HomeExecutive Officers

International Executive Office

President
Laura Havis

Since 1994, Laura Havis has been a member of WINUP and the South Texas Chapter where she has been involved on both the international and local level. She has served in all Chapter office positions and has served at the international level as the 2023 International Vice President, 2019 International Secretary, International Board Representative for over six years, member of the Marketing, Chapter Development & Retention, Professional Development and Website international committees, six international conference committees, and 2014 and 2022 International Conference Co-Chairs. Laura was the recipient of the WiNUP Outreach, Accomplishments and Knowledge (OAK) award in 2022.

Laura is a Program Management Office (PMO) team lead at Accenture LLC. Laura works in the Health & Public Services (H&PS) sector of Accenture providing process improvement, governance oversight for over 200 client stakeholders, and management of technology project delivery processes for over 200 account leaders. She manages a team of Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) professionals who provide quality assurance to meet national industry standards, process improvement support to delivery technology projects to achieve deadline attainment and ensures technology industry software compliance.

Laura also was instrumental for creating an Employee Resources Group (ERG) on her Accenture account to assist in the development and mentoring of professional women. Laura currently leads the ERG committee to coordinate quarterly events and working collaboratively with senior and executive leadership on program content. She also currently serves as a member of the Employee Engagement taskforce for her account to support and communicate activities and community events. She was selected as a recipient of the Accenture Inclusion & Diversity 2021 Award for spearheading a venue of self-awareness and inclusion practices for employees on her account. In 2022 she was awarded the Accenture PMO Trailblazer of the Year award, for creating a client facing technology process to improve workflow efficiency and implementing new delivery scope to be used across the company. In 2023, she was awarded the Accenture Austinspiration Award for the Women's ERG delivering the Wonder Women Wednesday podcast to highlight monthly professional women at all levels.

Prior to joining Accenture, Laura spent over 17 years in the utility industry at the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) serving in several business areas (generation, transmission, community services and corporate services) of the organization. During her tenure at LCRA, she started out as a graduate intern and ended in middle management. Under her oversight she was responsible for implementing the Solar for Schools program, which educated central Texas elementary and middle school students on solar technology and energy conservation; and implementing Data $elect, which was LCRA’s first on-line bill presentment tool for wholesale electric and key account customers to have the ability to view commercial load activity real time.

On a personal level, Laura is currently active in her community with several non-profit organizations and active in her church with multiple women’s organizations. She has been married for almost 35 years and has a son and a daughter-in-law, a daughter and two grandchildren.

Immediate Past President
Karen Gilmer

Karen Gilmer has been active in WiNUP since 2013. She is a charter member of the Southwest Virginia/ Northeast Tennessee Chapter and has held leadership roles within her chapter since conception. Karen’s engagement with WiNUP also includes participation with the International Board, Member Services Committee, Social Justice Committee, 2019 Conference Planning Committee, Energy Affairs Committee, and Newsletter Award Committee. She was the recipient of the Power Award in 2018. Karen is the co-chair of the 2024 Conference Planning Committee.

Karen is a Business Services Account Manager with Appalachian Power Company in Glade Spring, VA. Karen holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemistry and Biology from Emory and Henry College and a Master’s of Science in Environmental Science and Engineering from Virginia Tech.

Karen enjoys nature photography, especially chasing bees and butterflies, camping and hiking with friends, sampling new craft beer, supporting her local community, and spending time with her family, especially her nephew, Giles, and her niece, Rosalia.

Vice President/President Elect
Trishia Swayne

Trishia Swayne has been providing engineering and consulting services to utilities for 20 years. She has a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics and an MBA, both from Murray State University in KY. Her goal is to make a positive lasting impact in all that she does, and she is passionate about cultivating interest in STEM-related fields and investing in women within our industry.

Trishia is a registered professional engineer. Her primary expertise is in distribution planning identifying system upgrade needs for system growth, sectionalizing, distributed generation integration, volt/var optimization, and general power quality concerns to help utilities provide safe and reliable power to customers. She is currently a Client Services Manager for Power Centric Solutions, an Enercon Services Company. In this role, she helps manage client relationships and identify new opportunities for her company to help utilities with transmission, substation, and distribution engineering needs.

