Name: Nancy Ruiz, federal employee

Title: Maintenance Management Specialist
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Region: Desert Southwest

When did you start working at WAPA? I started working at WAPA on March 5, 2005.

What is the most interesting thing you have worked on at WAPA? If I had to pick one interesting thing, it would be the workload study for Maintenance in the Protection and Communications Division for a new Protection System Maintenance Standard program due to North American Electric Reliability Corporation and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requirements. This study demonstrated good teamwork in achieving the goal of identifying a new program for WAPA and its labor resource requirements. Through numerous meetings, historical data collection and future workload analysis, I wrote a point paper for the study identifying the labor resources needed for Maintenance to support this program. DSW Maintenance was​ approved for four positions to support this program due to this study. My study was shared by my manager with the other Maintenance mangers so they could use it as a baseline in their region and identify their resource needs for this program.

What do you wish people understood about your job and the work you do? Working in Maintenance at DSW, I am a jack of all trades. You must be a subject matter expert in finance, budget, human resources, workload efficiency studies, procurement and program management. My position requires me to work in Financial Information Management System, Business Objects Explorer, Maximo, Procurement module for Buyer Rights and Accounts Payable. I am the Contracting Officer Representative for DSW Technical Services contract which at this time employs 43 contractors. Currently, I am working on the contract renewal for this five-year multi-million dollar contract. My goal is to structure the new contract in a manner that would save DSW money and to make it easier to manage.

Tell us something about yourself we wouldn't find on your resume. I enjoy working with people. This is why I was an equal employment opportunity counselor for three years. This position also involves day-to-day interaction with a large volume of people in person or by phone from internal to external customers. Since Maintenance is the largest organization at DSW, there is never a dull moment. It is very fast paced and very interesting, which is why I have only worked in Maintenance for my twelve years. I enjoy my job in Maintenance.

How is what you do tied to WAPA's mission? Maintenance is the backbone of WAPA's existence, so providing excellent service and support is very important in my position.