Jessica Lawrence-Vaca

Jessica Lawrence-Vaca, is a senior government relations professional, strategist, and former Capitol Hill staffer with nearly two decades of experience in both the government and private sector. She is widely respected across the solar industry as a leader and trade expert, where she helps to develop and execute advocacy and communications strategies; interfaces with high-level government officials; builds coalitions of industry partners and third-party validators; and supports policy efforts to grow solar markets. Jessica has spent the last decade immersed in solar trade policy, beginning with managing a coalition of over 100 solar companies and lobbying for a US solar raw materials manufacturer during two rounds of AD/CVD duties on Chinese solar cells and modules. She then came to SOLV Energy (FKA Swinerton Renewable Energy) where she collaborated with SEIA to support and lead industry advocacy efforts against the Section 201 solar tariffs. As chair of SEIA’s Trade Working Group, Jessica successfully led industry-wide efforts, including fundraising and executing a targeted ad campaign supported by industry partners, to curb an effort to initiate AD/CVD circumvention duties as well as limit the impact of the Section 201 extension on solar cells and modules by helping lead an advocacy effort for a bifacial exclusion. Prior to joining the solar industry, Jessica spent a decade focused on foreign policy and national security issues as a lobbyist and on Capitol Hill. She speaks regularly at conferences and events on the intersection between trade, manufacturing, supply chain, national security, and labor policy as it relates to job growth and combating climate change. Jessica holds a master’s degree in national security studies from the Johns Hopkins University and an undergraduate degree in political science and French from the University of Washington. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband and four sons.