ERG Scholarship Winner Serving the Planet for PG&E in Unexpected Ways: 5 Questions with Jordan Baier

(Pictured from left to right: Bennie Barnes, Jordan Baier and Jonathan Seager at a gas line inspection in Brentwood.)

The deadline to apply for a college scholarship from PG&E’s Employee Resource and Engineering Network Groups is March 15. More than $200,000 is being made available to college-bound high schoolers and current college and continuing education students with a primary residence in Northern and Central California. Scholarship winners will receive awards ranging from $1,000 to $6,000.

Nearly a decade ago, Jordan Baier took the advice of a family friend who was a PG&E coworker and applied for a PG&E Employee Resource Group college scholarship. She was looking to pay for the fall quarter of her senior year at the University of California, Davis.

At the time, Jordan envisioned working toward a career in the environment, clean energy and clean transportation. Since then, she’s been on an unexpected career journey—one that started when she was selected for the scholarship and that remains connected to the vision she had as a student.

Currents interviewed Jordan back in 2020 (before she got married and changed her last name). With this year’s March 15 ERG scholarship deadline approaching, Currents reached out to Jordan to check on her career progress.

Q: Can you describe the work you do today for PG&E’s customers?

A: I’m now a principal program manager in PG&E’s Risk organization, a group that analyzes how the top risk mitigating programs in the company are performing and whether they’re giving us the risk reduction we believe they are. Although I’m not a frontline employee performing the work itself, I still get to help prevent potential events. That’s been really rewarding.

Q: How do you connect your work today with your college vision of working in clean energy?

A: I always thought I would be focused on the environment and clean energy. But after the 2018 Camp Fire, I realized that if we as a company can’t do the basics perfectly, there’s not going to be a company able to do the innovative and clean energy work in the future.

Q: What are some ways you’re serving the planet in your work?

A: I’ve been working with our Grid Research Innovation and Development team to standardize the way we look at introduced risk of new technology. We’re mitigating risk in our system in new and innovative ways to adapt to a changing climate, while striving to meet our de-carbonization and clean energy goals. At the same time, we have to understand what risks are involved when introducing new assets or technology.

Q: How would you describe the impact of the ERG scholarship on your career?

A: Money wasn’t the only thing I got out of the scholarship in the end. It opened a lot of doors for me in my career. It turned into a much bigger opportunity and has continued to evolve.

Q: What are your hopes for the future?

A: My generation grew up seeing the effects of climate change. When I have kids, I want them to be able to play outside and not worry about the air quality. What are the things I can do at PG&E to make this a reality?