programs, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, West Bank/Gaza, Jordan, Iran, and the Peace Corps. From 1999 through mid-2004, he worked at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as an intelligence analyst.
Prior to serving in the government, Dickenson taught international security and statistics courses at the University of Southern California School of Business and California State University at Fullerton.
He holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Public Policy from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Illinois. He lives in Maryland with his wife and two children.