DALLAS, Pa. — Penn State alumnus John Krohn has interned for a U.S. senator, served in the military in Iraq, worked to implement protection around energy infrastructure in Ukraine, and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. Today, he is the deputy chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy.
Before any of those life experiences, Krohn was a student at Penn State Wilkes-Barre, where his interest in service to others began. He served as the Nittany Lion mascot and was president of the Student Government Association (SGA).
“I look back fondly on my days at Penn State Wilkes Barre in helping to prepare me for these experiences,” Krohn said. “Public service was important to me. And trying to help develop pragmatic and sensible policy for the better good was always something that was of interest to me.”
A graduate of Dallas High School, Krohn volunteered for the Trucksville Fire Department and Kingston Township Ambulance Association as an emergency medical technician (EMT).
As the Nittany Lion mascot, Krohn attended campus, community, alumni and sporting events held at Penn State Wilkes-Barre. He was also a member of the 4 Seasons Club and the Radio Club, which remain active clubs on campus today.
"'Community’ is the one word that really sums up Penn State Wilkes-Barre for me: that community of students, faculty and staff,” Krohn said. “All the different student groups and activities at Penn State Wilkes-Barre brought everyone together. We’re all one heart of one collective group that wants to bring pride to the Penn State name.”
During his time as SGA president, Krohn continued to develop leadership skills and an interest in community service. He held a work study position at the campus nurse’s office, using his medical background to help take patients’ vital signs when necessary. He also completed an internship for Sen. Arlen Specter, assisting constituents at Specter's Wilkes-Barre and Scranton field offices.
Military service
After completing his first two years at Penn State Wilkes-Barre, Krohn transitioned to University Park to finish his degree. However, he had to put his studies on hold when he was deployed to Iraq in 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
He served with the U.S. Marine Corps as a corporal, squad leader and combat engineer. His unit provided security along convoy routes and also sought out unexploded ordnance both on their own and in partnership with special operations units to support those units.
Krohn attended and graduated from Officer Candidates School. He received several service accolades, including the Selected Marine Corps Reserve Medal and a Presidential Unit Citation.
After graduation
After returning from Iraq, Krohn earned a bachelor’s degree in crime, law and justice with minors in psychology and business administration from Penn State Wilkes-Barre. After graduation, building on what he learned during his internship with Specter, he headed to Washington, D.C., to work as a lobbyist for a private firm. He lobbied in the House of Representatives, the Senate and the executive branch on issues related to water policy, environmental policy and transportation policy.
After the lobbying work, he did strategic communications work in the energy field, promoting developing natural gas from shale formations, known as “fracking.” He then transitioned to the Department of Energy, where he held several positions, including the director of intergovernmental and external affairs and the director of management and operations in the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs.
In early 2022, Krohn moved into his current role as the deputy chief of staff in the Office of Nuclear Energy, overseeing an annual $1.6 billion budget and 215 employees between Washington, D.C., and Idaho Falls.
“My job is to help make sure our programs and our projects are moving forward and meeting their metrics and doing so in a way that safeguards the taxpayer investment. We are tasked with meeting climate goals and contributing to the national and economic security of our country,” he said.
He has residences in both Washington and Wilmington, North Carolina, and usually works in a Department of Energy office location unless he is traveling for work. His work travels have included a visit to the United Arab Emirates, where he toured one of the first power plants in the Arab world, and Ukraine during the current war after Russia invaded Ukraine. He also earned a master in public administration degree from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Working in Ukraine
“I had the opportunity to go to the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv to help with the United States government response to support Ukraine as they deal with aggression from the Russian Federation,” Krohn said. “I was responsible for liaisons among our government, the British government and other governments in terms of what Ukraine’s needs were and seeing how we could meet those needs.”
He met with high-ranking Ukrainian officials in roles equivalent to the U.S. secretary of state. Krohn worked to help the Ukrainians implement passive protection around their critical energy infrastructure, transformers and other energy distribution assets. He also helped provide technical assistance on the nuclear assets.
His travel occurred over three periods of several weeks at a time for a total of two months between October 2023 and February 2024 due to a government policy that only allows U.S. citizens to be in a conflict zone at an embassy for up to six weeks at a time.
“There were serious restrictions on embassy personnel because they didn’t want anything to happen to Americans,” he explained. “But for the most part, it felt surprisingly normal there. What people often don’t understand about conflict environments is that we as humans are adaptable creatures and can adapt to almost anything.”
Despite the overall feeling of normalcy, he described multiple air alerts where personnel working in the embassy would have to follow safety protocols, going to a shelter as lights flickered and bombs flew outside.
“Every now and again, the air defense wouldn’t work or shrapnel from intercepted missiles dropped on the city, and would hit buildings. Sometimes when that happened, buildings would catch fire and people and dogs would die,” he said.
“But the city continued to operate as it normally would, with people out and about and some ignoring the air raid alerts,” he said.
Krohn described his first time serving internationally as “a really enriching and rewarding experience” that he hopes to engage in again.
“We achieved our goals as much as we could in a chaotic and fluid environment,” he explained. “Some conversations that we were hoping to advance in terms of passive protection for their energy systems had been stuck in neutral. Those things had begun to move in a positive way by the time I left. I was happy I could help fundamentally ensure a nation’s safety, the protection of its residents and the livelihood of its people.”
He was also able to get the Ukrainians to sign on to a pledge at the 2023 United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP 28) to address the climate crisis. Due in part to Krohn’s urging, Ukraine was among the signatories for the COP 28’s Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy, which “recognizes the key role of nuclear energy in achieving global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.”