The Basics
Years of Service: Two in July
Division: Asset Management and Large Projects
Role: As part of the asset data services group, I analyze City Light’s asset data across multiple systems. I work with different business units to address discrepancies and gaps in our asset data and create database scripts, reports, and data visualizations for our business needs.

Background
Hometown: Federal Way, Wash.
Alma Mater: University of Washington (UW). Go dawgs!
Discipline/Trade of Study: I first studied communications, international studies, and political science at UW to earn my bachelor’s. I also have a master’s degree in management information systems from the University of Arizona.
Tell us about your family: My parents and younger brother both live in the Federal Way area. My younger sister lives in Washington D.C., where she works as an electrical engineer. I also have a girlfriend of a little under a year.

Just for Fun
Where do you currently live and what’s something you love about the area? I purchased a home in Federal Way in December! I love living in my hometown and that I’m so close to parks and restaurants. It’s a bit of a quiet town, which is perfect for me to enjoy and unwind after a long day of work!

What are some of your favorite activities/hobbies? A lot of my favorite activities revolve around computers and sports. I enjoy building custom computers whenever I have the budget to satisfy my fancier tastes. I’ve also recently gotten into golfing as a good, socially distanced sport, although a lot of the workout comes from simply walking the course.

What is something most people don’t know about you? People may not know that I’m actually a pilot! I have a private pilot’s license and several of my family members work for Alaska Airlines, so I got hooked into aviation at a young age.

What brought/attracted you to City Light? The utility initially attracted me because it checks all the boxes! This is a critical organization that does very important work in powering Seattle. My position allows me to fulfill my desire to apply my technology knowledge and experience and leverage that into a role that helps my community.

The Basics
Years of Service: 33
Division: Transmission & Distribution Operations
Role: I purchase, repair, and order tools for the South Service Center tool room, where I’m based. I meet with crew chiefs and managers from transmission and distribution operations and throughout our utility to identify tool and equipment needs. I also procure vendors to conduct repairs and maintenance for our high and low voltage work and other test equipment, collaborating with the North Service Center tool room to provide consistency and maximize our inventory.

Background
Hometown: Hermanville, Miss.
Alma Mater: Port Gibson High School. I studied at several technical colleges, Bates Technical, Renton Technical and South Seattle Community College, but am proud to boast that I graduated from one of the best auto mechanic schools in the south, “The Shade Tree Auto Mechanic School,” taught by my father.
Discipline/Trade of Study: Automobile mechanics
Tell us about your family: I am the sixth of eight children born in Hermanville, Miss. My father, the son of a poor sharecropper/farmer, received a third-grade education because he and his family had to dedicate their lives to working for their plantation owner. In addition to being a World War II veteran, a farmer, and a sawmill worker, he was one of the best self-trained electricians and shade tree automobile mechanics in our area. My brothers and I were right there, following in his footsteps, and learned responsibility, work ethic, and automobile service and repair at a young age. I drove cars and tractors at the age of 12. When I was 15, I worked a summer job cleaning bushes from the roadside and hauling hay, earning $300. I used that money to purchase a car’s shell and a rebuilt engine that my dad and I put together. It was a blue 1965 Chevy Impala that I drove in high school.

Just for Fun
What brought you to Washington? When I was in high school, I visited Tacoma to see my sister one summer and was amazed at the Evergreen State’s beauty. I was in awe of its giant Douglas fir trees, blue skies (when we see it), and the majestic snow-capped mountain peaks. (I had never seen trees line up the mountainside and down the other side like hair on a dog’s back). I couldn’t wait to visit Mount Rainier and have a snowball fight and ride an inner tube. We rarely had enough snow in Mississippi to make a snowball!

What are some of your favorite family memories and activities/hobbies? While flying home to visit my parents one Christmas holiday, I met the love of my life, my wife Barbara, at an altitude of 30,000+ feet on United Airlines. We celebrated our 40^th anniversary on March 2 and are the proud parents of Ryan, Dana, Anthony, and Gregory. We’re also proud grandparents of five grandchildren—three adults, a preschooler, and a toddler who keeps us on our toes. We also have one great-grandson. I enjoy gardening, fishing, cooking, watching sports, and auto mechanics in my spare time.

If you could have any other job, what would it be and why? I would be a flight attendant. After high school, I completed training and got the job, but when they called me for a training flight, I became nervous and dropped out. There were a couple of flight crashes during that time, and I realized I would be in the air every day. I missed the travel opportunities that I had dreamed about.

What brought/attracted you to City Light? After graduation, I moved to Tacoma to go to auto mechanic school, but the waitlist had more than 500 people. Meanwhile, I worked at Nalley’s Fine Foods Cannery and then at a sandblasting company in Tacoma’s tide flats. It was a dirty job, so I returned to Nalley’s and got my license to become a long-haul driver. After I completed the course, Nalley’s sold their trucks and hired independent truckers. I started job hunting and applied at Seattle City Light, Metro, and the Seattle Water Department. Ironically, all three companies offered me a job within the same week. I chose City Light’s machine shop because I could use my mechanical hands-on skills and work in the outdoors. After 15 years in the machine shop, I became an electrical helper and moved to a material supplier with the line crews.

The Basics
Years of Service: One and a half
Division: Regulatory Affairs
Role: Our team focuses on reliability standards compliance and regulations. What that means is we ensure City Light meets or exceeds the safety and security standards set forth by regulatory authorities. Failure to do so can lead to major penalty and safety/security implications not only for at City Light, but for our interconnected electric grid. More specifically, one of the files I manage is our Columbia Basin Hydro Power (CBHP) contract from a reliability standards standpoint, ensuring that we remain in compliance to North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) reliability standards, and that all parties understand their role when it comes to compliance. I conduct an annual review between all parties of the contract (Tacoma Power and CBHP), revisiting our Standards to make sure they are relevant, active, and when necessary, making amendments to our Exhibits or MOU if any changes have occurred. I also led the migration of Regulatory Affair’s SharePoint site to the new Hub, so feel free to head on over to our page to learn more about what our group does and what reliability Standards compliance means at City Light and for you!

