Biography – Michelle Williams

Michelle Williams

Senior Vice President and Sierra Nevada Regional Manager
Western Area Power Administration

Michelle Williams was appointed senior vice president and Sierra Nevada regional manager for Western Area Power Administration in November 2023.

As SN regional manager, Williams exercises managerial authority and strategic leadership over more than 1,300 miles of high-voltage electric transmission lines and 25 substations, while selling more than 4.9 megawatt-hours of power to 95 municipalities, cooperatives, federal and state agencies, and irrigation districts. She oversees more than 160 federal employees and roughly 100 contract staff located throughout WAPA’s service territory in California and Nevada.

Williams’ transition to WAPA was a natural fit coming from Reclamation. WAPA was formed after the Department of Energy Organization Act in 1977 to take over the management of power marketing and transmission responsibilities from Reclamation. Today, WAPA markets and transmits wholesale electricity from 57 hydropower plants operated by Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Since November 2019, Williams served as the Bureau of Reclamation Deputy Regional Director for Business Services for Reclamation’s California-Great Basin Region, a federal agency under Department of the Interior that delivers water and generates power in California, Nevada, and the Klamath Basin. In this role, Williams oversaw the divisions of Financial Management, Acquisition Services, Information Management, Administrative Services, and Human Resources.

Williams has previous leadership experience with multiple federal agencies including Department of Commerce, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Agriculture, Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of Labor.

Williams holds a Master of Business Administration degree and Bachelor of Science degree in Management, both from the University of Phoenix.