WiNUP Scholarships

The Women's International Network of Utility Professionals (WiNUP) believes in doing all it can to help students and professionals with their educational pursuits in support of careers in the utility industry and related fields.

WiNUP currently has three scholarships available annually to women pursuing advanced degrees (beyond a bachelor's degree), which will lead to careers in the utility industry or allied fields. Relevant fields of study must relate to a career in a utility related profession such as engineering, business administration, accounting, environmental sciences, communication, information technologies, etc. In addition to these scholarships available to the public, WiNUP offers a continuing education grant for members pursuing both degree and non-degree studies.

Program Rules and Deadlines

The applicant must be accepted to a regionally or nationally accredited university.

Both WiNUP Members and non-members are eligible to apply for the scholarships.

Applicants must submit an online application before 11:59PM PT on May 1 of each year to be eligible. Winners will be notified by June 30 of each year.

Applications for 2026 are now closed. Applications will open again in early Spring 2027 to submit an application for the 2027 Fall school year.

In the meantime, please check out what else WiNUP has to offer!

WiNUP Annual Conference

Find Your Local Chapter

Attend An Event

Scholarship Details

The Julia Kiene Scholarship ($2,000)
Ms. Kiene’s career serves as an inspiration to women who pursue careers in the industry. During her long, diversified career, she taught home economics, served as Home Editor of Capper's Farmer and retired from the Westinghouse Corporation. Ms. Kiene was a president of the organization and served on the Board of Directors for WiNUP’s parent organization, The Electrical Women's Round Table, Inc., for many years.

The Lyle Mamer Scholarship ($1,000)
This scholarship honors Ms. Mamer, a long-time associate professor at the University of Tennessee College of Home Economics who dedicated her life to contributing to advancements in the electrical industry. Lyle Mamer, whose family endowed the scholarship in her name was an active member of WiNUP (EWRT).

The Louisan Mamer Scholarship ($500)
Ms. Mamer was an electric industry pioneer who worked for many years with the Rural Electrification Administration educating rural Americans about the uses of electricity. She was the first woman to be awarded the Clyde T. Ellis Award in recognition of her service and accomplishments on behalf of electrical cooperatives. Ms. Mamer joined WiNUP (EWRT) in 1948 and remained a member until her death in 2006. Her generous $20,000 contribution to WiNUP enables the organization to fund the annual scholarship in her name. 

WINUP 2026 Scholarship Recipients

All scholarships honor WiNUP members who made significant contributions to the electric industry and the organization.

Julia Kiene served as home editor of Capper's Farmer and worked as a home economist at the Westinghouse Corporation. Julia also served on the board of directors of The Electrical Women's Round Table, Inc. (EWRT), as WiNUP was formerly known.

Lyle Mamer was a long-time associate professor at the University of Tennessee College of Home Economics. She was an active member of several professional organizations, including EWRT.

Long time EWRT/WiNUP member Louisan Mamer worked at the Rural Electrification Administration for many years, traveling throughout the country to educate rural Americans about how to use electricity when power first came to remote areas.

Julia Ferrera—Julia Kiene Recipient

Julia is currently a Financial Performance Analyst with Chevron pursuing her MBA at Harvard Business School. In her role, she co-led a 10-person team to design valuation and reporting of $1B innovation portfolio, closing a $500M cash flow gap. The approach established Chevron’s global standard for $8B company-wide portfolio which earned 3 Chevron Measurable Value Awards. She learned how to make decisions under pressure, influence senior leaders and bring structure to complex systems. After experiencing the 2021 Texas winter storm crisis, Julia wants to work more directly in the utility industry related to strategy and operations to help build a stronger infrastructure that make communities safer, more stable and better prepared for whatever comes next.

Kanta Garg—Lyle Mamer Scholarship Recipient

Kanta is pursuing a Master of Engineering in Computer Science at Cornell Tech. As a Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services, she works daily with startups building technology that shapes cities housing platforms, healthcare access tools and transit systems. She currently works with companies building energy optimization platforms and infrastructure monitoring tools. After graduation, she would like to apply her training in artificial intelligence and distributed systems to help utilities build more resilient, equitable, and efficient infrastructure particularly in underserved urban communities where outages and energy costs impact low-income residents. As the leader of the Women in AI/ML New York City Chapter, she plans to mentor other women entering the intersection of technology and critical infrastructure, ensuring the next generation of utility innovation reflects the diversity of the communities it powers.

Tatyanna Sutton—Louisan Mamer Scholarship Recipient

Tatyanna is currently a cloud solution architect with Microsoft pursuing her Cyber Operations Master’s Degree at the University of Maryland Global Campus. She has designed and implemented Conditional Access policies tailored to client security needs under Zero Trust frameworks as well as delivered technical workshops on Microsoft Defender, identity protection, cloud architecture, and compliance strategy. After graduation, Tatyanna plans to apply her technical expertise in cloud architecture, cybersecurity, and Zero Trust principles to strengthen the resilience, efficiency, and modernization of utility operations. Her goal is to work in a role that bridges technical strategy and operational execution, helping utilities adopt secure cloud solutions, optimize identity and device management, and reduce vulnerabilities across their environments. She plans to continue her long history of mentoring students and volunteering with programs that support minorities and women in STEM.