Opus College of Engineering Award Recipients

Distinguished Alumna of the Year Award

Teresa Ferry Mogensen, Eng ’89, Grad ’03
Minnetonka, Minn

As a child, Teresa wanted to grow up to do something meaningful, challenging and engaging. Today, as senior vice president of transmission and president of Xcel Energy Transco, Teresa plays a significant role in keeping the North American power grid reliable, safe, economical and secure.

“I love being part of something that is so impactful to so many, and that really makes a difference in both the short and long term,” Teresa says of her role with Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy. “Decisions made now can have repercussions decades into the future.”

As an electrical engineering major, Teresa remembers her first real electrical engineering class on circuits with Dr. Arthur Moeller, Eng ’51, whom she says “made (the material) interesting and understandable. … (He) hooked me in!”

She began working at Wisconsin Electric through the Opus College of Engineering’s co-op program, and found she liked the utility industry. She continued working there full time after graduating, until she left to help start ATC, first for-profit, transmission-only utility company in the country. She completed Marquette’s Executive MBA program in 2003 and began at Xcel Energy in 2007.

Teresa is broadly involved in her industry’s professional organizations and serves as a director and chair of Capx2020, a collaborative initiative of 11 transmission-owning utilities and electric cooperatives in four states, which works to upgrade and expand the area’s electric transmission grid. This past September, CapX2020 completed the last of its five major projects to transform the energy landscape of the upper Midwest region. She recently became a member of the Marquette University Engineering Thought Leaders Council.

In her community, Teresa serves on the board of the Twin Cities chapter of Catholic Charities.

“My Marquette education was critical in setting me on my path and forming who I am today,” says Teresa, whose husband, Mike Mogensen, Bus Ad ’89, and sons, Samuel, Bus Ad ’16, and Matthew, a student in the Opus College, are also Golden Eagles. “I love being part of the Marquette nation,” she says.

Fun fact: One of Teresa’s favorite activities in college was playing flute in the Marquette Pep Band. “That’s where I met my husband and many good friends,” she says.