Laura Arenschield

Laura Arenschield is vice president of customer experience for AEP Ohio, the largest operating company in the AEP portfolio. She oversees customer experience, economic development, local and regional external affairs and external and internal communications on behalf of AEP Ohio's 1.5 million customers and 1 ,300 employees.

Laura brings more than 20 years of experience to AEP Ohio, spanning media, health care, higher education and community engagement. Prior to joining AEP Ohio, she worked at Paul Werth, a strategic communications firm in Columbus, as well as at Ohio State University and The Columbus Dispatch.

Laura currently serves on the boards of the United Way of Central Ohio and Maryhaven. Laura received her Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Ohio University and her Master of Fine Arts from Goucher College in Towson, MD.

Debi Bardhan-Akala

Debi Bardhan-Akala is an accomplished regulatory and utility industry executive with more than 25 years of experience in environmental engineering, infrastructure planning, and utility regulation. As Director of Regulatory & External Affairs at Citizens Energy Group, she leads regulatory strategy, rate development, cost-of-service analysis, and stakeholder engagement for regulated utility operations. Prior to this role, she held several leadership positions overseeing large-scale water, wastewater, and environmental infrastructure programs.

Debi holds advanced degrees in Environmental Engineering and Environmental Sciences and is widely recognized for her technical expertise and leadership. She is also an active community leader, serving on multiple nonprofit boards and supporting initiatives focused on public service, community development, and advancing women in leadership and engineering.

Michael Coyle

As PJM’s Chief Culture & Community Officer, Michael’s responsibilities include ensuring PJM has a workplace that supports connections across the enterprise. His work grows and maintains a community where everyone feels they belong in a culture with opportunities for growth and professional development for everyone. With 20 years of energy industry experience Michael’s values and behavior-based partnerships and programming generate sustained enthusiasm and impact across the talent life cycle. He holds a Bachelor of Science in international business from Ithaca College and a Master of Science in international employment relations and human resource management from The London School of Economics. 

Checobia Crawford

Checobia is a Senior Business Services Account Manager with AEP Ohio, where she serves as a trusted liaison to business customers, school districts, nonprofit organizations, and community stakeholders. With a passion for building meaningful relationships and connecting people to resources Checobia's work extends beyond traditional customer service to community engagement, leadership development, and creating opportunities for others.

A committed leader and advocate for professional growth, Checobia is actively involved with Women’s International Network of Utility Professionals (WiNUP), a board member for the American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE), a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated®. She has also served in leadership roles within employee resource groups and diversity and inclusion initiatives, helping create programs centered on professional development, mentorship, employee engagement, and community impact.

Service is at the heart of Checobia’s leadership. She has dedicated hundreds of volunteer hours to initiatives supporting youth, education, health awareness, STEM/STEAM exposure, and underserved communities. Whether developing programs, bringing organizations together, mentoring others, or simply identifying where help is needed, she believes meaningful leadership is demonstrated through both action and impact.

Known for her ability to connect people, organize ideas, and turn vision into action, Checobia brings an intentional and collaborative approach to every space she enters. Her work is rooted in a simple philosophy: leave every room, organization, and community better than you found it.

Shara Hutchinson

As utilities navigate digital transformation, workforce evolution, aging infrastructure, and increasing customer expectations, successful transformation depends on more than technology - it depends on people.

Shara Hutchinson is the Principal Change Strategist at Xposeyour, where she helps organizations lead technology-driven transformation that people actually adopt.

With more than 16 years of experience across the utility, technology, and public sectors, Shara has guided organizations through complex initiatives ranging from enterprise technology implementations and digital modernization to organizational restructuring, customer experience transformation, and culture change. She partners with leaders to reduce resistance, strengthen adoption, and build the organizational capability needed to execute change with confidence.

Shara is the author of Barefoot in the Boardroom and the founder of Readiness Intelligence™, a technology platform that helps organizations predict, measure, and improve change readiness before delays, disengagement, and costly implementation challenges occur.

Known for her engaging, practical style and practical insights, Shara combines data-driven decision-making with real-world experience to challenge conventional thinking and equip leaders with actionable strategies. Her mission is simple: to help organizations build the capability to execute change successfully—because transformation doesn't happen when a project goes live; it happens when people move forward together.

