“I just like trying to stop some of the bad stuff that goes on around here. If you can save someone’s house or save a life, then it makes it worthwhile,” Widner said.

On the morning of July 26, Widner heard a call on the radio that there was a child in the Arkansas River. Lucky for him, he already had his boat hooked up to his truck.

“My wife owns a scanner, and when I heard that there was a child in the river, I just told her that I’ve got to go.”

On the way to the boat ramp, he contacted a few other members of the Dardanelle Fire Department, and they jumped in the boat with him. They were in the water in less than five minutes.

“I kind of knew what I needed to do, and I was very familiar with the area of the river because I have fished it a lot,” Widner said.

Once they were in the water, they headed to an area called Council Oaks, where the child was last seen. After about 20 minutes of searching, they got a report that someone had seen a “body in the water” near the River Front Park area about a mile downstream.

“Since he worded it that way instead of saying, ‘We see him, and he’s swimming,’ my initial thought was, oh no, we are doing a body recovery instead of a rescue. When we saw him initially, he was dead still, floating on his back, but when we got within ten feet of him, I saw him paddle like someone would in a swimming pool, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, he’s alive’!”

Another member of the fire department, Steve Troyke, who was on the boat with Widner, reached down and pulled the child up to safety. Once they returned to the boat ramp, Troyke took the child to his dad.

“Seeing him with his dad is the biggest deal. His dad was absolutely ecstatic. I won’t forget because it made you feel so good, and the relief on that guy’s face was well worth any risk we put out trying to get the child,” Widner said. “I have two kids of my own, and if I can do anything to save a child there, I’ll do it. There is nothing greater in life, in my opinion, than helping someone out or trying to save a life.”

Authorities say that the child has autism and was playing with his grandmother at Council Oaks Park when she suffered a heart attack. They believe he entered the water as a coping mechanism from the trauma because he has a swimming pool at home and loves to be in the water. In total, the child floated a mile downstream.

“I told the guys, I may never win a tournament out of the boat, but today, we caught the best catch we could ever catch. I can waste all the money in the world on fishing stuff, but it will never equal saving a child’s life.”

Widner said it was a team effort. This is actually his second river rescue. He says his mission is to make someone’s worst day just a little bit better.

“You had a hundred people here trying to help this little boy that no one knew. But it didn’t matter; we were here to help out.”

Entergy Nuclear empowers communities by providing grants and developing partnerships while seeking how to offer science, technology, engineering and math in the classrooms. For over 30 years, Entergy Nuclear headquarters, nestled in Jackson, Mississippi, has supported Jackson Public Schools’ Partners in Education program. On May 11, Entergy Nuclear headquarters team members announced its new adopt-a-school partner, North Jackson Elementary School and presented a $10,000 grant to the school.

“We are looking forward to collaborating with the staff and students at North Jackson Elementary,” said Chief Nuclear Officer Chris Bakken. “It’s an excellent opportunity to strengthen and support the school’s programs and curriculum and give back through on-site support, mentorship, grants and other support. I know our team members are enthusiastic about fostering a sense of personal involvement and interactions with the students and faculty.”

North Jackson Elementary is the largest elementary school in the North Jackson area. This partnership provides the opportunity for a robust number of volunteers to assist with various initiatives. Activities may include a back-to-school supply drive, reading, science and cultural fairs judging, an annual math challenge, tutoring, beautification days, and more.

North Jackson Principal Jocelyn Smith expressed her gratitude for Entergy Nuclear’s support. “North Jackson is extremely grateful for the generous donation from Entergy; we are so excited about the partnership. This donation will help us continue implementing programs that will help lead our scholars to success.”

Among the nuclear headquarters team members volunteering their time to work with the school are the local nuclear chapters of Women in Nuclear, the North American Young Generation in Nuclear, the Entergy Spouses and Partners Connection Group and the Diversity, Inclusion and Belong team.

