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Lisa Leopold is an associate professor and program coordinator for The Middlebury Institute’s English for Academic and Professional Purposes Program. She brings over a decade of experience teaching survival and academic English to adult immigrants, refugees, children, and community college, university, and graduate students on five continents. Professor Leopold has delivered over 50 presentations at international conferences. Professor Leopold’s scholarly work has appeared in the TESL Canada Journal, the CATESOL Journal, and Communication Teacher.

The buzz: Power up! With a projected 10-billion world population by 2050, the demand for electricity, natural gas, and water will double or triple. Energy and water consumption will soar as vehicles and transit go electric. The digital economy needs clean, dependable, affordable power, but disruptive de-carbonization, deregulation and decentralization could have dire consequences for the utilities hierarchy and its customers. Will utilities business models, based on $ trillions of plants and grids, collapse or survive new market players like Google and Tesla? Can customer service innovations save the day? The experts speak. Michael Shanko, CMS Energy: “The most dangerous phrase in the language is, ‘We’ve always done it this way’” (Grace Hopper). Jill Feblowitz, IDC: “The future ain't what it used to be (Yogi Berra). James McClelland, SAP: “Digital transformation requires a healthy dose of paranoia.” Join us for Digital Transformation for Utilities: Customer Service Innovations.