I am the Vice President of Federal and RTO Regulatory Affairs for an electric generation and transmission owning electric cooperative headquartered in Winchester, Kentucky named East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC). RTO means Regional Transmission Organization; it refers to the entity that operates the regional wholesale power market in which EKPC participates.
I am an attorney. I both represent EKPC before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, DC and advocate in a variety of federal and state arenas for EKPC’s policy priorities in support of its continued ability to deliver affordable and reliable power to the 16-distribution owning electric cooperatives it serves in rural Kentucky
I moved to Kentucky from Pennsylvania in January 2020, to take on this newly created role within EKPC. The following August, my daughter decided to attend the University of Kentucky. Last year she graduated with two undergraduate degrees. She is now finishing an accelerated Master’s degree program. It has been exciting for me to be a student alongside her these last two years.
I have wanted to obtain an MBA degree for many years now. I actually began a program in Pennsylvania when my daughter was little. Unfortunately, extensive work travel, the need to attend class in-person, and the challenge of juggling the demands of the job with family commitments limited my ability to complete that program.
The reason I desired an MBA was I viewed it as filling a knowledge gap. I did not take business classes in undergrad. I have learned a lot on the job by virtue of being exposed to all aspects of business and financial planning throughout my career. However, I always felt my knowledge was surface deep and did not provide the full appreciation of key nuances.
I did not think of an MBA as checking a box to help me advance to the next level; rather, I thought it would be a great foundation to help me perform any job. Since I am a licensed attorney, I often am asked why I need an MBA. I don’t view those things as mutually exclusive. Rather, I believe what I’ve learned thus far is helping me become a better attorney and policy advocate – and executive leader in my company.
I have valued learning (or reinforcing prior knowledge of) key basics of business – accounting, finance, quantitative analytics, marketing, management. I also value the shared learning environment fostered by UK through team assignments and projects. My classmates are of varied ages and backgrounds and work in various fields. I have learned a lot from them and have appreciated going through this demanding program with them; we cheer each other on and support each other. Having moved from Pennsylvania to Kentucky the year of the pandemic, and working at a job that consumes much of my time, I had not established many friendships outside of work. I am grateful to call my classmates friends. I imagine we will continue to grow our friendships beyond graduation.
I have selected to attend classes in-person to best forge relationships with my classmates and instructors. I am grateful that the classes are hybrid and provide me with the opportunity to participate remotely when work travel takes me away from Kentucky. Most instructors have found good ways to simultaneously engage with both in-person and remote students to provide a robust learning environment for all.
Due to my work schedule, weekday evenings are the only option for me to attend class. Often weekends include a combination of work and schoolwork with some time for a break or other personal priority. I would not opt to attend classes on the weekend.
As I noted above, I have greatly enjoyed working with my peers. They have different backgrounds and experience. I have found group work to be good learning experiences. I try to partner with different people to get to know more people on a deeper level, and to leverage their expertise. It could be easy to partner with the same people, but I believe that it limits the possible learning experience to not take advantage of the opportunity to work with others.
I have a better understanding of how to interpret my company’s financial statements and better framework for considering implications of various business decisions. I also have a better understanding of various details of electricity market design as a result of the finance and economics courses. Last, I frequently pull principles from a class I am currently taking -- Managing Effective Organizations class -- into my leadership role at EKPC. I am known to share good articles and interesting things that I’ve learned with my husband, daughter and co-workers.
I am fortunate that my company values the program and deems me worthy of the benefit of their paying for my participation in the program. I do believe that the program provides the value that my company pays for it to provide.
I talked to colleagues and friends who have pursued MBA programs at other institutions before deciding upon UK; I believe the UK part-time MBA program is more rigorous and more complete than many others. The library resources are stellar. Access to faculty and advisors is tremendous.
I don’t believe that I will have time to earn a certificate in an area of concentration. However, those options are intriguing. I wonder if there are opportunities for UK to consider micro-credentials outside of a formal degree program. AI technology, project management, financial analysis…. There may be a variety of courses that business leaders in the area might find useful and interesting, and yet those leaders might not desire to take on a full degree. I just joined my undergraduate school’s Board of Advisors and am on the Graduate School Committee. I just learned about the various micro-credential programs and badges that they are offering and soon will be rolling out. If UK hasn’t gotten into this space, this may be an opportunity.
