
For Gina McCann, it all comes back to engineers – and for good reason: it’s where she got her start.
McCann is currently the director of design and engineering at GeoSpatial Innovations, Inc. (GSI). Prior to joining GSI in 2021, Gina held positions in engineering, operations, and IT at Allegheny Power and FirstEnergy for 27 years.
“Working at the electric utility, I spent many years supporting distribution designers, first as a trainer for the new GIS and design tool being implemented in the 1990s, and then as a design supervisor,” McCann said. “I was always an advocate for them, trying to make their jobs easier. I stay in this industry because of them. Our company is dedicated to helping designers do their job safely, accurately, and efficiently.”
In her current role, is responsible for sales and marketing of GSI’s design and engineering software solution, Distribution Design Studio (DDS). Gina holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV, and an MBA from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA. She has served on the DISTRIBUTECH advisory committee since 2022.
McCann was first drawn to the electric utility industry when she attended a career fair during her senior year at West Virginia University, where she met with representatives from a nearby utility company. She was impressed by the many career opportunities available to engineers and liked the idea of working for a company close to home.
One project at Allegheny Power (which has since merged with FirstEnergy) particularly stands out to McCann. In 1996, she was part of a team that used paper maps, AutoCAD files and performed a field inventory to implement a new geographic information system (GIS) for the utility. This was done alongside the implementation of a new design tool, outage management system, and work management system.
“We had close to 100% circuit connectivity and could identify the location of each customer in our GIS,” McCann said. “I look back now and see how much was accomplished in such a short time and I am proud of how we all worked together to make it happen.”
In McCann’s eyes, the greatest challenge the utility industry currently faces is finding ways to streamline processes and remove barriers for utility workers. Although the aging utility workforce “gap” seems to have been addressed according to a recent study from the Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD), a young and under-experienced workforce introduces a whole new set of problems, and turnover is at its highest point since the survey began in 2006.
“The greatest challenge I see is the aging workforce and how much knowledge is walking out the door when that person ‘who knows everything’ retires,” McCann said. “The workers who remain often split their time between their regular job duties and training new people, so it’s important to find ways to share knowledge in new and innovative ways.”
Earlier versions of the survey showed an aging workforce and the potential for “significant” retirements to come, CEWD said, resulting in a lack of younger workers and skilled labor ready to fill the roles. Recent surveys show that the workforce has stabilized, CEWD said, which could suggest that focus can shift to the “composition of the workforce in terms of skills and diversity, as well as improving retention of existing energy workers.”
While one problem seems to have been mostly solved, another has taken its place, CEWD says. The “dramatic” transformation of the makeup of the workforce has resulted in higher percentages of younger and less-experienced employees. CEWD’s survey found that 56% of overall workers have less than 10 years of service, a number that is even higher in certain job categories, with engineers and line workers both above 60%.
Looking forward, McCann sees another challenge utilities will face in coming years: the many new ways for the utility and their customers to interact with each other – from more up to date information about outages to sharing more timely information about electricity usage, versus waiting on the monthly bill to arrive.
DISTRIBUTECH recently announced its 2025 Advisory Committee members, an impressive collection of industry experts with valuable insights on transmission and distribution. POWERGRID International will highlight some of these committee members for their dedication and hard work in shaping next year’s DISTRIBUTECH event.
“I support DTECH because I believe that technology plays a big role in making the workday better for utility workers,” McCann said. “I believe change management, training and support are key to making a technology project successful and I love seeing how vendors and utilities collaborate together to support the utility workforce and ultimately, the customer.”