Job Role: Senior Grid Operations and Reliability Director
Department: Business and Technology Strategies
What is your favorite thing about your job and NRECA?
Working with the members.
What inspires you?
The eagerness of people to learn new things.
What does it mean to you to be working in your current field?
It allows me to work with people who enjoy making a difference.
Explain a little bit about your career at NRECA. What is the core function of your current role and how does it support the mission of the organization?
I have been at NRECA for almost 12 years. I act as the primary technical advisor for NRECA staff, cooperative members and external organizations on mandatory reliability standards, grid reliability real-time operations and associated risks and impacts. My work helps influence internal and external regulatory strategies, which advocate positions that allow cooperatives to provide reliable service while complying with mandatory reliability standards.
How did you get here? Has your background always been in STEM fields, or was it something you discovered later in your education or career?
I have over 30 years of extensive utility experience in grid reliability compliance, energy policy, regulatory issues, customer service, engineering, operations, project management and training. I have always been interested in math and the sciences which led me to majoring in electrical engineering at Clemson University.
How did you become interested in your area of expertise?
I am always looking for a new challenge. After almost 20 years of working in a real-time operations role for several electric utilities, I wanted to use my expertise to influence change in this industry. Working at NRECA allows me to do this.
If you had a piece of advice for someone who wanted to explore a role in Tech or another STEM field, what would it be?
Your ability to learn difficult concepts allows you to be successful in this exciting field. School is the hard part, applying what you have learned is the fun part.