Kelly Sackheim joined the hydropower industry in 1997 as an employee of Henwood Energy Services. Ms. Sackheim acquired, refurbished, and operated with a partner her first small hydroelectric project in Maryland from 2009 to 2013. Ms Sackheim acquired a pair of hydroelectric facilities in New Hampshire in 2015 and sold them separately in November 2018 and April 2022. Ms. Sackheim relocated to upstate New York in February 2020 to become the resident managing operator of the 815-kW Sandy Hollow hydro, and took ownership in January 2021, before upgrades/automation and refurbishment started in 2016 were completed, and six weeks before the deadline (that she only missed by one day) for submitting the final relicensing application.