Mary McDuffa – Florence Utilities

Perched along the banks of the Tennessee River and known for its thriving arts community, a charming downtown and as the birthplace of W.C. Handy, Florence Ala., often finds itself on many a “best small town” list. Mary McDuffa, General Manager of Florence Electricity Department calls Florence a “big little town.”

McDuffa first came to Florence as an engineering co-op student from Auburn University in 1995. The opportunity to be a part of the community and serve its residents fueled her interest in working for a public power company and three years later McDuffa joined the engineering staff at Florence ED as a full-time employee. In 2019, she was named General Manager.

“I fell in love with the community aspects of working here,” McDuffa said. Noting that Florence ED serves the entirety of Lauderdale County which borders Tennessee she said, “Taking on new projects in the electric department is about being able to help our community enjoy a better quality of life. At Florence Electricity Department we strive every day to make Lauderdale County a better place for everybody.”

In order to ensure Florence Electric Department staff are always prepared to best meet the needs of their community, McDuffa places an emphasis on the proper training.

“I’ve taken many classes through TVPPA,” she says. “The first one that I took was online staking. And it was when I was fresh engineer and it was great. Then the last couple that I’ve taken were the CPE (Certified Power Executive) and Advanced CPE (AdvCPE) classes. And they really helped prepare me for this job.”

In an economic reality where competition to recruit and retain workers has become increasingly challenging, McDuffa shines a light on the value of providing ongoing training for employees and affirms TVPPA’s role in making sure Florence ED employees have access to consistent training. “I think that giving employees opportunities to learn new things, learn how to better do their job, is a great way to retain your employees.”

“The major challenge that we have had to address with training has been that it’s sometimes hard for individuals to be gone from the office,” she says, pointing out that TVPPA’s Education & Training department has worked with Florence ED to make training more accessible by providing on-site training.

“A few years ago, we did TVPPA’s Buddy-to-Boss training and we brought in all of our foremen and section heads and spent the day with TVPPA. And it was great because a lot of our foremen have never had any leadership training.” Training together actually brought employees closer together and strengthened their sense of camaraderie according to McDuffa.

“They’re actually bringing some more things to us here in the next couple of months with our lineman training. TVPPA coming to Florence has really been an advantage to us,” McDuffa said.

In addition to the trainings cited above, TVPPA’s Education & Training department provided on-site training for the Florence ED customer service staff. An instructor worked through a variety of hypothetical scenarios with customer service representatives and coached them toward alternate solutions for managing difficult customer challenges. “The biggest response that I’ve had from our customer service representatives was that it made them rethink how they’re corresponding with customers and making sure that they understand what the customers need,” said McDuffa.

“The thing I appreciate most about TVPPA is just the willingness to help. If we need something, TVPPA staff are the first people that we call to ask, if it’s something large. And if they don’t have an answer, they’re getting us an answer and that’s what I appreciate most. TVPPA’s training provides a great value to all of the LPCs in the Valley and our customers. It just gives us options that we would have to go hunt for otherwise,” she adds.