Her Story
About Priscilla
Priscilla Meraz serves as Energy Accountant Associate at El Paso Electric Company, where she supports energy accounting and tax operations including gas accounting, purchase power agreements, and renewables. She joined the company full time after completing an internship in the Grid Tax department during her undergraduate and graduate studies. Meraz earned both her Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Accounting degrees from the University of Texas at El Paso, including a minor in Information Systems for her bachelor's, and received an AICPA scholarship to support her master's studies. She maintains active membership in the AICPA and participates in its monthly meetings. A detail-oriented professional who made a career transition from mathematics and teaching, Meraz attributes her success to focused determination with no backup plans and values honesty, consistency, and a willingness to learn from others.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Priscilla
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think for many people they have multiple plans like Plan A Plan B Plan C. I don't think I have a Plan B so my Plan A has to work. I don't have much family support. For my bachelor's I did receive financial aid and my master's I was able to pay for it and also get some loans. So just knowing that I have no Plan B so it has to work out.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Be comfortable with failing. I feel like I've always been such a perfectionist. I think I struggled a lot with the career change because we think that we're supposed to know what we want to do and just go and do it. Learning to be okay with failing because it is also a learning opportunity.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I just think back to when I started how shy I was I wasn't outspoken at all. And as I've gotten more comfortable with myself and with my peers I've allowed myself to be who I am. I guess not to be afraid. I think as women we're more capable than we think but we just want to maybe for some of the qualifications we're like yeah maybe I don't have this but I think in comparison to men they'll just go out for it and I think we have to be more like that.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the challenges that I have is that I want to do it all and that's not realistically possible. So just learning to be patient with myself and doing one thing at a time. It's also an opportunity because it's made me be noticed by my supervisor and peers that they know that I want to learn. But then it could also eventually lead to burnout so I'm just trying to watch out for that.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think being honest and being consistent and showing up. The people that we work with also have to be able to trust you that you're gonna do what you say that you were going to do. Being able to admit like hey I don't know this can you explain this to me. So I think honesty goes a long way.
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