“Giving back to the community is an important part of our strategy for creating long-term value in our service areas,” explained Rosalyn Howard, Entergy manager, diversity and workforce strategy. “By partnering with North Jackson Elementary, we can demonstrate our commitment to education by engaging with students to mentor and motivate them to learn.”

Engineers Week was founded in 1951 to recognize the contributions engineers make to society.

Today, the National Society of Professional Engineers assists these professionals in outreach to young students, engaging and inspiring more children and young adults to consider a career in engineering.

This year’s theme is Reimagining the Possible.

Within Entergy, engineering professionals work daily to support the company’s infrastructure, teaming with their colleagues to keep operations safe, secure and reliable. For example, nearly 800 professionals work daily to support Entergy’s nuclear fleet, notwithstanding engineers who support additional areas of utility operations, distribution, transmission and others. Across the company, these professionals collaborate on a journey to make Entergy the premier utility.

In modern society, engineers create new possibilities. From green buildings to fuel-efficient cars and life-saving vaccines, professional engineers — and Entergy’s entire engineering team — work to develop new paths, products and opportunities to improve our quality of life.

By participating in Engineers Week, we bring attention to the need for licensed professional engineers, as well as certified technicians and technologists. This week, many will engage students in the field of engineering by celebrating the ways engineers turn dreams into reality.

Engineers Week is more than a week-long event. It is a year-round commitment to making a difference. Join Entergy and engineering peers from around the world as we celebrate the profession, confronting challenges with creative solutions. Working together, nothing is impossible.

Russell has served in the acting role since Oct. 2020.

“I am pleased to move Pat into this permanent leadership role as leading our engineering teams to maintain high standards of excellence at the plants and across the fleet,” Elnitsky said. “He has demonstrated strong leadership and a tenacity for enhancing our One Engineering Team focus on fundamental behaviors in the acting role. Pat has also built strong cross-functional partnerships with teams across the fleet. Congratulations Pat!”

In working with the team, Russell is responsible for driving fleet engineering performance improvement. Prior to this role, he was general manager, engineering operations and engineering director at Palisades.

During his nearly 35 years within the nuclear power industry, Russell held leadership positions in engineering, maintenance, production, and performance improvement for several different utilities and nuclear fleets.

Russell received his Bachelor of Science degree in fire protection engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology.

A reactor engineer early in his career, he was working late one evening when the plant manager, “a fellow I had a lot of respect for,” Franssen said, wandered by and stopped to talk. He asked Franssen about his task, sharing that he, too, had once been a reactor engineer.

��“Hey, I really appreciate the fact that you’re here this late, getting this done,” he told Franssen before he left. Franssen felt great after that exchange and took note. “It was a long day; I was there a long time. Just to have him stop — he didn’t have to — and talk to me for a few minutes and then to say thanks before he left, it just made me feel so good.

��“People need to feel appreciated, and they need to feel valued,” Franssen added. “And I learned that, at that moment with that gentleman, and I carry that learning with me today at Grand Gulf and across our company. I want to the team to know how much I appreciate their efforts and their nuclear professionalism.”

��Franssen became site vice president at Grand Gulf in 2020.

��“I feel honored to be the site vice president here at Grand Gulf and work for Entergy,” Franssen said. “We have a team of highly dedicated nuclear professionals who strive to achieve excellence every day – all in partnership with the company and our nuclear fleet. Yes, we are facing challenges, but I am where I want to be, and I cannot see myself anywhere else.”

��A Pennsylvania native, with more than 36 years of nuclear experience, has an aptitude for math and science, Franssen found his way into nuclear engineering through his college advisor at Penn State University.

��Franssen’s senior reactor operator experience —��earning his license, working as a shift supervisor and shift manager — was invaluable, he said, opening his eyes to all the things it takes to lead a large team in operating a nuclear power plant safely, securely and reliably.

��The year 2020 brought the biggest challenge of Franssen’s career, when COVID-19 hit amid a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage, with an extra 1,500 contractors onsite. “The entire Grand Gulf team rose to the occasion again and again and again. I am very proud of them.”

