People Behind the Power – Meet Mitzie Privitt

Tennessee electric cooperatives power the state. Co-ops provide for three million Tennesseans -that’s 72% of the state’s landmass and 41% of the state’s population. That power wouldn’t be possible though without the employees, lineworkers and board members across the 23 cooperatives. Mitzie Privitt is one of the people behind that power.

Privitt is a native of Trenton but has resided in Humboldt for over 30 years. She is the newly named field staking and compliance engineer for Gibson Electric Membership Corporation. Even though she is new to this role, she has had a hand in the utility world for almost three decades. She started out with Humboldt Utilities working in accounting and payroll. In 2007, she made the switch to GEMC and became a dispatcher.

“I instantly fell in love with the whole operation side of the utilities,” Privitt said. “I took it to heart that it was my job to take care of my guys out there, ensuring I had caution orders done correctly and to promptly let them know if something didn’t look right on the system. That way they would be in their safest space to do their work, and I wanted them to have the confidence in me to know that I had their back.”

Privitt felt like in this position she gained a better understanding of how electricity worked, from how its generated to how it goes to homes. In 2018, she took on a new role during the cooperative’s fiber buildout as a GIS fiber mapping techinician. Privitt was able to work hands on with mapping out the build for six years. This year she was promoted to field staking and compliance engineer and is excited to continue her work at the co-op with both electricity and fiber, but most importantly the members.

“Watching our system grow and seeing our customers have things that truly work, everything from reliable electricity to affordable and fast internet,” Privitt said. “Knowing that if you’ve got problems, you can call, get a local person and feel confident that we’re going to fix it.”

Aside from her work at the co-op, Privitt has been married for 28 years, and they together have two children and two grandsons. The family works together at the Humboldt Area Rescue Squad. Privitt’s husband started the all-volunteer squad in 1989. Privitt herself is not a first responder, but she has found a way to still serve.

“I work fundraisers so that they can continue to focus on saving very precious lives,” Privitt said.

On top of her community service and before Privitt made her way to the utility business, she was the official float builder for the West Tennessee Strawberry Festival. At just 22 years old, Privitt was putting her art background to use and making extravagant and beautiful visions come to life for the community’s biggest event. She estimates that she has likely built well over 700 floats in her lifetime so far, with 25 or so coming from her house every year.

Over the years, Privitt has continued being involved with the festival. Last year she served as the general chairman for the event. This year, Privitt is the president of the West Tennessee Strawberry Festival where she oversees little details like the trash cans to scheduling out the big concerts at the event.

“It’s my year to kind of make the final decisions on what we do, what we don’t do, things we love, things we might need to cut back on,” Privitt said.

The West Tennessee Strawberry Festival is an 87-year-old tradition that takes place during the first full week of May. This year from May 4-10, 75,000 friends and neighbors will occupy nine blocks for food, fellowship and entertainment. 36 events will take place over the seven days and there is a committee made up of volunteers for each event. Through her time as general chairman and seeing behind the scenes of the festival, Privitt soon learned how much the community did to make this event a success.

“I just saw the value and number of volunteers that do such good community service through the strawberry festival, and I wanted to recognize that,” Privitt said. “That’s why I chose the theme ‘It’s a Berry Good Life: When our community unites, celebration ignites.”

Rather it be at Gibson Electric, her service through the rescue squad or even spearheading Tennessee’s largest and longest running festival – Privitt loves what she does and considers herself blessed to be able to do it all.

“I just love the fact that I get to be surrounded by so many giving people that just have a servant’s heart,” Privitt said. “It makes me want to be a part of their world and I work every day to do so.”