Megan Keen

Megan Keen cultivates powerful partnerships, employs strategic thinking, utilizes technical knowledge, and demonstrates continuous improvement in her work and community roles. As a customer service leader with the Tennessee Valley Authority, Megan supports local power companies and industries by deploying EnergyRight® programs in the Middle TN area to transform lives and communities with innovative energy solutions.

Megan earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and Master of Business Administration from Tennessee Technological University, and a Master of Engineering from Vanderbilt University.

Megan is involved in the community on the local boards of WiNUP, Rutherford Cable, and Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Center Rutherford County. In addition, she is an active alumna of Leadership Rutherford and Leadership Middle Tennessee.

Amy King

Amy King is a Safety and Regulatory Compliance Coordinator with Northeastern REMC in Indiana, bringing more than 12 years of experience in safety, auditing, and regulatory compliance. She earned her CUSP (Certified Utility Safety Professional) certification in 2020.

Amy began her safety career with Walmart Corporation before transitioning to the utility industry in 2008 with AEP. During her 17 years with AEP, she held roles in Customer Solutions and Dispatch, where her involvement with the Distribution Safety Committee sparked her passion for safety and ultimately led her to become a Safety Health Coordinator.

In 2025, Amy joined Northeastern REMC, where she continues to focus on strengthening safety culture and regulatory compliance. She has a particular passion for identifying emerging trends and practical strategies to help combat human error. Amy enjoys sharing what she learns with others, with the goal of helping employees recognize potential hazards, make safer decisions, and prevent safety events before they happen. For Amy, safety is more than compliance - it’s about helping people go home safely every day.

Nikki Militello

Having joined PJM in September of 2008, Nikki has held roles in Operations and Markets. Prior to her current role, Nikki held a role focused on innovation, helping to establish an enterprise-wide process to foster and cultivate innovation. Nikki also worked across PJM to help establish an artificial intelligence (AI) strategic approach.

Nikki earned her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in mechanical engineering from Drexel University. She has been an active member of the Women’s International Network of Utility Professionals (WiNUP) since 2019, holding many roles at both the chapter and international levels.

Lena Morris

Jealeania “Lena” Morris is the Founder and CEO of Authentic Encounters, LLC, an Indiana-based leadership development and organizational culture consultancy built on a simple belief: real transformation starts with authentic communication. Since launching Authentic Encounters, Lena has partnered with CEOs, C-suite executives, and high-performing leaders across electric cooperatives, healthcare and senior living, nonprofits, and economic development organizations nationwide — including extensive work within the NRECA network.

Lena’s path to consulting was built inside the industry she now serves. She spent years in the electric utility sector leading Careers, Culture, and Development at the VP level, where she saw firsthand how communication, culture, and connection determine whether a team merely functions or truly performs. That experience shaped her three anchor offers: the 360 Leadership Insight Sprint, the Authentic Leader Collective membership community, and the Culture Shift Retainer.

A graduate of Kentucky State University, Lena holds certifications in EQ-i 2.0, DiSC, CliftonStrengths, Predictive Index, the Hardiness Resilience Gauge, and brain-based coaching through the NeuroLeadership Institute. She is the host of “Lena Speaks, The Podcast,” writes a weekly newsletter for leaders, and is an active member of the Black Business Training Institute.

Lena is an Enneagram Type 8 (The Challenger) whose CliftonStrengths — Competition, Achiever, Futuristic, Strategic, and Arranger — show up in the direct, high-impact communication style she brings to every stage, boardroom, and coaching conversation. She is the proud mother of twin boys, Avery and Jaden.

Sandy Nessing

Sandy has 30 years of transformative leadership experience in the utility sector and energy industry, during which she was a driving force behind innovative corporate sustainability and communication strategies. Her expertise spans ESG and sustainability reporting, stakeholder and community engagement, governance, risk management, culture transformation, strategic communications and executive thought leadership. As a Senior Advisor at TRC Companies, Sandy helps clients navigate complex issues and projects, including major infrastructure development, risk communications, energy transition opportunities and challenges, and the growing demand for transparency. She serves on two nonprofit and one private board, holding leadership roles in governance, culture and stewardship, and community outreach.

John Qualls

John Qualls helps the people who keep the lights on put AI to work without the hype. He is the managing partner of Big Impact Group, an AI consulting and training firm, and over the past year he has trained roughly seven thousand professionals at about a hundred organizations across energy, the public sector, manufacturing, and financial services. Much of that work is with electric cooperatives and utilities, helping teams answer the question everyone in the industry is asking right now: where does AI actually help our work, and where is it just noise?

