At its monthly meeting on January 12, the Grand River Dam Authority Board of Directors honored retiring Chief Financial Officer Carolyn Dougherty with a very special award. Dougherty, who closes the books on a 30-year GRDA career onFebruary 1, was the first-ever recipient of the “GRDA Lifetime Achievement Award.”

She began her GRDA career as an internal auditor and also managed special projects for GRDA before moving to the lead financial position in recent years. As the inscription stated, she received the award “in recognition of a distinguished career with the Grand River Dam Authority, defined by an enduring commitment to the employees, customers and mission of the organization. Such leadership, expertise and devotion set the standard for GRDA.”

Following the board meeting, a retirement reception was held for Dougherty, who spoke about the special working relationships with coworkers and customers that had defined her career. In the last 11 years, that team has helped to keep GRDA’s credit ratings climbing steadily until they topped out at the highest levels in GRDA history. Dougherty said GRDA customers, board members, management and certainly the financial department gets much of the credit for that success. Meanwhile, during the last 15 years of her GRDA career, the organization has been awarded the Government Finance Officers Association’s certificate “for achievement in excellence in financial reporting” 15 times. It is the highest award in financial reporting industry and one that has become synonymous with the GRDA comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR). 

As she close out her career which, according to her, was an opportunity to serve Oklahoma public power communities (like her hometown of Wagoner, we want to take this opportunity to wish Carolyn Dougherty good luck. We also want to again congratulate her for being named a GRDA “lifetime achievement award” recipient.

Headquartered in Vinita, GRDA is Oklahoma’s state-owned electric utility; fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales instead of taxes. Each day, GRDA strives to be an “Oklahoma agency of excellence” by focusing on the 5 E’s: electricity, economic development, environmental stewardship, employees and efficiency.  

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