��Work completed during Grand Gulf’s 2020 refueling outage addressed some performance challenges, as Entergy invested in significant upgrades to improve plant reliability, Franssen said. Upgrade-related issues later in the year resulted in time offline, and the company worked to identify them, conducting an outage to make corrections.

��“During the historic ice storms earlier this year, we operated at 100 percent power throughout,” Franssen said. “I am proud of the fact that we kept power flowing to our stakeholders.”

��Franssen makes his Mississippi home in Vicksburg. He’ll mark his 36th anniversary with his wife, Deb, this year. Their four sons —��Sam, Tony, Bobby, and Jordan — have blessed them with nine grandchildren. Franssen happily counts down the roster: Alena, Rocco, Ceci, Reigh, Joel, Rosie, Emilia, Eliza, and Evie. “I love going to watch them play soccer and basketball. That part has just been fun. But what’s really neat is seeing my boys become dads.”

��Franssen enjoys living in the local community. “I’ve found the people in the areas of Vicksburg, Port Gibson and Claiborne County to be wonderful,” both at work and in town. “They have a strong sense of community and want to support each other, and that fits perfectly with my own personal mental model.”

��With its 800-plus employee workforce, Grand Gulf has a robust impact through community engagement, such as its home winterization drive, park cleanup and other volunteer efforts that help improve local lives while teambuilding for the plant. “The community sees us as a friendly, supportive, important presence,” Franssen said. “We will continue being active leaders in the community.”

��Franssen finds high levels of teamwork and dedication, positive energy, and good morale at Grand Gulf. “You look at what this team has accomplished together, not only what we’ve done to improve performance, but the challenges that we’ve faced and met.

��“Other stations may have been demoralized by the challenges we faced, but this team of nuclear professionals at Grand Gulf has not done that,” Franssen said.

“There’s a lot of pride in what we’re doing,” he said, from its important role in producing electricity to the critical job of making it with carbon-free nuclear power, and the proper care and safety required. Also, Grand Gulf, currently licensed to 2044, is important to Entergy’s drive to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

As Franssen thought about this job, “we have the team members, capital investments and support to operate Grand Gulf for the long haul. That makes me excited.”

About ���ϳԹ���

���ϳԹ��� (NYSE: ETR) is an integrated energy company engaged in electric power production, transmission and retail distribution operations. Entergy delivers electricity to 3 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy owns and operates one of the cleanest large-scale U.S. power generating fleets with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including 8,000 megawatts of nuclear power. Headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, Entergy has annual revenues of $10 billion and more than 13,000 employees. Learn more at entergy.com and follow @Entergy on social media.

“WIN creates supportive environments for the women and men in the field of nuclear energy,” May added. “WIN positions nuclear professionals to embrace and learn what’s in store for the future of carbon-free nuclear energy and technology.”��

��is a global organization supporting team members working in nuclear plants, fleets and offices worldwide. WIN Global operates in more than 109 countries with approximately 35,000 members.��

“I was able to attend my first WIN conference in 2016 and was amazed to be surrounded by so many talented and driven women and men who were involved in all parts of nuclear energy,” said Bivings. “It gave me the first opportunity to meet members from other utilities as well as spearhead some ideas on educating the public on the benefits of carbon-free nuclear power.”

One of the workshops during the conference taught creative ways to initiate public outreach promoting the industry. The session inspired chapter members to improve community outreach efforts in the Entergy Nuclear locations. Bivings added that outreach efforts became stronger when WIN partnered with Entergy team members in North American Young Generation in Nuclear, referred to as NAYGN.

“I want to thank Scharla and Tamara for their involvement and leadership,” said Chris Bakken, Entergy chief nuclear officer and sponsor of WIN. “I am proud of nuclear team members who are involved with this important organization. Their achievements are stellar.”

