Staff Spotlight: General Counsel & Corporate Secretary

Texas RE recently welcomed Davida Dwyer as its new vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary, where she supervises the work of the legal and communications and training departments. Before joining Texas RE, Ms. Dwyer worked at the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT). At that agency, she held various positions including serving as the deputy commission counsel, a manager in the office of policy and docket management, and legal divisions, and the personal attorney and policy advisor to one former PUCT chair and two former PUCT commissioners. Her other prior work experience includes being a senior corporate counsel for ERCOT, focusing in part on implementation of post winter-storm Uri improvements.

Ms. Dwyer’s juris doctorate is from the University of Texas School of Law; she also holds bachelors degrees in government and public relations from the University of Texas at Austin.

As a part of her welcome to Texas RE, Davida answered a few questions about herself.

Where are you from?

El Paso, Texas.  If you ever travel there and would like some recommendations, please let me know! El Paso has especially welcoming people and delicious food. 

If you aren’t from Austin/Texas, what brought you here?

I moved to Austin to attend college at the University of Texas at Austin. Hook ‘em, Horns!

Do you have any favorite activities or hobbies?

Recently, I started taking taekwondo classes with my seven-year-old son, Mikey. His enthusiasm when saying, “Yes ma’am!” in response to our instructor’s directions is very motivating (and adorable).  

What made you want to work at Texas RE?

The people and the mission. I’ve been working in the electric industry since January 2008 and have been lucky enough to work with very intelligent, dedicated, and publicly minded people. I noticed that many of those people are working (or have worked) here at Texas RE, which is intriguing!  Plus, this is a time of tremendous change and complexity for the industry, and it’s an honor to get to work in support of the people executing Texas RE’s critical mission.

If you didn’t need to work, what would you do?

Take daily swims and yoga classes, volunteer, and be a perpetual student. And I’m planning towards a retirement involving lots of travel with my husband after our son is an adult.

What do you think of the current state of the electric industry?

Technology innovations are introducing tremendous, concurrent changes, including increased complexity and variability, but also opportunities for a more tailored, responsive, and resilient grid. I believe if we continue to garner the will, the engineering solutions will continue to be developed.

Cats or dogs?

Both!    

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the electric industry and how do you think it could be managed?

A secure, reliable grid requires constant maintenance and improvements, and (to over generalize) it seems our popular culture is currently more focused on what is flashy, new, and expensive. This risk of underemphasizing the day-in-and-day-out work that keeps things running well can be effectively managed both structurally and individually.  For example, Texas RE does a great job emphasizing process documentation and follow-up. And tools are being introduced for the industry to more efficiently track and prompt workflows, equipment maintenance, and upgrades where cost effective. Individually, I admire the people who remember to thank their colleagues for doing their everyday work effectively. I suspect we all have aspects of our work that take more effort and attention than most people realize.  Recognizing others’ — and feeling personal accomplishment for our own — successful maintenance tasks are ways we can each contribute to managing this risk.