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Minneapolis Lakota woman uses green career to support community

April 2024

Story by Emily Haeg Nguyen
Metro, MN

Angeline Quilt was working as a stay-at-home mom when she stumbled upon an opportunity online.

“I came across a flyer on the CenterPoint website talking about energy auditors and insulation installers. So I just called and applied.”

Soon, the Minneapolis native was one of the first to graduate from the Center for Energy and Environment's (CEE) Home Energy Career Training program. Funded by CenterPoint Energy and Xcel Energy, the program offers paid training to those seeking a new career in a booming industry. 

"The demand for trained residential auditors, insulators, and HVAC techs is tremendous and is only continuing to grow,” says CEE's Workforce Program Manager Sarah Northrop.

A Lakota woman with her dark hair pulled back, wearing glasses. She is shown in a somewhat close-up shot, from her armpits up. She wears a blue polo shirt with "Home Energy Squad" and "Xcel Energy" logos on the chest. She stands in a basement furnace room with metal furnace equipment above and behind her, and a brown unfinished wall behind her.

On the Job with Angeline Quilt

Join Angeline Quilt on a home energy audit visit and hear more of her story.

"The demand for trained residential auditors, insulators, and HVAC techs is tremendous and is only continuing to grow."

 

- Sarah Northrop, CEE's Workforce Program Manager

After completing her training, Quilt started her work as a home energy auditor for CEE. A home energy auditor is a professional who visits and assesses the energy efficiency of homes and buildings. In each assessment, the auditor talks with homeowners and performs an inspection of the home. This includes examining heating and cooling systems, insulation, windows, doors, and appliances. This allows the auditor to work with the homeowners on identifying ways to enhance energy efficiency and decrease utility costs.

“I really enjoy interacting and helping people find things that are good with their home, bad with their home, or things they can improve.”

Quilt says it’s a career she’s proud to model for her children. 

“I have two kids. They're really excited for me. They’re like, ‘Mom, you have a career now! You help people with their houses!’” she says with a laugh. “They really like the fact that they can say, ‘Yeah, my mom's an energy auditor.’”

Not long after she started work as an auditor, Quilt was moving up through the ranks. 

"I was able to complete my certificates, and I'm now a CEE Senior Energy Auditor Trainer. I'm now training people to do the position I was trained to do,” she says. “So you kind of escalate within this business, which I think is huge.”

A dark-haired Lakota woman is standing outdoors. She faces to the left of the image, holding up an iPad and taking a photo. The background is snowy and filled with trees.

Home energy audit

Angeline Quilt inspects the exterior of a home during a home visit.

A dark-haired Lakota woman stands in the center of the image, conducting a home energy inspection. She holds up a small electronic device with a screen, pointing it toward the top of a wall. We see her left side. In the right foreground stands a shorter man with black hair and glasses; he is the homeowner. Behind them both is the inside of a home, showing a hallway with a door and a family photo hanging on the wall, slightly out of frame.

Working with home owners

Quilt works with the homeowner to help explore energy efficiency options. 

A Lakota woman smiles at the camera, with her dark hair pulled back, wearing glasses. She is shown in a somewhat close-up shot, from her armpits up. She wears a blue polo shirt with "Home Energy Squad" and "Xcel Energy" logos on the chest. She stands in a basement furnace room with metal furnace equipment above and behind her, and a brown unfinished wall behind her.

CEE Senior Energy Auditor Trainer

Quilt is a leader at her company, training others to perform home energy audits. 

Northrop says Quilt is in good company. “In the past two years, we've seen countless people graduate from our Xcel Energy funded paid training with no prior experience in this field and start exciting new careers in less than six months.”

Clean Energy Resource Teams Co-Director, Joel Haskard, agrees. “It is a great entry point into the clean energy world, primarily residential energy efficiency,” he says. “We regularly cross paths professionally with these auditors and I have always been wow’d by what diverse, scrappy, and impressive groups these crews are!”

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Equity in Energy

In Minnesota, the clean energy workforce has been predominantly made up of white men. As of 2021, the breakdown shows that only 27.5% of the workforce are people of color and 27.4% are women.A bar graph showing Minnesota's clean energy workforce demographics by race.

Providing equitable employment opportunities to individuals who have historically been underrepresented in the industry is essential in achieving a more energy efficient future. To this point, CEE prioritizes training Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latine, people of color, and women from communities across the Twin Cities. Quilt can speak to the impact of this firsthand. She emphasizes that her professional advancement not only enhances her family's well-being but also extends to support her Indigenous community.

“While born and raised in Minnesota, I'm a Lakota woman from Lower Brule, South Dakota,” she explains. “I recently went down to the Lower Brule Sioux community in Morton, Minnesota. I was able to do energy audits there for people on the reservation. I love doing this work, because I want to be able to help people and especially help those with income qualifications.”

“Right now Minnesota is a leader in workforce development,” shares Stacy Boots Camp, CEE outreach manager. Boots Camp says Quilt’s trajectory is a part of an exciting local movement. “There are not many programs like this in the country. We have a great story to tell here in Minnesota”

“Right now Minnesota is a leader in workforce development.”

- Stacy Boots Camp, CEE Outreach Manager

For those considering CEE’s Home Energy Career Training program, Quilt has one bit of advice.

“Just do it!” she says. “Even if you have no idea what you're going to be getting into. Just do it.”

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