Today I am talking to Molly Hall about her first job, how she became the Executive of the Energy Education Council, or the EEC.
“My first job was in radio news at WTAX in Springfield. I was a news reporter and I worked afternoon and evenings. I had plans to go to law school but in college I became interested in broadcast news.”
Her career plans changed after she graduated college and joined the EEC.
“As the primary communications specialist for the agency, I would be the first person to see the accident reports for electrical contacts and it was very sad and I would see the people’s lives were changed drastically because they didn’t know how to stay safe around electricity. In my role I was doing my job to communicate to people about electrical safety. But I knew we could do more.”
She was asked to be on a taskforce of other utility reps to talk about doing something as a team for safety.
“What we didn’t know was that what we were creating in Illinois in 2001, the Illinois Electrical Council, was what consumers need everywhere, and now it is in most states. And it is now sponsored by 500 utility companies.”
She has good advice about electrical safety.
“The best idea is to not swim in areas where there is a lot of electrical equipment, such as marinas where boats can be docked into shore power when they are docked.”
Molly Hall provided some great tips on electrical safety as well as some information on the EEC and her role in its development from the ground up. She has been instrumental for its growth.
For NPR Illinois Podcamp I’m Jordan Johnson.
