Team

David W. Osburn was named General Manager effective August 1, 2013.  Mr. Osburn joined the Authority as of January 15, 2007, and previously held the title of Assistant General Manager.  Mr. Osburn previously served as General Manager and CEO of Richmond Power & Light in Richmond, Indiana for 10 years.  Mr. Osburn currently serves on the Board of the American Public Power Association, the Members’ Committee of the Southwest Power Pool (“SPP”), and the Executive Committee of the Transmission Access Policy Study Group (“TAPS”). Mr. Osburn has previously served on the Board of the Electric Power Research Institute (“EPRI”), the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) Members Representative Committee, NERC Reliability Issues Steering Committee, as well as Commissioner and Vice Chairman of the Indiana Municipal Power Agency.  Mr. Osburn holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Indiana Wesleyan University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University.

Jennifer Rogers Smith is the Assistant General Manager and Director of Member Services. She has been with OMPA since 2008 and serves on a number of industry-related boards, including the Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Developments (DEED) and Municipal Electric Systems of Oklahoma (MESO).  Prior to her position as Assistant General Manager, she served the Authority as Director of Member Services, Government Relations Representative, Media Specialist, and Member Services Representative. Ms. Smith holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Central Oklahoma.

Natasha Brown is the Director of Operations. She has more than 16 years of experience in the industry and is a NERC Certified System Operator. She originally started at OMPA in the Operations Department in 2006, before holding positions as a Senior Operations Analyst at Southwest Power Pool in Little Rock, AR and Western Farmers Electric Cooperative in Anadarko, OK.

Jim McAvoy was promoted in March 2016 to the position of Director of Engineering Services after having served previously as Manager of Engineering Services and Chief Engineer for nine years.  Before joining the Authority he worked in engineering and operations at KG&E/Westar in Kansas and OG&E.  He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma and a Master of Business Administration degree from Oklahoma Christian University.  Mr. McAvoy currently serves on the Transmission Working Group of the SPP.  He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the states of Oklahoma and Kansas.

William T. Denning joined OMPA at the start of 2025. He was a partner at Newbold Chapman & Geyer in Colorado at the time of his hiring. There, he served as general counsel for state entities, as well as two electric cooperatives in the state. Denning has extensive experience advising boards on governance matters and has assisted clients with contracting, regulatory compliance and open records law, among others. Before joining Newbold Chapman & Geyer in 2020, Denning was Director at Miller Stratvert in New Mexico where he assisted in securing right of ways for a $285 million transmission line project. Denning’s legal career began in 2005 shortly after graduating with a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Texas Tech University.