Tricia Oakes

Tricia Oakes is the Director of Operations at Pac/West Strategies, overseeing internal operations at the firm and managing a broad range of clients and projects spanning strategic communications and marketing, political and educational campaigns, community outreach, government relations, and brand and website development.

With an educational background in and passion for energy policy, Tricia’s body of work in her academic and professional career has been predominantly focused on the energy sector, specifically in the Colorado oil and natural gas industry. Tricia has worked on projects for energy clients both big and small. Since 2018, Tricia has managed strategic communications, collateral and website development, community and stakeholder outreach for one of our smaller energy clients, a privately-owned, Denver-based exploration and production company with 51 Colorado employees. Additionally, Tricia has assisted with day-to-day operations of the firm’s largest client—Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development (CRED)—a statewide oil and natural gas educational campaign. In 2018, Tricia gained more campaign experience, working on the No on Proposition 112 campaign—the largest opposition campaign effort in state history—that soundly defeated a dangerous measure designed to harm the oil and natural gas industry in Colorado.

Tricia has a B.A. in International Relations from Colgate University. She also has an MSc in Business Management and an MSc in Energy and Society from Durham University in the United Kingdom. Her two master’s dissertation studies focused on opposing sides of the Colorado policy debate around shale gas development and hydraulic fracturing, colloquially referred to as “fracking.”  Tricia is an avid sportswoman who played basketball collegiately at Colgate University and professionally in Europe for six years.