About The Electrician's Enlightenment

Staff

• Bridget O'Donnell

  Founding Editor

  Thirty-six-year journeywoman who started pulling wire when Reagan was president and has outlasted every foreman who told her she was in the wrong trade. Covers job-site culture, union politics, and the dying art of doing things right the first time. Her column 'Hot Side, Neutral Side' hasn't missed a week since 2014.

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  Thirty-six-year journeywoman who started pulling wire when Reagan was president and has outlasted every foreman who told her she was in the wrong trade. Covers job-site culture, union politics, and the dying art of doing things right the first time. Her column 'Hot Side, Neutral Side' hasn't missed a week since 2014.

• Claudette Moreau

  Standards Correspondent

  Architectural journalist who wandered into an electrical supply house for a story about industrial aesthetics and never left. Covers the visual, spatial, and design dimensions of electrical work — how conduit runs shape a room, why panel placement matters, and the unappreciated art of a clean parallel bend. The only writer in the building who uses the word 'fenestration.'

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  Architectural journalist who wandered into an electrical supply house for a story about industrial aesthetics and never left. Covers the visual, spatial, and design dimensions of electrical work — how conduit runs shape a room, why panel placement matters, and the unappreciated art of a clean parallel bend. The only writer in the building who uses the word 'fenestration.'

• Constance Faraday

  Civic Affairs Desk

  Former fire investigator turned electrical historian who traces every NEC article back to the specific disaster that wrote it in blood. Has a podcast called 'Dead Shorts' that covers the fires, electrocutions, and catastrophic failures behind modern code. Considers the NEC a true crime anthology.

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  Former fire investigator turned electrical historian who traces every NEC article back to the specific disaster that wrote it in blood. Has a podcast called 'Dead Shorts' that covers the fires, electrocutions, and catastrophic failures behind modern code. Considers the NEC a true crime anthology.

• DeShawn Cafferty

  Culture Columnist

  Second-year apprentice whose weekly column 'Dumb Questions' has become the most-read feature in the paper by accidentally exposing why the industry does half the things it does. Left a philosophy degree to pull wire and hasn't stopped asking 'but why?' since orientation.

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  Second-year apprentice whose weekly column 'Dumb Questions' has become the most-read feature in the paper by accidentally exposing why the industry does half the things it does. Left a philosophy degree to pull wire and hasn't stopped asking 'but why?' since orientation.

• Earl Puckett

  Field Reporter

  Retired electrical inspector from Tulsa who spent twenty-eight years failing permits and now spends his retirement failing the NEC committee's logic from the comfort of his La-Z-Boy. His column 'Grounds for Objection' is a love letter to the code wrapped in a formal complaint about every change made to it since 2011.

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  Retired electrical inspector from Tulsa who spent twenty-eight years failing permits and now spends his retirement failing the NEC committee's logic from the comfort of his La-Z-Boy. His column 'Grounds for Objection' is a love letter to the code wrapped in a formal complaint about every change made to it since 2011.

• Marta Grünfeld

  Letters Editor

  German-trained Meisterin who emigrated to the States in 2003 and has never recovered from the shock of seeing Romex in residential walls. Covers code compliance, conduit work, and craftsmanship standards with the warmth of a building inspector on a Monday morning. Believes rigid metal conduit is a love language.

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  German-trained Meisterin who emigrated to the States in 2003 and has never recovered from the shock of seeing Romex in residential walls. Covers code compliance, conduit work, and craftsmanship standards with the warmth of a building inspector on a Monday morning. Believes rigid metal conduit is a love language.

• Ravi Kondapalli

  Institutional Memory Desk

  Power quality engineer who left utility-scale work to write about the invisible electrical problems nobody wants to diagnose. Brings an oscilloscope to arguments and a spreadsheet to lunch. His articles contain more charts than most engineering textbooks and he will not apologize for it.

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  Power quality engineer who left utility-scale work to write about the invisible electrical problems nobody wants to diagnose. Brings an oscilloscope to arguments and a spreadsheet to lunch. His articles contain more charts than most engineering textbooks and he will not apologize for it.

• Theo Nakamura-Singh

  Weekend Editor

  Former software engineer who got his electrical license specifically to build the smart home the contractors he hired kept ruining. Now covers home automation, low-voltage integration, and the collision between Silicon Valley assumptions and NEC reality. Thinks every circuit should have an API.

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  Former software engineer who got his electrical license specifically to build the smart home the contractors he hired kept ruining. Now covers home automation, low-voltage integration, and the collision between Silicon Valley assumptions and NEC reality. Thinks every circuit should have an API.

• Watts Ohman

  Public Records Fellow

  Master electrician who has been shocking people with both voltage and humor for thirty years.

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  Master electrician who has been shocking people with both voltage and humor for thirty years.

• Yolanda Tran

  Copy Chief

  Investigative journalist who spent a decade covering infrastructure for a metro daily before realizing the most interesting infrastructure is behind the drywall. Writes 5,000-word deep dives on single components — the GFCI, the ground rod, the service entrance — and makes them read like page-turners. Once spent four months on a piece about aluminum wiring.

  Read full bio

  Investigative journalist who spent a decade covering infrastructure for a metro daily before realizing the most interesting infrastructure is behind the drywall. Writes 5,000-word deep dives on single components — the GFCI, the ground rod, the service entrance — and makes them read like page-turners. Once spent four months on a piece about aluminum wiring.