Jacob Whitson

Jacob joined CALSTART in 2021 as a Lead Project Manager. He works on Market Acceleration, focusing on Clean Off-Road Equipment (CORE) Voucher Incentive Project. He aims to accelerate deployment of cleaner off-road technologies by providing a streamlined way for fleets ready to purchase specific zero-emission equipment to receive funding to offset the higher cost of such technologies.

Prior to joining CALSTART, Jacob worked for the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (SJVAPCD) in a variety of lead positions within the Compliance, Permits and Grants & Incentives departments. In his most recent position as the Director of Compliance he was responsible for ensuring the department was meeting its local, state, and federal mandates in order to achieve air quality attainment standards. He provided direct oversight of air quality compliance related activities for area wide and stationary sources, criteria air pollutant reporting, California Environmental Quality Act review, and emission reduction incentive programs. He was responsible for building positive relationships and developing policy, implementing, and administering a diverse collection of incentive programs to accelerate the turnover of older high-polluting heavy-duty diesel equipment with new cleaner technologies. This consisted of projects related to agricultural equipment, heavy-duty trucks, locomotives, school buses, passenger vehicles, and Clean Mobility Options projects Ecosystem of Shared Mobility (Miocar). In addition, he also has a successful track record in developing policy for statewide initiatives and was responsible for the implementation for the Volkswagen Mitigation Trust Program for Electric School, Transit, and Shuttle Buses. Jacob holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Sam Houston State University.