Lindell herds techies and clears tech hurdles at WAPA
By Kathleen Wolf Davis
Intelligent Utility
January 5, 2015
part of the women-in-energy article series
Dawn Roth Lindell became chief information officer (CIO) of the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) in 2013. In case you’re not “in the know,” WAPA is a federal power marketing agency. It sells federal hydropower and transmission to electric utilities in 15 states, along with maintaining and operating more than 17,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines. And Lindell is there to lead the team of technologists that make all those sales and interactions happen.
In fact, WAPA has over 200 IT pros in the mix. (You read that correctly—over 200.) Apparently, it takes quite a large team of techies to keep applications, hardware, data storage and networks up and running. But, that’s not the only thing she does as CIO of course. While helming the IT team is the main gig, she’s also on the leadership team, which means she gets to “help shape the future of the organization,” she said.
She may be shaping WAPA’s future, but WAPA wasn’t in her future when she was a kid. In fact, she started out wanting to be a vet.
“I loved animals and wanted to help them,” Lindell said. “As a senior in high school, I worked for a year as a veterinarian’s assistant. It was fun, challenging and interesting to assist in surgery and play with the pets. It was a lot less fun to clean the cages.”
But, that love of vet medicine didn’t stick and she actually studied chemical engineering in college because she “loved the practical problem solving,” she added.
Even with those studies, though, she didn’t limit herself. She thought afterward she could go to be a lawyer or a doctor or even off to business school. Where she ended up, however, was in the utilities industry at WAPA.
“No matter where I put my focus, I usually ended up in a leadership role and grew to love the opportunity to help others achieve their goals and beyond. It is amazing what people can accomplish together,” she said.
Her current role as CIO of WAPA does have a few similarities to that summer she spent as a vet tech. First and foremost, neither job has a really typical day.
“One of the joys of the job is getting involved in a wide array of technology opportunities. There are problems to solve, conflicts to work through, future planning to achieve, projects to assess, training and development needs to be met and a whole host of technologies to explore. Because technology evolves so rapidly, there is always more to learn, discuss and improve. Finding the right tools to meet a business need or solve a long-term problem is just fun,” Lindell said.
And her favorite part of that not-so-typical day depends on the day. She actually loves meetings, which may be the most unique thing about Lindell. But she sees them as an opportunity to work through problems or issues—right back to that love of problem solving that drew her to chemical engineering in college.
“It is so invigorating to get a diverse group of people together and watch the magic emerge as we explore different ideas and work toward options for a solution. People walk into the meeting frustrated and angry and leave the meeting feeling upbeat and hopeful. Making that kind of difference is great,” she added.
But, she does admit that she has bad days, too. She’s no Pollyanna, and there are days when her very favorite part of it is leaving all the frustrations behind and “going home to the people who love me and curling up with a good book,” she said.
Still, overall, Lindell enjoys her place in the power industry and she has great advice for other women to reach the heights that she has in her career.
First and foremost, you need to believe in—and don’t limit—yourself.
“As women, we are multi-dimensional—enjoying roles as leaders, analysts, project managers, technologists, operations experts, lawyers, financial whizzes, environmentalists, wives, daughters, sisters, mothers and friends,” she said.
“You do not have to choose to be only one or two,” she added. Be the whole list, if you feel like it. And, if you get overwhelmed, don’t be afraid to cut back and ask for help, too.
The bottom line: Don’t think you need to have all the answers right now.
“You will find answers along the way,” she added.
And when you do reach those goals you’ve set, Lindell says don’t forget to celebrate, savor them and then reach out and help others reach their goals, too.
And that’s how you, too, can get to be CIO just like Lindell.