At Entergy, every employee has a designated role during a storm response, and whether it’s a minor disruption or a major event, each role is critical to helping us restore power as safely and as quickly as possible. In this edition of our Meet the Pros series, we’re taking a closer look at the people and roles behind the scenes that are needed to help crews successfully restore power after a storm. While their role during a storm response may look different from their daily responsibilities, our employees’ preparedness and expertise strengthen our readiness, resilience and commitment to serving our customers and communities.

Meet Spencer Smith, an instructional developer for enterprise training who joined the company in 2021. From Jackson, Mississippi, Smith graduated from Mississippi College with a Bachelor of Science in Communications, concentrating in mass media. While his daily work focuses on developing training that helps employees grow and perform at their best, Smith serves in a very different role as a staging site specialist when severe weather strikes.

“As a staging site specialist during storm restoration, my role centers on supporting the staging site lead to ensure daily base camp operations run smoothly and efficiently,” Smith said. “My responsibilities span a variety of tasks, including assisting lineworkers on site, managing vehicle parking and maintaining close communication with our site vendor. I also assess and report lodging requirements to help guarantee comfortable accommodations for everyone involved. In addition, I collaborate with safety coaches to uphold Entergy’s safety standards across the base camp.”

These behind‑the‑scenes duties are vital to creating an organized, productive and safe environment — one that allows restoration crews to focus fully on getting power back on for customers.

While serving in his staging site specialist role, Smith was able to gain a new experience supporting storm duty compared to various outages he’s worked in the past. “Although I was familiar with the fundamentals thanks to our annual training sessions, the winter storm in January was my first time actually working at a base camp,” he said. “The two weeks I spent there proved to be invaluable as I gained hands‑on insight into the day‑to‑day tasks required in my role.”

Smith’s recent experience during the January winter storm gave him a new appreciation for the impact of his role. “With previous activations, I found genuine satisfaction in being a small part in helping support our lineworkers restore power for customers. However, my two‑week assignment at the Camp McCain staging site during the 2026 winter storm brought a completely new perspective.”

During the 16-day January winter storm activation at the Camp McCain staging site, 700 crew members and contractors were housed on-site and served three hot meals daily, a feat made possible by team members fulfilling their incident response roles, including Smith.

For Smith, the work is deeply meaningful. “The opportunity to work alongside a committed team during such an intense, catastrophic event was not only unique but also profoundly fulfilling. It allowed me to play an important role in providing meaningful assistance to our crews.”

When asked about his favorite part of working at Entergy, Smith points to the collaborative culture. “A particularly fulfilling part of my role at the company has been the chance to collaborate with people from a wide variety of organizations. This has opened the door to numerous joint projects, especially those focused on advancing our training programs. I’m fortunate to be able to help develop solutions that boost our collective performance and make a lasting impact.”

The work of team members like Smith helps ensure we have the right talent, the right coordination and the right mindset to act quickly when it matters most.