Sierra Cato, J.D.

Sierra Cato is a Principal in the Energy Policy Practice at Lewis-Burke Associates LLC. As a trusted advisor, Sierra helps clients advance legislative priorities in Congress, protect their interests, secure federal funding, navigate challenges in the political landscape, and raise their profile in Washington. Prior to joining Lewis-Burke Associates LLC, Sierra served in leadership appointments at the U.S. Department of Energy, including Acting Staff Secretary to Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette where she led cross-agency coordination and preparation of the Secretary’s briefing materials for both domestic and international engagements.  Sierra also served as a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Executive Secretariat where she oversaw the Department’s response to high level communications and policy actions from the White House related to energy policy and national security and spearheaded legislative reform efforts across DOE. Lastly, in her capacity as Senior Advisor on Minority Education, Sierra was the DOE liaison for White House initiatives advancing STEM equity and educational excellence for all minority-serving institutions and HBCUs.

Sierra received a Secretary’s Appreciation Award from Secretary of Energy Rick Perry for exceeding expectations in the strategy and creation of the Department of Energy Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office in September 2019.

Issue Expertise: Energy Sciences, Physical Sciences, Applied Energy, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, Fossil Energy, Nuclear Security and Nonproliferation, Nuclear Energy, DOE National Laboratories, Transportation, Appropriations, Artificial Intelligence, Technology Transitions, Grid Resilience and Modernization, Cybersecurity, Workforce Development and STEM

Additional Experience: During her career, Sierra gained sound knowledge of the inner workings of Congress while serving in various positions in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, including serving as a law clerk for Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, as well as a Legislative Staff Assistant and Intern for former Senator David Vitter and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, respectively.

During her time in the Senate, Sierra was Co-Chair of the Community Service Committee for the Senate Black Legislative Staff Caucus. In addition to a strong appreciation for service, Sierra values the importance of building strong relationships and working in a bipartisan manner.

Vital Statistics: Sierra earned her Bachelor of Science in Applied Sociology at North Carolina State University. She received her Juris Doctor from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. Sierra was born and raised in Whiteville, North Carolina. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, traveling, and spending time outdoors.


Griffin Reinecke

Griffin is a passionate advocate for science and technology policy. An expert in space, energy, and transportation issues, he leverages his experience working on Capitol Hill and relationships with congressional staff to provide Lewis-Burke clients with insight on potential congressional action and upcoming federal funding opportunities.

Issue areas: Civil space research and policy, fundamental and applied energy research and development, environmental research, transportation and infrastructure, and aeronautics.

Additional Experience: Prior to joining Lewis-Burke Associates, Griffin worked on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, where he served on the full committee and more recently on Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee. During his time on the Committee, he developed an in-depth knowledge of space and science policy issues while building relationships with key stakeholders at relevant agencies, in academia, and industry. Griffin also worked as an intern in the office of Ron Wyden.

Vital Statistics: Griffin was born and raised in Bend, Oregon and earned his bachelor’s degree in political science and sustainability from the University of Michigan. When not supporting Michigan athletics, Griffin spends his free time outdoors skiing, hiking, or playing golf.


Positioning a University’s New Capability in Materials Research for Nuclear Security

Lewis-Burke developed and executed a strategic plan for a university client to highlight and fully leverage a new experimental capability, raise the university’s national profile in national security and materials research, and increase research funding.

The first phase involved briefing key congressional delegations and staff on the project and the benefits of this new capability. This resulted in inclusion of report language in one of the Senate appropriations bills highlighting the project as a model to emulate, and increased funding in a House appropriations bill for an academic alliance program which funds the research and facility operations of the university.

The next phase involved Lewis-Burke organizing a dedication ceremony to make other agencies aware of the unique capabilities, increasing research funding and users and raising the university’s profile.

Lewis-Burke also worked with the communications teams of federal agencies and science writers from a few science publications to publish press releases and articles in the media the day of the event. The results of this event included new and increased collaboration with federal agencies on future research projects, raised its congressional profile, and increased federal funding.


Establish Partnerships to Win a National Quantum Center

Lewis-Burke helped a university client establish partnerships with national labs, industry, and other research universities to successfully compete for a Department of Energy National Quantum Initiative center.

Lewis-Burke provided the university client advance intelligence about the new large-scale center funding opportunity, but to successfully compete for the multi-disciplinary center, the university client needed to establish partnerships with other institutions and organizations.

Lewis-Burke leveraged existing relationships and connections to national laboratories, private businesses, and other research universities with complementary capabilities and talent to help the university client pursue the right partnerships to successfully compete and have a leading role in the proposal.

Throughout the process Lewis-Burke not only identified and provided contact information for leading researchers and decision-makers at various organizations, but also provided advice on which strategic thrusts to emphasize and claim ownership based on competitive advantage.


