Columbus, OH: American Municipal Power, Inc. (AMP) has announced that Joe Morris is the inaugural honoree of the AMP Employee Innovator Award. Morris is the manager of SCADA and real time systems and has been with the organization since 2015, when he joined as an IT intern.

The AMP Employee Innovator Award was launched this year to promote and support “a culture of innovation and continuous improvement within the organization.” Given up to twice annually, the award recognizes an employee or team of employees for demonstrating innovation through creative thinking, solutions, or programs and/or cost-cutting mechanisms that benefit AMP and/or AMP members.

Morris was nominated by his colleagues for his passion for technology and ability to learn new systems to solve complex issues. Morris assisted an AMP member community in implementing a replacement SCADA system, resulting in customer savings and operational efficiency. He also developed a solution to allow a member utility to control its generation alongside AMP's Energy Control Center, and he helped develop AMP's Cybersecurity Assessment Pilot program. In addition, Morris is an active participant on the AMP Innovation Team and two AMP Moonshot initiatives.

Morris joined AMP full time in 2016 as a systems analyst and was named to his current position in January 2021. He earned a bachelor’s degree in network and communication management from DeVry University and a Master of Business Administration from the Keller Graduate School of Management. He is a Cisco-certified network associate.

Nominations for the award are submitted by staff in recognition of their colleagues and include a description of the nominee’s innovative thinking and how it makes a difference to AMP and/or its members. The colleagues who nominate their coworkers then make presentations to the executive team about why their nominee should be recognized. The winner is selected based on three main criteria: how their solution or program connects to AMP’s mission, vision and values; originality and uniqueness; and results, significance or relevance.

More information about the organization’s mission, vision and values can be found here.