Photo: Creighton, his partner, Teresa, and their daughters, Hannah and Lyla, vacation in Mexico.
Yuba Water Agency's project manager, Creighton Avila, is responsible for supporting the agency's hydroelectric power generation sales and trying to maximize revenue, various infrastructure projects, as well as managing the water education program. Scroll to learn more about Creighton, his background and more.
What does your average day look like?
Over the last year and a half, my time has been devoted to developing electricity market networks and finding the best methods to gather market intelligence.
My essential duties are being open to change, listening to internal and external experts and thinking forward.
How did you get involved in your current career path?
Luck! Out of graduate school I wanted to work for a financial firm that handled municipal bonds - my graduate school project was on determining bond rating variables importance through statistical analysis. Instead, I pursued a job in local government. I wanted more experience working for the entities I would hopefully evaluate one day. While working for a county north of Charlotte, North Carolina, the financial crisis happened. During that time, there was more need for people helping to strategically reduce operations in local government than working for financial companies.
Photo: Creighton and his family pose for a group photo on the Fourth of July.
What is your background/formal education that led to where you are in your career today?
After high school, I went to the University of Southern California. Following graduation, I worked in strategic communications for campaigns and in the Governor of California's office. While that work was interesting, my business classes were my favorite in undergrad, so I decided to go back to school. I went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for graduate school where I studied process improvement and public finance.
After graduate school, I worked for different cities and counties in North Carolina, mostly in the city/county manager’s office assisting departments with evaluating their operations and helping to communicate successes and areas of improvement. After close to 10 years in North Carolina, I moved back to California and took a position with El Dorado County, where I worked in the Chief Administrative Office mostly with the land development departments (e.g., planning and building, transportation and environmental management).
What do you enjoy most about working for Yuba Water?
I love the difference the agency is making through investing in Yuba County. Also, I enjoy working on teams that are evaluating problems and coming up with solutions that will benefit the community for generations.
Before working for Yuba Water, what was the most interesting job you had?
When I was asked to work in the development agency for El Dorado County, I found out after taking the assignment that I would also be the county cemetery director, airport director and cannabis team lead. Those are definitely titles I never envisioned in my career.
The job that left the largest mark on my career was working for a county in North Carolina. The county at one time was incredibly successful from an economic standpoint. Changes in the American economy adversely affected the county. However, the people there created a strategy and stuck to it and became economically successful again. What I took out of that experience was to never be complacent in success, always think outside the box and learn from others’ experiences, no matter how different they are from your organization.