Who's on Gov. Sherrill's New Jersey Nuclear Task Force

Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed the nuclear permitting bill on April 8, 2026, clearing a decades-old statutory block on new reactor construction in New Jersey. She didn’t stop at the signing ceremony.

The same week, Sherrill stood up a Nuclear Task Force, assembling utility executives, state agency heads, and economic development officials to answer one direct question: does atomic energy have a real future in Jersey? Check the task force membership and it’s clear she pulled people with serious institutional weight, not political filler.

“New Jersey has an opportunity to lead on nuclear energy,” Sherrill said, “and this task force will help us get there.”

Elizabeth Noll co-chairs the group out of the Office of the Governor. She’s one of Sherrill’s early Trenton hires, and her resume explains the placement. Noll worked as a deputy assistant secretary for House Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy under Biden, and before that she ran federal clean energy policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Putting her at the top of this body isn’t ceremonial. It signals the governor’s treating nuclear as real policy work.

Noll’s co-chair is Christine Guhl-Sadovy, president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. Gov. Phil Murphy nominated her as a BPU commissioner in 2023, and she was elevated to president that September. Her background runs deep on regulatory mechanics: she was chief of staff to BPU President Joe Fiordaliso and put years into solar buildout, offshore wind procurement, and lead service line replacement programs.

Also at the table: Acting DEP Commissioner Ed Potosnak. He spent 14 years leading the New Jersey LCV before taking the commissioner’s chair, which makes him the most credible environmental voice in any room debating new nuclear construction. Any permitting path through New Jersey’s regulatory framework runs straight through his office, so his seat on this task force isn’t optional.

Evan Weiss, CEO of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, handles the finance dimension. He’s managed more than $10 billion in state deals spanning renewable energy, affordable housing, transit, and major infrastructure like the Gateway Project. That’s the kind of capital-deployment track record you’d want when nuclear conversations turn to project financing.

Brigadier General Yvonne Mays brings a different angle entirely. She’s the adjutant general of New Jersey and commissioner of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, and she’s the first Black woman to command the state’s National Guard, overseeing more than 8,400 soldiers and airmen. Her inclusion won’t surprise anyone who’s tracked the Department of Defense’s push on small modular reactors for military energy resilience. Military land and infrastructure are part of that conversation, and she’s the right person to represent that side.

The task force’s formation follows the April 8 bill signing, and its work will shape what comes next for New Jersey’s energy grid as the state weighs whether nuclear can share space with its offshore wind commitments. The group’s members bring 13 distinct areas of policy expertise between them across energy, finance, environment, and defense. The full roster is public.