IEEE PES General Meeting 2026

After 22 years at Seattle City Light, most recently as the Senior Manager of Grid Modernization, Uzma has retired from her full-time job. She is currently dedicating her time to volunteering and working part-time as a power system consultant through her newly established company, McSid Tech, where she continues her focus on modernizing the grid. Now, as the Chair of IEEE PES’s Women In Power (WiP), Uzma shares her top 3 WiP goals centered on advancing women’s education and careers: growing people, aligning roles, and building strategy. She has been recruiting new members to PES’s WiP committee. The new and existing leadership team are developing technical and networking programming for all members; exploring new ways to engage this international community. They are also updating governance documents to strengthen and clarify team roles. Later in 2026, she plans to focus on shaping WiP’s strategic vision for the next 5 years.

Woman in Power | Convention Center | Tuesday July 21 from 3-5 PM | Non Technical Panel

As a mechanical engineer, Lise Reinhardt Laforce co-founded OPAL-RT in 1997. Throughout her career, she has played a pivotal role in securing the company’s financing, organizing operations to meet sales, marketing, and production objectives, and managing legal, administrative, and human resources functions. Recently, she transitioned these responsibilities to focus on mentoring the next generation of leaders, equipping them to tackle technological challenges and deliver the innovation our clients demand.

Woman in Power | Convention Center | Tuesday July 21 from 3-5 PM | Non Technical Panel

Angéline Bilodeau, appointed VP Operations and Maintenance in 2025, oversees electricity production, transmission, and distribution performance. Focused on excellence, reliability, and customers, she drives continuous improvement. With 25+ years of global experience, she leads multidisciplinary teams effectively.

Woman in Power | Convention Center | Tuesday July 21 from 3-5 PM | Non Technical Panel

Woman in Power | Convention Center | Tuesday July 21 from 3-5 PM | Non Technical Panel

Woman in Power | Convention Center | Tuesday July 21 from 3-5 PM | Non Technical Panel

Presenting : Accelerating IEEE 1547.1 Compliance Using Automated Power-Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing
Woman in Power | Convention Center | Wednesday July 22 from 10-12 AM : Technical Panel

Diane Desjardins is an Electrical Modeling and Simulation Analyst at OPAL-RT Technologies. She received her M.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Polytechnique Montréal. Her work focuses on power system modeling, electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and automation of relay and distributed energy resource (DER) compliance testing.

Presenting : Cyber‑Physical Vulnerabilities in Modern Power Systems
Woman in Power | Convention Center | Wednesday July 22 from 10-12 AM : Technical Panel

Dr. Nasim Rashidirad is a researcher at Hydro-Québec Research Institute (IREQ), Canada. She received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Iran University of Science and Technology and her Ph.D. from Shahid Beheshti University. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Polytechnique Montréal. Her research focuses on renewable integration, power-electronics-dominated systems, and microgrids.

Presenting : The Data Imperative: Enabling AI-Driven Cybersecurity Detection for Resilient Power Systems
Woman in Power | Convention Center | Wednesday July 22 from 10-12 AM : Technical Panel

Dr. Deepa Kundur is Professor and Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto and holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity of Intelligent Critical Infrastructure. She received her B.A.Sc., M.A.Sc., and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on cybersecurity, resilience, and AI-driven protection of critical energy and transportation infrastructure.

Presenting : Grid-Forming Control for Weak Grids: Toward Systematic, System-Level Frameworks
Woman in Power | Convention Center | Wednesday July 22 from 10-12 AM : Technical Panel

Dr. Lina He is Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago and Director of the Power Energy Innovation Laboratory. She received her Ph.D. from University College Dublin. Her research focuses on power-electronics-dominated systems, HVDC, grid-forming control, hybrid AC/DC systems, and resilient AI-driven power infrastructures.

Presenting : Real-Time Resilience Analytics for Extreme-Event Grid Operations
Woman in Power | Convention Center | Wednesday July 22 from 10-12 AM : Technical Panel

Dr. Zongjie Wang is Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Colorado State University and Director of the Grid Modernization Initiative. She received her B.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on grid modernization, distributed energy resources, power system resilience, and transmission-distribution optimization.

As a mechanical engineer, Lise Reinhardt Laforce co-founded OPAL-RT in 1997. Throughout her career, she has played a pivotal role in securing the company’s financing, organizing operations to meet sales, marketing, and production objectives, and managing legal, administrative, and human resources functions. Recently, she transitioned these responsibilities to focus on mentoring the next generation of leaders, equipping them to tackle technological challenges and deliver the innovation our clients demand.

After 22 years at Seattle City Light, most recently as the Senior Manager of Grid Modernization, Uzma has retired from her full-time job. She is currently dedicating her time to volunteering and working part-time as a power system consultant through her newly established company, McSid Tech, where she continues her focus on modernizing the grid. Now, as the Chair of IEEE PES’s Women In Power (WiP), Uzma shares her top 3 WiP goals centered on advancing women’s education and careers: growing people, aligning roles, and building strategy. She has been recruiting new members to PES’s WiP committee. The new and existing leadership team are developing technical and networking programming for all members; exploring new ways to engage this international community. They are also updating governance documents to strengthen and clarify team roles. Later in 2026, she plans to focus on shaping WiP’s strategic vision for the next 5 years.