Management Team

Salina is co-founder and CEO of Transitional Energy, a Geothermal Development Company that converts oilfield heat waste to clean baseload power. During her 23-year career in the oil and gas industry, Salina gained expertise in waterflood management, directional drilling, development and exploration, evaluations, and resource management. 

Salina seeks to make the world a better place and believes energy security doesn’t have to come at a cost to the environment. She believes inclusivity of people and integration of ideas will be the solution to balancing environmental justice and energy security.

Salina is Iñupiat and was the first in her family to graduate high school, attend college, and earn advanced degrees. She holds her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering and Petroleum Refining from Colorado School of Mines and an MBA in Finance from Pepperdine University. She focuses her volunteer time and charitable giving to programs such as KIPP, Goodwill Industries, and SPE philanthropy opportunities that focus on mentoring students in at-risk communities to build resilience through education for future generations.

Ben is a geoscientist and manager with 3 years of environmental consulting and 15 years of upstream oil and gas experience with majors, public independents, and private equity-backed companies, in addition to more than 2 years in the geothermal space as co-founder of Transitional Energy. Fluent in R and SQL, and proficient in Python, he also leads data science for the company. He holds an AB magna cum laude from Bowdoin College in Geology, MBA from Texas A&M University, and a PhD from Dartmouth College in Earth Sciences.

Water is his passion. From mucking about as a kid in creeks and developing a passion for geoscience and earth surface processes from that young age, water has been the theme in his career. It started with remediation of water resources early in his career, the use of stable isotopes in water to understand petroleum systems, and now to the harvesting of geothermal resources from water. He also loves efficiency—in resource use and in producing subsurface energy not just from hydrocarbons but also from the heat under our feet. Connecting his passions of water and efficiency and you get Transitional Energy.

Outside of his career passions, he gives back to the community through service to professional societies, non-profits, and schools. In specific, the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, the Denver Earth Resource Library, and volunteer instruction as an Affiliate Professor at Colorado School of Mines and a Collaborating Professor at Iowa State University.

Johanna has 15 years of experience within the oil and gas industry in a wide variety of engineering, regulatory, policy, and management positions. With a degree in Geological Engineering from Montana Tech, Johanna has brought an intradisciplinary and collaborative approach to every position she has held. With various roles at Noble Energy, SM Energy, and Extraction Oil & Gas, and the Clean Air Task Force, Johanna has contributed to every part of the energy development value chain.

We have the tools and technology to reduce emissions from energy industry right now. Johanna strongly believes that thermal energy is a wasted (and often ignored) resource and should be utilized to help solve our energy and climate crisis. An equitable and diverse energy future is a something Johanna is passionate about. 

Johanna currently volunteers her time as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force chair at Geothermal Rising as well as sitting on the Board of Directors of the Energy Leadership Institute. 

Lia Sedillos is SVP of Operations for Transitional Energy. With over 20 years in the Oil & Gas industry, she brings a wealth of knowledge in field operations, completions and production. Lia has experience in the both national and global environments including working with unconventional resources.

Advancing energy production to fit into our 21st century world, motivates her to keep seeking new alternatives to help fuel our planet. Looking past just oil production, but at the energy sector as a whole. 

As SVP of Operations, Lia plays a major role in safety, operations and engineering Design. While at Noble Energy she let productions in both the DJ and Appalachian basins. More recently, Lia was the VP of Technical Sales at Covia Corporation and as a Strategic Sales Leader at Workrise. Lia holds a Bachelors in Civil Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Petroleum Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines as well as an MBA with an emphasis in finance from Tulane University. She is an avid cyclist and skier.