WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) today announced several additions to the Republican staff of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The new staff hires include Alaskans Mimi Braniff and Chelsea Thompson. Cathy Cahill is also joining the committee as a congressional fellow.

“Mimi, Chelsea, and Cathy will be valuable additions to the energy committee staff,” Murkowski said. “Mimi and Cathy bring a great deal of expertise and experience between them, albeit in very different areas. I am particularly happy we were able to bring Mimi back into the Senate fold nearly a decade after she got her start here working for my friend, Sen. Ted Stevens.”

Braniff, who grew up in Fairbanks and Anchorage, joins the committee after nearly three years of working at NRG Energy in Washington, D.C., where she most recently served as vice president of federal government affairs. The move marks a return to the Senate for Braniff, who previously worked as a legislative assistant for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), and staff counsel on the Senate Appropriations Committee and Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. Braniff will handle electricity, climate change, cybersecurity and Environmental Protection Agency issues for the committee. Braniff began working with the committee earlier this month.

Thompson, who graduated in May from Lake Forest College with a degree in communications, joins the staff fulltime after completing a summer internship on the committee. Thompson began her new, full-time role with the committee earlier in January.

Cahill comes to the committee as a congressional fellow from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). Cahill, who has been a professor at UAF since 1998, focused her research on the impacts of fine particulate matter in the atmosphere. Before coming to the committee, Cahill was researching the size and composition of particulate matter entering the Arctic from Asia and elsewhere. Cahill will continue to work on issues involving the Arctic for the committee. Her portfolio will also include air quality and Alaska issues, as well as Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping.

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