For some people, it takes years before their talents, interests, and zeal all coalesce into a lifelong career with meaning and impact. Dorene Maniccia is not one of these people. Now the DLC’s Director of Market Strategy & Development, Dorene found her calling right off the bat.

A Penn State University alumna with a Bachelor’s degree in Architectural Engineering and a Master of Science in Architectural Engineering/Illumination Studies, Dorene hasn’t strayed from the building illumination path throughout her 30-plus year career. Her earliest job-related memories revolve a summer internship with a Washington, D.C. consulting engineering firm, which included after-work volleyball games on the lawn of the Old Executive Office Building – an area beside the West Wing of the White House that is off limits to extracurricular sports today!

Over the course of a career peppered with lighting design awards and multiple articles in peer-reviewed journals and trade publications, Dorene’s experience has included consulting in engineering and lighting design, teaching lighting at the university level, serving as principal investigator for lighting research, leading a lighting innovation research group, and various roles in policy and industry affairs and strategic marketing.

She joined the DLC in 2019, attracted by the prospect of helping advance the organization’s energy efficiency, controllability, and lighting quality mission, as well as increasing its impact by delving into new topic areas. In her current role, she focuses on identifying new areas for furthering the DLC’s impact, such as outdoor lighting and light pollution mitigation, as well as identifying new stakeholders and markets.

Lighting Certified and a member of the Illumination Engineering Society, Dorene has held numerous volunteer positions including chairing the Lighting Controls Section of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, leading the Controls Working Group for the US Department of Energy Zero Energy Commercial Building Consortium Next Generation Technologies Report, and serving on the Board of Directors of the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council.

When she isn’t ideating new areas and markets for expanding the DLC’s mission and impact, Dorene relaxes by taking long woodland walks with her husband and two dogs near their home in central Massachusetts. She keeps her eyes and ears open for signs of owls – birds that are quickly gaining ground on pelicans as her favorite avian species.