Meet Emily Parry, Our November Employee of the Month

Putting together the PUD’s Capital Plan and budget for the Distribution and Engineering Services division is a complicated balancing act. Working with a large cross-functional team that each has its own priorities, the group must work within budgetary, reliability and logistical constraints.

Emily Parry, Engineer III, took on the role of Capital Plan Coordinator for the 2026-2030 Plan and got to work making sure everyone on the team’s concerns were heard and analyzed. She embraced the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) process to evaluate and rank capital projects for 2026 and used it to help make visible the impact of various projects being canceled or deferred and suggest changes.

Thanks to the improvements she made to the capital budget process, as well as her hard work and enthusiasm for every project she takes on, Emily has been named the November Employee of the Month.

“Emily brings curiosity, a fresh perspective and a willingness to ask great questions,” said Jeanne Harshbarger, Manager System Planning & Protection. “She gets that twinkle in her eye when she says, ‘I have a question!’ It has caused us to consider different ways of doing things which have turned out to be wildly successful.”

“Emily is a courageous leader who is consistently willing to challenge the status quo on everything from facility siting to capital planning,” said Colin Willenbrock, Chief Operating and Legal Officer. “The PUD has seen, and will continue to see, the benefits of the transparency and objectivity Emily has brought to the complex capital budgeting process. Her enthusiasm, energy, and professionalism are contagious, and she has been a perfect addition to the team.”

Dennis Gau, D&E Business Operations & Budget Manager, works with Emily to help lead the capital budget discussions. Having been through the process several times over the last 10 years, Dennis knows how contentious things can get.

“She’s always smiling, always happy,” Dennis said. “Doing the budgeting is a stressful time. To keep things moving, you have to create a dialogue. Sometimes it gets passionate. Sometimes people feel like maybe their opinion doesn’t matter. But Emily brings people together to talk about it and share their ideas. They know it’s a safe place.”

Dennis said the process takes into account various groups in D&E, including System Planning and Protection, Transportation, Substation, Telecom, Transmission, Distribution and several others.

“To bring people together from those various backgrounds, sometimes it’s hard to find common ground,” Dennis said. “Everyone’s coming from their own world. We still have to come together as a group. She brought people together, created this common language (the ERM process) and it really helped bridge the groups together.”

Emily has a secret weapon when it comes to negotiating during the budget process: baked goods.

“I wouldn’t call it bribery, but maybe influential,” Dennis said.

Another often-mentioned skill of Emily’s is her willingness to learn. Emily is always seeking more knowledge and is not afraid to ask questions to make sure she understands the topic.

Since arriving at the PUD two years ago, Emily has made an immediate impact across multiple departments. Less than a month after joining the PUD, Emily helped the utility’s Education Team at a STEM event for middle- and high school girls. When the event came around the following year, Emily had developed a simple, instructive project for the students.

“She’s a natural teacher,” Jeanne said. “She breaks it down, she explains it well and she makes it fun. I just can’t say enough about Emily.”

Emily is from Monroe and Jeanne noted how excited Emily is to her to give back to her community. As a transmission planner, Emily gets to help our customers by looking five to 10 years ahead – or more – to see what upgrades and expansions we need to make to continue to provide reliable power.

When not working, Emily enjoys baking, reading, and working on a quilt. She also loves listening to music and admitted she has started listening to Christmas music.

Emily also loves talking with members of Team PUD about their jobs and enjoys getting to work with groups across the PUD on various missions.

“I just think my co-workers are some of the most wonderful and fascinating people,” Emily said. “They are really passionate about what they do and are always willing to share their insights. I feel extremely blessed to work with them. They have been extremely generous with me with their knowledge and time and I can’t thank them enough!”