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Ordinarily Extraordinary - Conversations with women in STEM

103. Jill Anderson - Utility Executive; BS Mechanical Engineering; MBA

April 12, 2023 Kathy Nelson Episode 103
Ordinarily Extraordinary - Conversations with women in STEM
103. Jill Anderson - Utility Executive; BS Mechanical Engineering; MBA
Info
Ordinarily Extraordinary - Conversations with women in STEM
103. Jill Anderson - Utility Executive; BS Mechanical Engineering; MBA
Apr 12, 2023 Episode 103
Kathy Nelson

Jill Anderson is the Executive Vice President of Operations at Southern California Edison. She has served in several leadership roles in several utilities in her career. At SCE in addition to her current position, she has also been the Senior Vice President of Customer Service and Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning & Power Supply. At New York Power Authority, she worked as the Chief Commercial Officer, Vice President of Public Affairs and Energy Policy and Chief of Staff to the CEO. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from NYU.

What do we talk about in this episode?

Jill shares her career journey starting out in the utility industry, moving into leadership positions early in her career; she discusses her wide variety of experiences from leading people in the field to leading people in an office. We talk about some of the challenges faced in being a woman in the field of a utility and how to handle those challenges. Jill provides insight into leadership and her leadership experiences. She shares how she has developed her skill sets over her career to move into the executive leadership role she currently inhabits.

  1. The importance of meeting people where they are - one person at a time.
  2. Jill's experience in a variety of leadership experiences at different utilities. Technical leadership roles and leadership roles in non-technical areas of utilities.
  3. Why and how Jill uses social media and is purposefully visible so she can be a role model as a woman engineer and a woman executive.
  4. The importance of being in leadership and being in the field with her employees.
  5. How Jill strategically and intentionally uses her time in a week and how she intentionally invests in herself.
  6. Enjoying the people side is one of the most important parts of being in leadership vs. staying technical
  7. Avoiding office manager type tasks - or sharing them equally with others on your team.

Music used in the podcast: Higher Up, Silverman Sound Studio

Resources

A capacitor bank is a group of several capacitors connected in series or parallel combinations. Capacitors are electrical and electronic components that store electrical energy. Thus, capacitor banks (cap banks) store the reactive energy (leading) and compensate for inductive energy (lagging), thus improving the power factor. As a result, the grid gets more stable and higher transmission capacity and suffers fewer transmission losses. (https://www.electricalvolt.com/2022/08/what-is-a-capacitor-bank/)

Reactive load refers to the electrical load that consumes apparent power in a circuit, such as an inductor or capacitor. This type of load consumes current that is out of phase with the voltage, and can cause power factor issues in a power system. Reactive load refers to the electrical load that consumes apparent power in a circuit, such as an inductor or capacitor. (https://www.quora.com)

The Nobel Conference is an academic conference held annually at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. Founded in 1963, the conference links a general audience with scientists in topics related to the natural and social sciences. (Wikipedia)

California Announces Almost 18 Percent Of Cars Bought In 2022 Were Electric (https://insideevs.com/news/619370/california-18-percent-new-cars-electric/). 

In 2022, 5.8% of the new cars Americans bought were electric, up from 3.2% in 2021. Total EV sales topped 800,000 for the first time. (https://www.kbb.com/car-news/new-car-sales-fell-in-2022-but-new-electric-car-sales-rose-dramatically/)

It has been estimated that nearly 40% of women who earn engineering degrees either never enter the profession or quit. (https://hbr.org/2016/08/why-do-so-many-women-who-study-engineering-leave-the-field)

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Show Notes

Jill Anderson is the Executive Vice President of Operations at Southern California Edison. She has served in several leadership roles in several utilities in her career. At SCE in addition to her current position, she has also been the Senior Vice President of Customer Service and Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning & Power Supply. At New York Power Authority, she worked as the Chief Commercial Officer, Vice President of Public Affairs and Energy Policy and Chief of Staff to the CEO. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from NYU.

What do we talk about in this episode?

Jill shares her career journey starting out in the utility industry, moving into leadership positions early in her career; she discusses her wide variety of experiences from leading people in the field to leading people in an office. We talk about some of the challenges faced in being a woman in the field of a utility and how to handle those challenges. Jill provides insight into leadership and her leadership experiences. She shares how she has developed her skill sets over her career to move into the executive leadership role she currently inhabits.

  1. The importance of meeting people where they are - one person at a time.
  2. Jill's experience in a variety of leadership experiences at different utilities. Technical leadership roles and leadership roles in non-technical areas of utilities.
  3. Why and how Jill uses social media and is purposefully visible so she can be a role model as a woman engineer and a woman executive.
  4. The importance of being in leadership and being in the field with her employees.
  5. How Jill strategically and intentionally uses her time in a week and how she intentionally invests in herself.
  6. Enjoying the people side is one of the most important parts of being in leadership vs. staying technical
  7. Avoiding office manager type tasks - or sharing them equally with others on your team.

Music used in the podcast: Higher Up, Silverman Sound Studio

Resources

A capacitor bank is a group of several capacitors connected in series or parallel combinations. Capacitors are electrical and electronic components that store electrical energy. Thus, capacitor banks (cap banks) store the reactive energy (leading) and compensate for inductive energy (lagging), thus improving the power factor. As a result, the grid gets more stable and higher transmission capacity and suffers fewer transmission losses. (https://www.electricalvolt.com/2022/08/what-is-a-capacitor-bank/)

Reactive load refers to the electrical load that consumes apparent power in a circuit, such as an inductor or capacitor. This type of load consumes current that is out of phase with the voltage, and can cause power factor issues in a power system. Reactive load refers to the electrical load that consumes apparent power in a circuit, such as an inductor or capacitor. (https://www.quora.com)

The Nobel Conference is an academic conference held annually at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. Founded in 1963, the conference links a general audience with scientists in topics related to the natural and social sciences. (Wikipedia)

California Announces Almost 18 Percent Of Cars Bought In 2022 Were Electric (https://insideevs.com/news/619370/california-18-percent-new-cars-electric/). 

In 2022, 5.8% of the new cars Americans bought were electric, up from 3.2% in 2021. Total EV sales topped 800,000 for the first time. (https://www.kbb.com/car-news/new-car-sales-fell-in-2022-but-new-electric-car-sales-rose-dramatically/)

It has been estimated that nearly 40% of women who earn engineering degrees either never enter the profession or quit. (https://hbr.org/2016/08/why-do-so-many-women-who-study-engineering-leave-the-field)