MAPC’s MESM Academy Kicks Off to Support Municipal Energy Managers
By Samikshya Dhami, Clean Energy and Climate Planner I; Julia Nassar, Senior Clean Energy & Climate Planner; and Sarita Plata, Clean Energy Mindich Service Fellow
October 29, 2025 - Last month, municipal energy managers and community representatives from more than 20 municipalities in Massachusetts gathered at the National Grid office in Northborough for the official kickoff of the Municipal Energy & Sustainability Managers (MESM) Academy.
A collaboration between MAPC, Mass Save, and the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER), the event marked the start of a year-long training program that will provide no-cost technical training and professional development opportunities to municipal energy and sustainability staff. The inaugural MESM Academy cohort includes 24 municipal energy managers hired through the 2025 Mass Save Municipal Energy Manager Grants. The 24 energy managers represent 63 municipalities and four regional planning agencies, leading efforts to reduce municipal energy use and emissions.
National Grid's Director of Customer Energy Management Chris Porter delivered opening remarks, and Commissioner of the Mass. DOER Elizabeth Mahony followed with a keynote address. Throughout the day, participants were introduced to key state policies, programs, and tools available to support their work. Some of those highlights included:
- An overview of the Green Communities program and designation process.
- An overview of Mass Save programs and incentives.
- A goal-setting exercise, where participants mapped out their priorities for the next week, month, and quarter.
- A panel with local municipal champions:
- Vicky Masone, energy manager at Hamilton, Wenham and the regional school district
- Katherine Moses, sustainability director at Lowell
- Shawn Luz, sustainability coordinator at Framingham
- Susan McPhee, energy manager at Winchester, Woburn, Stoneham, Waltham, Malden, and Medfield
- Moderated by Dillan Patel, green communities regional coordinator, DOER
About the MESM Academy
This initiative is spearheaded by MAPC in partnership with the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission, Mass Save Program Administrators (National Grid and Eversource), and the Mass. DOER. This effort was made possible with generous funding support from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and the Barr Foundation.
The MESM Academy will empower and equip municipal staff with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to effectively lead local clean energy initiatives in their communities. During the planning and design phase, MAPC held focus groups with existing municipal energy and sustainability staff and partners to better understand key challenges, training needs, and gaps that the MESM Academy could fill.
The MESM Academy is organized into the following components:
- Technical Training. As the core components of the Academy, the trainings are designed to help managers navigate essential municipal and state systems and processes, apply technical skills to plan, and effectively engage diverse stakeholders.
- Peer Learning Network. The peer learning network offers a space for the cohort to gather, reflect on the learnings from the training, and build community with each other both during the training and after the cohort ends.
- Additional Support Services & Resources. MAPC staff and other project administrators will offer one-on-one coaching sessions and office hours to support the inaugural cohort of energy managers. Additional resources include:
- Grants Matrix: list of funding opportunities for climate and energy-related projects, adapted from the Building Electrification Accelerator.
- Onboarding Package: to support new staff onboarding, this resource includes external/internal stakeholders to connect with in, newsletters to sign up for, peer learning and working groups to join, and more.
- Template Grant Tracking Spreadsheet.
- Template Utility Account Tracking Spreadsheet.
Looking Forward
At this time, the training and peer learning network is only available to the first cohort of energy managers hired through the 2025 Mass Save Municipal Energy Manager Grants.
Despite this restriction, all training materials (including recordings and slides) will be publicly accessible on the MESM Academy website. After this pilot year, the project team is exploring possibilities to expand the program in year two and three.