Activities included providing educational events during Nuclear Science Week at schools and libraries, as well as hosting school supply and food drives, and participating in community volunteer activities. For instance, street fairs are routinely held at the Mississippi Children’s Museum. Each nuclear plant collaborates with their local Girl Scout chapter to help them earn a nuclear patch.

In 2018, Entergy Nuclear held its first WIN Fleet Summit to align the local chapters of Entergy’s WIN and focus on the three pillars of U.S. WIN: public outreach, professional development and networking. The efforts of all this work paid off.��

Last year, U.S.WIN awarded and recognized Entergy’s regional chapter as having the most networking hours. It was the first time for Entergy to receive such an award.

“Not only did we grow our overall fleet membership, but we also expanded our influence as a team,” said Bivings. “To me, this is the biggest accomplishment of serving. I look forward to being active in our local chapter and pursuing opportunities for growth and development. I want to thank every member of the Entergy team for their involvement with WIN.”

Entergy Nuclear owns, operates, supports, and provides management services to a national fleet of eight reactors in seven locations,��generating approximately 8,000 megawatts of zero-carbon nuclear power. With more than 6,000 nuclear employees, Entergy is also recognized globally as a provider of nuclear services to companies in the U.S. and worldwide.��

The Entergy Nuclear Employee Spotlight recognizes team members exhibiting a safe working culture, passion for teamwork, an always learning attitude, upholding integrity, and being respectful.��

“The most important aspect of teamwork is to treat everyone with dignity and respect. When people feel valued, that makes them more willing to participate,” said Smith.

Smith’s enthusiasm led her to become the Grand Gulf chapter president of North American Young Generation in Nuclear. The organization, referred to as NAYGN, helps develop future leaders in the nuclear industry. It equips the young generation of nuclear enthusiasts with leadership training, creates connections, engages and informs the public on the nuclear industry and inspires today’s nuclear technology professionals to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Smith organizes and leads NAYGN volunteers to participate in various events such as supporting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics at schools and community service projects.����

“NAGYN members have become a cohesive group where we share ideas, help the community and develop our skills as nuclear professionals,” added Smith.��

She joined Entergy in December 2016 as a contractor, then as an employee in September 2017. In her current role, she supports the engineering department.��

“I review engineer documents, prepare meeting agendas, track budgets, do records keeping and any other work needed to support the department,” explained Smith.��

Smith cites several mentors at Grand Gulf who have been examples of teamwork, including��Bob Franssen,��Grand Gulf site vice president,�����Ի���Greg Hawkins,��who recently retired as the regulatory assurance and performance improvement director.��Her supervisor, Michael (Brandon) Taylor, design engineering manager,��“understands everybody has strengths and weaknesses. He sees professional development opportunities. That makes us a stronger organization,” said Smith.

“Elizabeth is a key member of the design engineering team. She ensures that we recognize team members for their accomplishments, which fosters a culture of appreciation and motivation,” Taylor said.

Upon starting her career at Grand Gulf, the nuclear industry and the concept of teamwork came naturally to Smith. She was part of a big family – five sisters and three brothers.��

“I’m number five among my siblings. To achieve anything with excellence, you have to be able to work with other people. If not, only one person carries the weight. Being part of a large family taught me that,” she added.����

Smith grew up in the world of nuclear power, as her father served in the nuclear navy and eventually became the senior Nuclear Regulatory Commission resident inspector at Grand Gulf until 2014.��That’s what brought the family to Mississippi. Now, Smith has made Vicksburg, Mississippi here home.

“I knew of the importance of nuclear as a baseload energy source and a safe form of producing power,” she said. “Yet, I’m always learning. As part of my development plan, I recently audited a systems’ training class to gain more knowledge and understanding on how power plants work.”

Photo: The NAYGN team includes, left to right, Elizabeth Smith, Linda Davis, Tasha Parker and Alexander Roaldsand.

“I am proud of my team here at Entergy,” said Halter. “They are dedicated nuclear professionals who constantly seek excellence. The credit for any of my personal successes go directly to my team and our other colleagues across the nuclear fleet and company.”

