Michael is the Commercial Program Manager for GRID’s headquarters office. He started at GRID as a construction intern in the Bay Area in 2016 and has been working with GRID ever since! Michael remains passionate about climate action and environmental justice, which is what initially brought him to GRID. Michael has worked with GRID in the Bay Area and Inland Empire regions, and he now works remotely from his home region in Mt. Shasta, CA. He has two young ones at home that he cares for with his partner and community.
What is your role at GRID?
My role as a Commercial Program Manager is to help the program itself function so that the developers, designers and project managers can really focus on doing the real work of getting panels on roofs and connecting them to the electric grid. My day to day is usually meeting with staff members to improve processes, fix mistakes, track project data, or something like that to help keep the program moving and improving. I am a bit like a maintenance person who also gives suggestions on how to improve things. It’s not glamorous work by any means, but it’s needed and I can see how my role helps move things to action, so I think it’s respectable.
What is something you are proud of working on during your time here?
I was previously part of the project development team we have for our commercial work, and on occasion I will still support a project's development. It helps me stay close to the work and remind me of some of the ins and outs of what is really required for these projects. I am working on a project here in Northern California with the Robinson Rancheria Pomo Indians with funding from the Tribal Solar Accelerator Fund. It took a lot of back and forth between us, the Tribe, the funder, and the utility to make it into a real project, but we just started putting panels on the roof this week and now it’s actually happening! That always feels good. I'm pretty proud of that.
Anything else you’d like to share about yourself…
Another project I am working on with GRID is an international install in Nepal. We are installing on a hospital in the western part of the country. It's happening this November (2023). I’ve been sharing this fundraiser link around in my local community, but if there's anyone reading who would like to contribute it would be much appreciated. Other than that, big love to GRID and big love to all the folks who work here, it's been a really loving and caring space to work in these last 7 years. <3