Trishia joined WiNUP in 2016. She has held Treasurer, Secretary, Vice Chair, and Chair for the Nashville Chapter, prior to becoming the immediate Past Chair this year. She has served as our International Executive Committee Secretary the past two years, prior to her current role as Vice President.

Personally, she loves to volunteer, garden, play guitar and sing, and spend time with her family and friends. Trishia has been married for 17 years and has a 14-year-old son and two golden retrievers.

Secretary
Jasmine Gilbert

Jasmine Gilbert is an environmental/scientific professional that works in power generation with American Electric Power. Jasmine lives in East Texas and service, as an Environmental Coordinator, all of SWEPCO and PSO's power stations for Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems. She has been with AEP for 8 years, and has worked as a chemist in the power plant and a plant Environmental Coordinator for coal and gas generation plants in northwest Arkansas and East Texas.

Jasmine has a B.S. in Biochemistry from University of Central Arkansas and a minor in Biology. She has an Environmental Management Professional Certification from University of Texas, Arlington. She has two children, Laila and Brenton.

Jasmine has been with WiNUP ArkLaTex chapter for seven years. She has served as the chapter secretary for three years and the International Board Rep for two years.

Treasurer
Mechelle Stanton

Mechelle Stanton is an Employee Development Specialist in Employee Development for the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO). Prior to joining INPO, she worked for Virginia Power, now known as Dominion Energy. She is responsible for keeping nuclear power safe and reliable by connecting people to the skills and information needed to close knowledge gaps. She manages the budget for Employee Development and is recognized as an influential authority in the area of talent development with over 25 years of training and development experience. She is responsible for the Civil Treatment program, compliant requirements training, cultural awareness, coaching and consulting in organizational development. Mechelle received a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Shorter University.

Mechelle is a graduate of the Volunteer Involvement Program (VIP), a board membership training certification program sponsored by United Way. She served on several board of directors: the INPO Diversity Council, Southeast Association of Facilitators where she served as the treasurer, Association of Utility Professionals and as an advisor on the board of Single Parent Connection, Inc. She served as the Awards and Recognition chair for Women in Nuclear Region II. She served as the Atlanta Chapter representative on the board of the Women International Network of Utility Professionals. She is currently serving as a director on the board of Real Women Helping Women and Youth. She is an active member of Toastmasters International where she served as an Area Governor for the state of Georgia, finishing the year at the highest level of President’s Distinguished Area, providing leadership oversight for 49 chapter leaders. Mechelle is currently the treasurer for INPO Toastmasters, where she has reached Distinguished Toastmaster, DTM. The highest communication and leadership recognition by Toastmasters International.

Mechelle is an active member of the Atlanta Chapter of WiNUP since 2012. She has severed as treasurer, secretary, vice chair and is the current chair. She has served on the International Fellowship committee, Newsletter committee, Chapter Achievement committee, Nominating committee, STEM committee, Social Justice Team, and Century Club committee.

Mechelle is the proud wife of Steve, mother of Paulene, Alvin, and Shawnte, and very humble grandmother to nine wonderful grandchildren. She enjoys travelling, skiing and chillaxing ... interpretation, chilling and relaxing doing absolutely nothing.

WiNUP Administration

Executive Director
Lisa Morinini

Lisa Morinini has over 30 years of experience in management, communications and marketing. Prior to establishing her own consulting firm, she held management positions at small, medium and large professional services companies in the water, energy and environment industries. In this capacity, she led the development and implementation of strategic plans, managed internal and external communication plans, and managed public relations and marketing initiatives.

Lisa served as the Executive Director of The Association of Women in Water, Energy and Environment in which she provided day-to-day oversight of all of the Association’s activities and was responsible for the Association’s consistent achievement of its mission and financial objectives. Prior to being appointed the Executive Director, Lisa was one of seven women that founded the Association which was established to promote the success of women in the fields of water, energy and environment by providing members with multiple venues for learning, sharing and growth. She also held the role of Treasurer/Secretary of the Board where she was responsible for finances, budgets and fiscal oversight.

Lisa is a California native and lives in Folsom, California.