Halter joined Entergy in 2017 after a career with the U.S. NRC, serving in various areas, including reactor oversight process inspection and performance assessment, Fukushima response, enforcement, and with the Office of the Commission. Before the NRC, Halter drove the largest warships and operated a nuclear reactor onboard an aircraft carrier as an officer in the U.S. Nuclear Navy.��

Chris Bakken, Entergy chief nuclear officer, said, “Mandy’s extensive knowledge of the nuclear business, strategic approaches and keen leadership skills are helping us build on our commitment to achieving excellence and becoming the premier nuclear fleet. She is a key member of our leadership team and has worked hard to create strong relationships with our internal and external stakeholders, including nuclear professionals at our plants. Mandy has a vast array of experiences to lead us in these important areas.”

Soon after Halter began adjusting to her promotion, she was faced with navigating through something unexpected – an unprecedented global pandemic. Yet, with experience in safety and emergency preparedness, Halter had the tools to navigate the large nuclear team through this challenging time.

As part of the company’s pandemic response, the emergency preparedness team led the nuclear group through needed changes that arose from COVID-19. New safety protocols to keep critical infrastructure workers healthy and safe were implemented, temperature readings were taken each day as workers entered the nuclear sites, and the licensing and compliance team worked with the NRC to ensure that all federal regulations and inspections continued in the safest way possible.

Halter comes from a long line of family members enlisted in the navy and stated she “respected the service.” While growing up in Maryland, she was recruited to run track and cross country at the U.S. Naval Academy. Eventually, she became a naval officer – the first in her family.

Halter earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the U.S. Naval Academy and two masters: one in engineering management from Old Dominion University and one from Villanova University in business administration.��

“Most of the bosses I’ve had would say that I don’t like to be told ‘no’,” joked Halter. She said that women should have courage and tenacity to go after what they want. “Our nine-year-old daughter talked her way onto her school’s football team and wants to be an astronaut. Our six-year-old asked how I make electricity, so I read her a children’s book about nuclear power plants and the benefits of clean electricity. I will always work to cultivate their curiosity, especially with math and science.”

A few years ago, the United Nations took note of a significant gender gap that persisted throughout the years at all levels of science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines worldwide. The UN took heed and established Feb. 11 as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science to overcome stereotypes, gender biases and encourage females to pursue STEM. According to the��, “At present,����of researchers worldwide are women, and only around 30 percent of all female students select STEM-related fields in higher education.”

This leads to another subject close to Halter’s heart, which embraces Entergy’s Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging effort. She believes working with DIB parallels Entergy’s vision, which is to “power life” with a diverse, inclusive and engaged culture. It inspires individuals to work together to grow a world-class energy business that creates sustainable value and is considered the premier utility.��

“It’s about making people know they are wanted and belong. In our business, it goes beyond race and gender,” added Halter. “The Revolutionary War hero John Paul Jones once said that ‘men mean more than the guns in the rating of a ship.’ Back then, the number of guns on a wooden ship would rate its quality and ability to fight against enemies. It’s not the incredible technology we’re entrusted with; instead, people are our most treasured asset. Through a foundation of acceptance and trust, our team can achieve anything.”

This hits home personally for Halter. She moved from Maryland to be based at Entergy Nuclear headquarters in Jackson, Mississippi. Her husband and children have settled in and are comfortable calling Mississippi home.��

“Central Mississippi is the most hospitable place we have lived – and we’ve moved a lot in our careers. My husband started a small, veteran-owned business in the area, and our parents moved to Mississippi as well. We’re all together and couldn’t be happier.”

Entergy Nuclear owns, operates, supports and provides management services to a national fleet of eight reactors in seven locations. With approximately 6,000 nuclear employees, Entergy is also recognized globally as a provider of nuclear services to companies in the U.S. and worldwide.��

“Through this experience, it confirmed I work with a great group of peers that deal with and overcome challenges personally outside of work, day after day. Yet, their character is such that they come to work every day with a smile on their face and ready to tackle whatever opportunities come their way to make our company more successful. The class was helpful and informative,” said Joseph (Kenny) Long, Entergy’s Grand Gulf radiation protection technical supervisor.

