2019-05-29 18.41.50

Our Approach

Me.

I am a single 39 year old System Engineer working for two rural electric power cooperatives in northeastern Colorado: Highline Electric Association and Y-W Electric Association. I was born and raised in Madison, South Dakota, where my parents still live. I went to college at South Dakota State University where I earned my Bachelor's of Science in Electrical Engineering with a slight emphasis in power systems. I was hired directly out of college by HEA and Y-WEA and moved to Akron in May 2002, just a couple weeks after graduation. Since moving into the post-college "real world" I have learned quite a bit about the challenges of providing reliable electricity to consumers in a very rural area.

Our Story

My Life in Akron, Colorado

Akron is a nice and quiet small town. My life here is fairly simple: I go to work, I sleep, I eat, I watch TV and movies, I read books, I play around on the internet, I tinker with my computers, I go to First Baptist Church of Akron, and I volunteer on the Akron Volunteer Fire Department, where I also serve as the "radio guy" and secretary-treasurer. One of these days I'll pick up my trombone some more and play it more than I have been, but for now I don't play much other than from time to time with our church musicians for the hymns at church, being as there are no other groups around here to play as a part of.

Professional Life.

Professionally, I'm a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (or IEEE for short), a society of engineers from all different disciplines from all around the world. Within IEEE, I am a member of the Power and Energy Society. I am also a member of the International Council on Large Electric Systems (also known as CIGRE) and enjoy keeping up with their more technical (and less political) work on engineering in the power transmission and distribution area. Both of these organizations put out several high-quality publications that I use to keep abreast of what is happening in the industry.