Heather Matteson is an Arizona desert native, and a lifelong environmentalist. She is also a Reactor Operator and procedure writer at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. She changed her mind on nuclear power after spending her 12-year career at Diablo asking questions to understand and feel comfortable with nuclear technology. She lives a low-impact lifestyle consistent with the values passed on to her by her parents, and started Mothers for Nuclear with Kristin Zaitz not just because of her concerns with air pollution and climate change, but also because she loves the desert and doesn't want to see California’s Mojave covered in solar farms, which require 150 times more land than nuclear. She spends her free time reading, hiking and volunteering in the community. Heather has a materials engineering degree from Cal Poly.