Brenda Jackson used to spend a lot of time in the kitchen – her own and hundreds of others in Dallas.

That was in the mid-1970s, when Brenda worked as a Home Service Advisor for Dallas Power & Light, an Oncor predecessor. She trekked to customers’ homes across Dallas to show them how to use their new electric appliances, like dishwashers, ovens and washers. 

While that job wasn’t new, Brenda was a pioneer. She was an African-American woman in a role routinely filled by white women.

And she loved it.

“The job was really a lot of fun and I certainly felt very welcome,” Brenda said. “If there were people who didn’t want me there, it wasn’t obvious to me.”

What did become obvious, at least to her DP&L supervisors, was that Brenda was smart, personable and had a great future in front of her. When she retired from Oncor in 2013, Brenda was the Chief Customer Officer.

“I think Dallas Power & Light really understood the importance of diversity and inclusion,” she said. “I felt like that I landed at a company that had extraordinary character and values and that they aligned with my values.”

Several years into her career at DP&L, Brenda said the United Negro College Fund honored the company for 50 years of continuous giving. “That meant the company had been giving to them well before I even went to work there,” she said. “I was so touched by that. It gave me a great feeling.”

Each Black History Month, Brenda said she thinks about black Americans who have inspired her. There are the iconic figures from history and those she knew personally, like her parents.

​Brenda’s father was a career military man who moved his family to Japan and over a half-dozen states. “Both of my parents always approached everything with a sense of gratitude,” she said. “And not letting your race be an excuse for not doing well.”

Her dad also was a big fan of “honorable” work. “Every summer since my junior year in high school, I was required to have a summer job,” she said. “And I had a couple of weeks to find one. And if I couldn’t, my father would find one for me.

Brenda was in high school when the family lived in Hawaii. Her first summer job was in a pineapple cannery, making $1.40 an hour. Later, she spent a summer in a cassette tape factory. “It was honest work and a really good lesson for me,” she said.

From Hawaii, Brenda attended Prairie View A&M, a historically black college in Texas. “My father had gotten orders to go to Pennsylvania, so the family dropped me off in Texas on their way there,” she said, laughing.

It was the summer after her junior year at Prairie View, when Brenda interned at Dallas Power & Light. A year later after graduating, DP&L offered her a job.

From that first job as a Home Service Advisor, Brenda’s 40-year career path included stints in customer operations and customer service. A job as a community programs manager led to various leadership roles in the city and the company.

“There’s not another company that does as much to foster inclusion and diversity,” she said. “And it’s not just racial or ethnic diversity. It’s ideas, perspectives, experiences. And it just lifts us all up.”