Launching a New Energy Science and Technology Initiative

Lewis-Burke helped a university client create and define a new basic research energy science and technology initiative. Lewis-Burke worked with leadership and program managers at the Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Security Administration, and the National Science Foundation to sponsor a workshop led by a university client to define research priorities and future facility needs to advance a promising, high-risk science and technology area.

The workshop brought together more than one hundred experts from research universities, national laboratories, industry, and federal research agencies. The workshop led to specific recommendations and Lewis-Burke helped organize briefings to the federal agency sponsors, the Office of Management and Budget, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and key Congressional Appropriators, Authorizers, and Committee staff. This significantly increased the profile of the university client and established the university as the countrys leader for the research initiative.

The workshop recommendations have influenced agency investments in future budget requests and Lewis-Burke helped the client turn the workshop report recommendations into legislative language and programmatic funding requests for congressional authorization and appropriations bills.


Leland Cogliani, J.D.

Leland Cogliani has over 20 years of experience advancing science and technology priorities for research institutions.  Leland works closely with congressional authorizing and appropriations committees and federal research agencies on behalf of academic institutions, scientific societies, facility management organizations, and energy startups to create new research initiatives and programs, advance science, and energy infrastructure projects, and increase federal research funding.   

As the firm’s Energy Practice lead and Co-Chair of the Energy Sciences Coalition, Leland is a leading voice in the higher education and research advocacy community to advance basic and applied energy research and development programs, especially at the Department of Energy (DOE).  Leland also uses his substantive subject matter expertise in nuclear security and nonproliferation science and technology issues to grow the participation of institutions of higher education in addressing national security challenges.  Leland is currently a board member of the Arms Control Association and is a frequent speaker at science and technology forums. 

Prior to joining Lewis-Burke, Leland was the lead Senate Appropriations Committee staff member, with budget and oversight responsibility for $17 billion in federal programs, including the DOE Office of Science, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), DOE intelligence programs, and DOE national laboratories.  

Issue Expertise: Appropriations and congressional budget process, basic and applied energy research (DOE Office of Science; ARPA-E; renewable, energy efficiency, fossil, carbon management, nuclear, and grid-related research); emerging technology areas, including artificial intelligence, quantum science and technology, microelectronics, advanced computing, and biotechnology; energy infrastructure investments; DOE national laboratories; nuclear security and nonproliferation (National Nuclear Security Administration)  

Additional Experience: Prior to the Senate, Leland was a Senior Analyst in the Natural Resources and Environment Division at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) with oversight responsibilities over U.S. nuclear weapons and nuclear nonproliferation programs.  He authored more than a dozen reports to Congress on science and national security issues, including life extension programs of nuclear warheads, the U.S. fusion program, and the International Atomic Energy Agency nuclear safeguards activities.   

Vital Statistics: Leland earned his Bachelor of Arts in International Studies at Boston College and his Master of Arts in International Affairs at the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs. He received a Juris Doctor from Catholic University Columbus School of Law.  Leland is a proud father of two daughters and enjoys traveling with his family around the country and the world seeking new adventures.  Leland is a fourth-degree black belt in taekwondo and continues to train twice a week.  Born in Rome, Italy, Leland is a native Italian speaker. 


Miriam Quintal

Miriam Quintal boasts fourteen years of advocacy and client success at Lewis-Burke, managing the federal relations portfolios for large academic institutions, scientific societies, and facility management organizations. As Managing Principal, she oversees the firm’s client engagement and issue practices to ensure success and advancement across the firm.  Miriam fiercely protects client priorities, leveraging her unique combination of scientific training with political insight.

Miriam is a prominent leader in National Science Foundation advocacy, co-chairing the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF) and working closely with the higher education and research advocacy community to guide policy for and champion the Foundation. Her wealth of knowledge and federal research enterprise acumen provides value to all components of client interests: supporting executives and university leadership, shepherding research initiatives, and shaping policy across a range of issues. Major advocacy efforts have included successfully guiding large-scale science projects through the appropriations process, restoring funding for key programs proposed to be eliminated in the President’s budget request, establishing new agency funding for research infrastructure, and creating opportunities for clients to showcase research and leadership in Administration initiative areas.

Issue Expertise: Basic research (National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, Department of Energy Office of Science), STEM education, computing and computational science, math and physical sciences, engineering, and space and astronomy.

Additional Experience: Miriam has twice served as NSF lead for the Association of American Universities (AAU) Innovation Task Force.  Before joining Lewis-Burke, Miriam gained policy experience as a Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the Board on Science Education at the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.  At the Academies, she contributed to several projects, including a review of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s education programs and a study of gaming and simulations for science education.

Vital Statistics: Miriam developed her passion for politics while growing up in the DC region, before venturing north to get an undergraduate degree in chemistry with highest honors from Smith College and a Masters Degree in Organic Chemistry from Harvard University.  She has been a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a Fulbright Fellow.  Miriam loves raising her son in DC alongside her wife.  She is deeply engaged in her community, serving as a Founding Trustee and coordinator for Minyan Segulah, a local independent prayer community.