Background
Hometown: Toronto, Ont. CA (Go Raptors!)
Alma Mater: McMaster University, located in Hamilton, Ontario in Canada
Discipline/Trade of Study: I received my undergraduate degree in political science and then went onto my master’s, also in political science, majoring in public policy and public administration.
Tell us about your family: My family consists of my husband, Richard, my dog, Teddy, and me. My husband serves in the Royal Canadian Air Force as an aircraft commander for the C-17 fleet. He was selected to go on an exchange with the United States Air Force, which is what brought our little family to Washington. He is posted at the McChord Air Force Base flying the C-17 and is currently training to become an instructor on the plane. Though my husband and I are both Canadian, our dog is actually from New Jersey! He’s a little Maltipoo who we rescued from a shelter, and we’ve had him for about four years now.

Just for Fun
Where do you currently live and what’s something you love about the area? We live in downtown Seattle across from the Amazon Spheres and I absolutely love the area! I have never lived downtown anywhere before, so my husband and I are really soaking in downtown life by enjoying all the patios, different restaurants, and the convenience of our location being walking distance to basically everything. Fun fact: I haven’t driven a car since we moved here in July 2019! There is no need because everything is accessible downtown by walking!

If you could use two words to describe yourself, what would they be? Creative and long-winded. I love coming up with new ideas; I think anyone that has gotten the chance to work with me can vouch for the fact that I am an idea-generator. I am most comfortable being in a place of problem-solving and thinking through new ways to approach problems, I think that’s where I really thrive. That being said, I am also super longwinded. I have a lot of stories, and if I get going on a topic I’m really passionate about, it’s really hard for me to scale it back. This makes it really easy for me to make small talk with strangers though! Just take this response for instance, I’m pretty sure I was supposed to answer in two words!

If you could learn to do anything, what would it be? I wish I could learn how to sing. My husband and I do a lot of “Car-eoke” when we drive anywhere, and we really have to turn up the volume for me because I have no sense of pitch or key… or even singing the right lyrics for that matter.

What brought/attracted you to City Light? I have worked in the public sector for most of my career in a few different policy realms, such as commuter rail transportation in both electrification and railway safety regulations. I have also done policy work on property assessment and property tax regulations. Out of all the different policy areas I have worked in, the energy realm is by far the most dynamic, complex, and interesting. That is what initially compelled me to the role, and it continues to keep me engaged and enthused about the work we do here!

The Basics
Years of Service: 4-plus
Division: Communications
Role: I like to think of my role as one that connects and informs our employees, from managing our (spot)Light profiles series, writing articles for Network newsletter, and coordinating the Monday Message to creating and co-facilitating programs like Get to Know City Light, Value Ambassadors, and our overall One Utility effort. I’m always looking for ways to best serve our employees with the information and resources they need to do their job effectively (like our meeting toolkit) while providing opportunities to engage with one another.

Background
Hometown: Thermal, Calif.(Palm Springs area)
Alma Mater: Loyola Marymount University / California State University Northridge
Discipline/Trade of Study: I have a bachelor’s degree in communication studies and a master’s degree in mass communications.
Tell us about your family: Well, I’m a new mom! My husband and I welcomed our son, Theodore, right before COVID hit. It was quite a year but staying at home has given us the gift of time, which we can never get back. It’s been a blessing in disguise for us. Teddy is the best, and we love him to bits. Outside of my little family, I have a younger sister and a younger brother. He just got engaged—yay! My parents and siblings live in Southern California.

Just for Fun
Where do you currently live and what’s something you love about the area? We live in Bothell, and it’s exactly what I envisioned when my husband and I moved to Washington five years ago. We pictured a friendly community, quiet neighborhoods, lots of trees and trails. Bothell has all that, plus big parks and a river. It’s also nice being close to Woodinville; its countryside feel reminds me of home.

What is your favorite travel memory/experience? My husband and I got engaged in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, so that will always hold a special place in my heart. But I absolutely loved Banff National Park and think it just might be the most beautiful place I’ve ever visited. It was a winter wonderland—like a page right out of a storybook—which was a big deal for someone who grew up in the desert. Ice skating on Lake Louise, dogsledding, hiking on snow to ice canyons—I ate it all up!

What was your first concert? Oh my goodness. My parents took us to a 5th Dimension concert when I was in fourth grade, I think. My sister and I were the youngest ones there. The lead singer spotted us and called us out. We didn’t know whether to feel embarrassed or cool. Ha! After that, my next real concert experience was Ice Cube my freshman year of high school. Talk about an eye-opener!

What TV show are you currently bingeing on? My mom has been staying with us to help with Teddy and has us bingeing a Canadian series called Heartland, a feel-good family show about a horse ranch outside of Calgary. Does anyone else watch it? I never heard of it but now it’s our bonding time. I also started Grace and Frankie (which I’m loving) and have to get in a plug for Schitt’s Creek and Workin’ Moms.

What is something most people don’t know about you? That I grew up on a date ranch about 40 minutes east of Palm Springs. I have fond memories of seeing my grandpa and my dad working on the ranch together; it was in my family for three generations. My family settled in the Coachella Valley more than 100 years ago, and I am very proud to have such a deep connection to the area. If you haven’t tried a date shake, I highly recommend it. I’m not a fan of dates (ironic, right?) but won’t turn down a date shake!