Before AI, John founded and sold a cloud company, led a nonprofit technology school, and spent years studying how people really think and work. It shaped how he teaches. He treats AI as a people challenge first and a technology second, and he is at his best showing a room how to get a real win in ninety days, whatever your role or title. A Marine Corps veteran, he lives outside Indianapolis with his wife, Jacqueline, where he keeps bees and a flock of chickens and builds things that occasionally even work.

Emily Schilling

Emily Schilling has been active in WiNUP since she joined the organization in 1990. She was WiNUP’s first international president (in 1999) and, previous to that, served as national vice president and secretary of WiNUP’s forerunner organization, Electrical Women’s Round Table, Inc. She’s chaired and served on several international as well as chapter committees. She received the POWER Award in 1994 and Member of the Year Award in 1999 and is an International Honorary Life Member. Emily has chaired or co-chaired three national/international conferences (1993, 2011, 2023) and helped plan six other conferences. She served as an editor for WiNUP’s history book, “Acorns to Oaks.”

Through the years, Emily has served several terms as Indiana Chapter chair (including recent terms in 2025 and 2026), vice chair, secretary, newsletter editor and international board representative. She is also a member of the New York chapter.

Emily retired from Indiana Electric Cooperatives (IEC) in 2023. She had been editor of Indiana Connection magazine since 1985. While at IEC, she wrote a history book about rural electrification in Indiana, “Power to the People.” She received a number of prestigious writing, communications and publication awards throughout her career. Emily was a member of a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper staff and earned a Certified Cooperative Communicator designation in its inaugural year.

Emily received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ball State University and graduated from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s Management Internship Program. 

Sharon Schroder

With more than 30 years of experience in retail and wholesale electricity, Sharon Schroder specializes in regulatory strategy, pricing, and customer service. In her current role, Sharon leads Regulatory and RTO Affairs for AES Ohio, formerly The Dayton Power and Light Company (DP&L), overseeing federal and state regulatory strategy, retail and wholesale rates, and tariff and compliance filings.

Previously, Sharon served as Managing Director of Regulatory Affairs for AES’ two U.S.-based utilities, AES Ohio and AES Indiana, and as Director of Regulatory Affairs for DP&L. She also held several leadership roles within DPL Energy Resources, a retail affiliate of DP&L, including Director of Business Development and Regulatory Affairs, Director of Government Aggregation, and Director of Sales. Earlier in her career, Sharon served as Director of Major Accounts for DP&L’s Service Operations team, managing account services for the company’s largest commercial and industrial customers. She moved to Service Operations from her role as Manager of FERC Pricing and Policy, where she was responsible for rate and policy positions related to PJM and its transmission tariff, including retail and wholesale electric rate development.

Sharon has provided expert testimony before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), supporting the Company’s position on transitional and long-term transmission rate design and cost allocation, as well as rate and tariff applications related to DP&L’s transitional transmission rates and application to join PJM. She has also testified before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), supporting DP&L’s initial transmission cost recovery rider and stipulations in its Electric Security Plans, Smart Grid Plans, and Distribution Rate Cases, including its most recent Three-Year Rate Plan (TYRP).

Sharon holds a Bachelor of Science in International Business from Miami University, with a focus in Spanish and Latin American Studies. She also earned a Master of Science in Social and Applied Economics from Wright State University and a Master of Arts in Economics from The Ohio State University.

Sharon resides in Bellbrook with her husband, Jeff, and their two dogs. She is a certified group fitness instructor and enjoys running marathons, weightlifting, music, and playing the trombone. Sharon is also active in the community, serving on the City of Bellbrook Board of Zoning Appeals and Property Review Commission and as a board member with the American Red Cross, the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance, and the AES Ohio Foundation.

Bekah Selking

Bekah Selking is a Leadership Development Consultant at ADVISA, an organization whose mission is to build effective teams, leaders, and cultures because everyone deserves the opportunity to thrive at work. She designs and facilitates learning experiences that help leaders communicate with clarity, align their strengths to their professional identity, and create meaningful engagement across their teams and communities.