The seminar focused on helping supervisors become better overall tactical leaders by teaching leadership, safety culture, communication, decision-making and maintaining high standards.

Entergy Grand Gulf FIN Mechanical Maintenance Supervisor Joey Foster said that the training was a reminder to pay attention to your team.

“They may just tell a story you weren’t expecting,” Foster said.

Instrumentation and Controls Maintenance Supervisor Richard Atwater added that becoming a leader is about “inspiring people to strive for excellence.”

Grand Gulf boasts a team of more than 860 highly trained and dedicated nuclear professionals, committed to their plant and their communities. Entergy has embarked on a hiring strategy to find, train and employ local talent whenever possible. Today, Grand Gulf’s enhanced employee training exceeds industry standards.

Entergy continues to make significant investments in Grand Gulf Nuclear Station to position the facility for additional years of safe, secure and reliable operations. The plant’s scheduled 22nd refueling outage in 2020 continued that trend, with more than $200 million in upgrades that will benefit Entergy’s customers, employees, communities and owners. The plant is owned and operated by Entergy’s System ���ϳԹ��� Resources, Inc. (90 percent) and Cooperative ���ϳԹ��� (10 percent).

Entergy Nuclear owns, operates, supports and provides management services to a national fleet of eight reactors in seven locations. The nuclear headquarters is based in Jackson, Mississippi.

Pictured left to right: Michael Longenecker, Tom Kirwin, Baogia Nguyen, Bob Franssen, Paul Cook, John Steverson, John DeDomenico, Sheldon Shippee, PK Parker, Benjamin (Joey) Foster, Rob Melton, Michael Richards, Jason Keir, Richard Atwater, Brad Wertz, Joseph (Kenny) Long, Paul Stokes and Bobby Gibson

Now in its second year, the program is aimed at developing female leaders in the industry. The 12 participants from across the nuclear power industry will experience a year of training and networking opportunities, including open dialogue with chief executives, stakeholders and other experts.

The program begins at U.S. WIN’s National Conference, July 27-28, this year held virtually. Garbe is facilitating one of the panel discussions, and Bryant was a founder of U.S. WIN. The Waterford 3 Nuclear Generating Station is located in Killona, Louisiana, and Bryant works at Entergy’s nuclear fleet headquarters in Jackson, Mississippi.��

According to WIN, program participants will learn about leveraging authenticity and emotional intelligence to address leadership challenges (including gender diversity) in handling business strategy issues while building relationships and a broader support network.

“Women in Nuclear is an important organization for the development of leaders across the nuclear industry. Bonnie and Crystal represent Entergy and the industry well, and they richly deserve this honor,” said Entergy Chief Nuclear Officer��Chris Bakken, who nominated the women.

Garbe and Bryant each cited a different Entergy Nuclear Excellence Model value when discussing their anticipation of the program. Entergy Nuclear employees use the model to achieve common goals. It’s built on a set of values called “STAIR:”��Safety, Teamwork, Always Learning, Integrity and Respect.

For Bryant, who has been with Entergy for one year, the leadership cohort aligns with the��Respect��value. “It’s an honor to have been selected; it shows respect for women in nuclear and the need for diverse leaders,” she said. Her participation, she said, will support Entergy’s companywide workforce principles of diversity, inclusion and belonging.����

Garbe identified the��Always Learning��value as essential to her life and work, including the leadership program. “To have the opportunity to learn something is motivational. I like to challenge myself. I’ve had the most amazing opportunities at Entergy. Each new role has been an incredible learning opportunity,” said Garbe, who has been at Entergy 23 years.

Both women said they are eager to start the program and connect with other female leaders across the nuclear power industry.��