JEA Employee Receives Statewide Professional Excellence Award

The Florida Municipal Electric Association (FMEA) presented JEA Vegetative Management Specialist Senior Joe Anderson with the association’s Professional Excellence Award during today’s JEA Board of Directors meeting. Anderson is the inaugural recipient of FMEA’s award, established to recognize individuals who have consistently demonstrated a commitment to their utility, public power and/or the improvement of services and reliability.  

“Throughout his career at JEA, Joe’s work has reflected the best of public power: commitment, service and a focus on doing the right thing for our customers and community. His work shows how grid safety and reliability can be balanced with protecting and preserving our natural environment,” JEA Interim Managing Director and CEO Jody Brooks said.

JEA’s Vegetative Management team oversees a 2.5-year proactive routine cycle trimming schedule that maps real-time vegetation growth against circuit outage data. Anderson’s strategic oversight directly translates into quantifiable operational success across JEA’s 900-square-mile service territory.  

Under Anderson’s guidance, JEA has achieved its 15th consecutive year as a national Tree Line USA Utility by the Arbor Day Foundation, consistently meeting the highest national standards for public education, worker safety and quality tree care. He has served as a liaison and active partner to Greenscape of Jacksonville for more than a decade. 

“This is a new award for FMEA and an opportunity for Florida public power utilities to recognize one of their own for their exceptional service to public power,” FMEA Executive Director Amy Zubaly said. “Congratulations to Joe. Thank you for all you do to advance your profession, power your community forward and help create a scalable blueprint for other public power providers across the state of Florida.” 

FMEA is the statewide trade association representing Florida’s public power utilities. The association represents and advocates for member cities’ interests on a wide variety of state and federal issues, provides emergency response and mutual aid coordination, provides education and training for members and serves as a clearinghouse for industry news and information.  

 
From left, JEA Interim Managing Director and CEO Jody Brooks, FMEA Executive Director Amy Zubaly, JEA Vegetative Management Specialist Senior Joe Anderson, JEA Chief Electric Systems Officer Ricky Erixton, JEA Board Chief MG Orender.