Whitefish High graduate honored for work with BPA

The Bonneville Power Administration presented Melanie Smith with the BPA Unsung Hero Award as part of the agency’s 2019 Administrator’s Excellence Awards program.

Smith is a graduate of Whitefish High School and is a Vancouver, Washington, resident.

The annual program honors employees whose innovation, initiative, superior service or courageous acts have made exceptional contributions to BPA’s mission, the electric utility industry or the local community.

BPA Administrator Elliot Mainzer presented the awards April 17 at BPA’s Portland, Oregon, headquarters.

“These individuals demonstrate our core values of safety, operational excellence, trustworthy stewardship and collaborative relationships,” said Mainzer. “They work tirelessly to support every aspect of BPA’s public service mission of responsibly delivering affordable, reliable and renewable electric power to the communities and businesses of the Pacific Northwest.”

The Whitefish native graduated from Whitefish High School in 1984 and earned her Bachelor of Science in business administration and supply and logistics from Portland State University in 2004. Her co-workers say she is the “go to” expert in contracting who constantly strives for excellence.

Smith has a passion for public service, absolute integrity and a zeal for organization. She is quick to remind team members that BPA’s obligation lies with customer utilities — to ensure trust, to minimize risk, and to be responsible stewards of resources in the Pacific Northwest, according to a release.

Smith and her fellow AEA recipients were nominated by their peers and were evaluated on numerous criteria such as excellence in their chosen field, technical achievement, community outreach and service as an “unsung hero.”

The Bonneville Power Administration, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, is a nonprofit federal power marketer that sells wholesale electricity from 31 federal dams and one nuclear plant to 142 Northwest electric utilities, serving millions of consumers and businesses in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, western Montana and parts of California, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. BPA delivers power via more than 15,000 circuit miles of lines and 261 substations to 475 transmission customers. In all, BPA markets about a third of the electricity consumed in the Northwest and operates three-quarters of the region’s high-voltage transmission grid. BPA also funds one of the largest fish and wildlife programs in the world, and, with its partners, pursues cost-effective energy savings and operational solutions that help maintain affordable, reliable and carbon-free electric power for the Northwest.