Staff

Who We Are

The information on this page gives a brief overview of the IEEE Power and Energy Society Executive Office Staff, and the various ways we support our volunteers.

Tim Licitra

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Tim leads the Society Executive Office in supporting and carrying forward the goals and decisions of the Power & Energy Society's Governing Board, Committees, and President. He focuses on developing a strong partnership with the volunteer leaders and serves as consultant in providing continuity in strategic thinking and planning. In supporting the volunteer leadership, he drives society initiatives, supports Technical Activities and IEEE initiatives, and functions as a conduit between PES and the key operating units within IEEE. Tim drives the organizational direction, operating plans, and strategies to meet the goals of the society, while managing all aspects of daily operations.

Yuen Chan

SOCIETY EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Yuen is responsible for providing administrative support to the Executive Director and the Society, which includes expense reports, purchase requisitions, invoices and others. She is the PES Governing Board liaison, assisting with the planning and coordination of PES AdCom meetings and maintaining copies of the meeting minutes and reports. She maintains PES group email aliases and the PES Governing Board roster.

Dan Toland

DIRECTOR – SOCIETY OPERATIONS

Dan is responsible for managing and supervising the Power & Energy Society (PES) business segments involving conferences, education, membership, chapters, sales and marketing. This includes oversight of the PES Membership activities and programs, which include affinity groups, Awards, Chapters and Scholarships; oversight of the PES Marketing and Communications Strategies and Plans across all PES functional areas (Publications, Meetings, Education, Technical Activities, Member Services, etc.) He is also responsible for the Education and Conference businesses. He undertakes special projects under the direction of the PES Executive Director, as well as the analysis and improvement of existing operations to create a culture of continuous improvement.

Sissie Lin

OPERATIONS FINANCIAL MANAGER

Sissie is responsible for every-day business financial management including financial budgets and forecasts as well as the financial aspects of conferences, publications, membership development, educational and promotion activities, etc. of the Power & Energy Society (PES).She works with PES officers, develops financial plans and ensures financial metrics are deliverable on the timely and accurate basis.

Michael M. Wilson

SENIOR PROGRAM MANAGER - IEEE SMART VILLAGE & IEEE MOVE INTERNATIONAL

Mike administratively manages two of the Institute's volunteer-led humanitarian programs; IEEE Smart Village and IEEE MOVE International. He drives the development and program administration of these two institute-wide global initiatives. He is responsible for advancing these programs by providing overall coordination and management, ensuring that key goals are met by engaging and empowering project stakeholders, and enabling member volunteers; assisting them to implement and grow each initiative's humanitarian mission.

Abira Altvater

PROGRAM MANAGER - PES

Abira executes the every-day business and administrative management of the Society’s initiatives & projects. She works closely with the PES Technical Committees. She is responsible for advancing programs by providing overall coordination & management, ensuring that key project goals are met by performing research and analysis. She shall ensure: that there is good coordination between program stakeholders, that volunteers are engaged; and that recommendations are made to the Executive Director for the resolution of problems and actions to be taken.

Jenny Brown

MARKETING PROJECT MANAGER

Jenny is responsible for the PES Membership recruitment, PES marketing plan development and implementation, campaign strategies, brand affinity and reach, and collaborating with various IEEE teams.

Shanon Nason

SENIOR ADMINISTRATOR - PES AWARDS

Shanon manages all PES Awards programs, including PES Society, Technical Committee, Chapter Awards, PES Scholarship Plus Program and all individual Scholarships. She ensures that the IEEE PES Awards Committee, IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Committee and other student award committees make recommendations for nominees in all Award areas/scopes with IEEE and PES policy, procedures, and precedents. She proactively develops and executes projects and coordinates workflows for tasks, projects and services associated with PES Awards & Scholarships. She also works with the PES Student Committee to plan and coordinate the submission, review and execution of the Student Poster Contest for select PES Conferences. She works closely with the IEEE Foundation, IEEE Strategic Sourcing and IEEE Corporate Awards Staff. She also supports the PES VP of Strategic Communications & Partnerships and the PES VP of Education, as well as other volunteers to promote the scope of the Society.

LaToya Gourdine

SENIOR ADMINISTRATOR - PES EDUCATION SERVICES

LaToya executes the every-day business and administration management of IEEE Power & Energy Society's education programs, including event planning and administration, marketing, reporting, on-site support, compliance throughout the lifecycle of events, programs, and meetings. She serves as the primary project owner for the execution of tutorials, online based programs and Plain Talk About the Electric Power System series of courses. LaToya is responsible for advancing programs by providing overall coordination & management, ensuring that key project goals are met by performing research and analysis.

Roseanne Jones

SENIOR ADMINISTRATOR - PES MEETINGS SERVICES

Roseanne supports the IEEE Power & Energy Society's Education & Meetings businesses, including event planning and administration, marketing, reporting, compliance, and administrative duties throughout the lifecycle of events, programs, and meetings. Roseanne creates meeting assessment reports based on statistical and other (e.g., anecdotal) metrics. She responds to inquiries and supports due diligence related to PES conferences (research, compilation of data and messaging, etc.) Roseanne participates in pre-meeting and possible on-site support for the financially sponsored conferences and provides meeting support by preparing correspondence, receiving visitors, arranging conference calls, and scheduling meetings.