Before joining ADVISA, Bekah spent six years as a facilitator using Gallup's CliftonStrengths assessment to help organizations integrate strengths-based development into their culture. She brings deep expertise in leadership development, communication, emotional intelligence, and building connection to drive results, and she is actively helping leaders navigate how to use AI as a practical leadership tool. When not facilitating leadership programs and developing content, she and her husband are usually chasing their two young boys and dog around a park in Indianapolis.

Dr. Rosie Ward

Dr. Rosie Ward is an energetic, passionate, compassionate leader, consultant, coach, speaker, and author who focuses on transformation from the inside out. Her mission started over 25 years ago when she experienced firsthand the ill effects of working in a toxic work environment and found her wellbeing eroding. Since then, she has worked tirelessly to find a solution, so this experience is no longer the norm. In 2024, Rose earned a Femail Voice Award for Business Coach of the Year as well as a Top Voice in Leadership, Leadership Development and Culture on LinkedIn.

She is sought after to help rehumanize workplaces so that people are freed, fueled and inspired to bring their best selves to work – and home – each day.

Rosie serves as CEO and founder of Salveo Partners, which was awarded the 2023 Stellar Business Award for best business consulting in the United States and focuses on future-proofing organizations by strengthening culture and equipping leaders and teams to show up courageously and more effectively navigate change and disruption. A fierce advocate for humanity, Rosie consults with organizations of all sizes and industries, coaches leaders to be more effective, and volunteers her time on several nonprofit boards.

Her first book, How to Build a Thriving Culture at Work: Featuring the 7 Points of Transformation, has served as a blueprint for hundreds of organizations to break past old, outdated paradigms and re-humanize their workplace. Rosie’s second book, Rehumanizing the Workplace: Future-proofing your organization while restoring hope, wellbeing and performance won a Reader’s Favorite award. Her latest book, Future-Proofing Leadership: Navigating Change and Disruption to Thrive in an Uncertain World, will be released in June 2026.

A lifelong learner, Rosie devotes herself to her own ongoing development and sharing her insights with others. In addition to having a Ph.D. and numerous certifications, Rosie was trained by Dr. Brené Brown as a Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator. She is often referred to as a “Ph.D. with a personality” and is known for challenging and inspiring people to think differently about what it takes to become the best version of themselves and for organizations to foster their growth and development. She has an incredible gift for taking complex ideas about culture, leadership, behavior change, and what it means to be human and synthesizing them in a way that makes them relevant, understandable, and meaningful for people.

Rosie is also the host of award-winning podcast, Show Up as a Leader - which is ranked in the top 5 percent of leadership podcasts reaching people in more than 90 countries. She currently lives in Minneapolis with her husband and son. 

Lynnae Wilson

Lynnae Wilson is Senior Vice President, Transformation Strategy & Execution at American Water, the nation’s largest regulated water and wastewater utility company.

In her role, Ms. Wilson provides strategic leadership for the enterprise-wide effort, AW2030, to modernize business process and supporting technologies that will enhance all aspects of employee and customer experience. Previously, she held the role of Senior Vice President Customer Strategy where she was responsible for enterprise customer experience as well as Information Technology (IT) and cybersecurity organizations, supporting approximately 14 million customers across 14 states and 18 military installations.

Ms. Wilson’s tenure at American Water builds on over two decades of executive experience spanning electric, gas, and water utilities, including electric generation. She previously served as Senior Vice President, Electric Business at CenterPoint Energy, overseeing generation, transmission, and distribution grid planning, engineering and operations, and the deployment of over $2 billion annually in infrastructure upgrades for more than 2.8 million electric customers across Indiana and Texas. Her leadership extended to emergency restoration operations during severe weather events and the implementation of industry-leading resiliency and hardening initiatives.

With CenterPoint Energy and predecessor company, Vectren, Ms. Wilson held executive roles of increasing responsibility where she managed integrated multi-state electric and gas utilities, directed high voltage operations, and oversaw power generation, resource planning, and major capital investments.

Ms. Wilson serves on the California American Water board of directors and has served on multiple industry and nonprofit boards, including ReliabilityFirst Corporation (Vice Chair), Edison Electric Institute Operating Companies Committee, Electric Power Research Institute Research Advisory Council, and the Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana. Her commitment to community engagement is reflected in her service as a Trustee for United Way of Greater Houston and recognition among Houston’s 50 Women of Influence.

Ms. Wilson earned her Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri.