Women in power - Wanda Throlson

Name: Wanda Throlson
Title: Administrative assistant of engineering and operations
Started at CCEC: 2013

Wanda Throlson has been the administrative assistant of engineering and operations with Cass County Electric Cooperative (CCEC) since 2013. She has certainly come a long way from her childhood spent in her parents’ gas station and automotive repair shop. Or has she?

Throlson earned her associate of applied science degree in business with an emphasis in medical secretary and word/information processing, from the University of Minnesota-Crookston. She and her husband, Trent, lived in Minneapolis, Minn., for six years, before moving back to North Dakota, where they purchased a farm near his hometown of New Rockford. She spent a few years at home with their children before starting employment at Farm Credit Services in Carrington as a loan processor. The position taught her to be detail-oriented and she learned many financial and social skills, while working with customers there.

In the year 2000, she started working at the Lutheran Home of the Good Shepherd in New Rockford as a nursing executive assistant, and thrived in that position for 13 years. In this role, she managed scheduling for the nursing staff, CNAs, and aides. She says even then, there were staffing shortages, and she had to be creative to have enough coverage on the floor, while trying not to burn out the employees. She explained, “It was like taking care of 96 of your grandmas and grandpas! You only wanted the best for them.”

She was also responsible for purchasing and stocking medical supplies and equipment, and preparing timesheets for all 65 employees in the department. She recalls, “it was a demanding job, but also extremely rewarding. I was blessed to have worked with some of the most caring individuals I have ever met in my life.” Throlson also says the position taught her life skills, empathy, critical thinking, how to work under pressure, and to be a quick thinker. These skills helped her grow personally and prepare for her position with CCEC.

Throlson came to CCEC with no previous electrical background knowledge. Her previous manager, who has since retired, gave her a chance to jump in and she took on the challenge. Her work history had revolved mainly around medical terms, and now she was learning a whole new vocabulary of electrical terms.