Kathy Heilman

SENIOR ADMINISTRATOR - PES MEETING SERVICES

Kathy works to advance the PES Mission through its support of IEEE member-volunteers in its sponsored and co-sponsored conferences. She is primarily responsible for assisting the volunteer organizers in the conference timeline from proposal to completion. Duties include, but are not limited to, process technical conference sponsorship requests, organize and perform budget reviews, and managing venue and supplier contracting to minimize the IEEE's financial risk. She participates in pre-meeting and possible on-site support for the financially sponsored conferences and provides meeting support by preparing correspondence, receiving visitors, arranging conference calls, and scheduling meetings.

Matthew Tees

ADMINISTRATOR - PES EDUCATION & MEETING SERVICES

Matt supports the IEEE Power & Energy Society's Education & Meetings businesses, including event planning and administration, marketing, reporting, compliance, and administrative duties throughout the lifecycle of events, programs, and meetings. Matt runs the social media accounts of the PES Scholarship Plus program and facilitates content updates to the Scholarship Plus website as well as the PES website. Matt is also responsible for coordinating and hosting PES webinars.

Maria Proetto

SENIOR MANAGER – PES PUBLICATION SERVICE

Maria serves as liaison to Editors-in-Chief of PES Transactions, IEEE Publication Department and Technical Committee Program Chairs. She is the administrator for the PES conference paper submission and review sites for all PES sponsored meetings, and schedules Technical Sessions for PES General Meetings, T&D & PSCE. She also creates the Technical Program and Proceedings for PES General Meeting, T&D & PSCE as well as other PES sponsored conferences. She coordinates the publication of PES Special Publications & Tutorials.

Randi Scholnick-Philippidis

SENIOR PUBLICATIONS ADMINISTRATOR – PES PUBLICATION SERVICES

Randi serves as the administrator for the IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, the IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, and the IEEE Open Access Journal of Power and Energy. She is responsible for supporting the Editors-in-Chief during the paper review process and scheduling of issues, providing technical support on Manuscript Central, and responding to author inquiries. She also serves as the administrator for IEEE Electrification Magazine and is responsible for posting publications-related content on the PES website.

Cheryl Koster

SENIOR PUBLICATIONS ADMINISTRATOR – PES PUBLICATION SERVICES

Cheryl serves as the Administrator for the IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, the IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy, and the IEEE Power Engineering Letters. She is responsible for supporting the Editors-in-Chief during the paper review process and scheduling of Transactions issues, providing technical support on Manuscript Central, and responding to author inquiries. She is also responsible for posting publications-related content on the PES web site and for providing support to the PES Technical Council by scheduling committee meetings for the General Meeting.

Kristin Mecsey

PUBLICATIONS ASSISTANT – PES PUBLICATION SERVICES

Kristin handles the formatting review for IEEE PES Transactions and Letters. She also handles author inquiries, and requests from the respective editors, reviewers and editors in Chief. Working with Maria Proetto she also works on administrative pieces of various conferences and meetings.

Martina Soliman

PES SOCIETY ADMINISTRATOR

Martina coordinates committee and operation activities in support of the industry outreach activities of PES. She supports efforts that advance PES's global reach, impact, and influence by maximizing the effectiveness of the Society's engagement with industry, government groups, universities, and more.

Joe Wood

DIGITAL MARKETING AND WEBSITE SPECIALIST

Joe is primarily responsible for the management, development, and execution of the PES website and digital presence. In addition, he implements and executes the creation of a variety of marketing and communication initiatives.

Jennifer Jaques

PES MEMBERSHIP MANAGER

Jennifer is primarily responsible for membership activities designed to build awareness of society offerings and increase membership. She helps to manage collaboration with affinity groups, membership growth initiatives, membership engagement activities, and membership marketing activities for PES. This is a key position for supporting and driving the membership growth and engagement strategy.

Phyllis Caputo

PROGRAM MANAGER - IEEE SMART GRID/IEEE SMART CITIES

Phyllis executes the every-day business and administrative management of the IEEE Power & Energy Society projects, specifically IEEE Smart Grid and IEEE Smart Cities. Based on research and analysis, she advances projects by providing overall coordination and management between stakeholders, and ensures key goals are met. This includes serving as the project lead and key liaison/interface for external partners, constituencies, IEEE staff and volunteers, and providing recommendations to the Executive Director for actions to be taken.

Dean Fiorino

PRODUCT MANAGER - PES RESOURCE CENTER

Dean manages the PES Resource Center. His responsibilities include Resource Center design and performance, definition of product process flows and identifying benchmarks metrics. Dean also drives the collaboration with appropriate PES committees, volunteers and IEEE Operating Units. He will also team with vendors, partners, sales managers, marketing specialists, subject matter experts and design specialists in the production, implementation and marketing of new products. The goal of his efforts are to increase membership values and awareness of the Resource Center.