Melanie Rice is Vice President/Southern Arizona Division of Southwest Gas Corporation, responsible for overseeing operations throughout Southern Arizona.  The Division’s headquarters are located in Tucson, with district operation centers located in Yuma, Sierra Vista, Casa Grande, Douglas, Thatcher, Willcox, and Globe.

Melanie drives operational excellence in all areas of gas operations, overseeing all facets of gas delivery to Southern Arizona customers through effective construction, customer service, measurement and control, LNG storage, renewable natural gas delivery, engineering, and administrative operations.

Melanie joined Southwest Gas in 2008 as an Engineer in Southern Arizona Division and subsequently held positions of increasing responsibility in Engineering, including Distribution Engineer and Supervisor/Engineering.  In 2015 she was promoted to Manager/Operations and oversaw the engineering, procurement, and construction of the $80 million Tucson LNG plant.  With her promotion to Manager/Engineering in 2018, she was instrumental in advancing company capital budget and forecasting standardization, as well as the division’s Distribution Pipeline Integrity Program to ensure compliance with company guidelines.  Most recently as Director/Gas Operations, Melanie was responsible for leading Engineering, Technical Services, LNG, Compliance, Quality, Administration, and Budget for the division.

An alumna of Louisiana Tech University, Melanie holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering and is a licensed professional engineer in the State of Arizona.  Prior to Southwest Gas, she worked for two years in oil and gas field operations support at Exxon Pipeline Company and nine years in civil engineering consulting at MMLA Psomas, where she was responsible for project management of municipal infrastructure improvements.  Melanie is a graduate of the Ignite leadership development program and the American Council of Engineering Companies of Arizona’s Leadership in Engineering Administration Program.  She is a past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Southern Arizona Branch.