Women's History Month Profile: Kylee Underwood

A physical scientist, Kylee Underwood works as a project manager, Crosscutting Team, Advanced Coal & Carbon Management.

She manages a diverse portfolio of projects — from machine learning applications to simulate subsurface environments and predict geologic conditions to advancing hydrogen production technologies and helping to select new research and development projects that fulfill the U.S. Department of Energy mission.

Kylee earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from West Virginia University and is planning to complete her doctorate dissertation in the same field. Her career at NETL spans more than seven years. In that period, Kylee has been actively involved the annual Science Bowl competition hosted by NETL. She currently serves as the volunteer coordinator for the West Virginia Regional Science Bowl and has volunteered at the Western Pennsylvania Regional Science Bowl.

Kylee has two children, ages 5 and 8. She recently became a volunteer soccer coach for their teams. Also, Kylee has a strong passion for health and fitness and writes poetry in her limited free time.

Kylee competed in Science Bowl as a high school student. My favorite part about volunteering for Science Bowl is that I get to pay it forward. These events encouraged me to pursue a career in science, and I’m just as excited to give that back to the future of science. The competitions are a way to help young people reach their full potential and to develop the talent we need to do the research of tomorrow.

Why is it important that women are equally represented in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields?

STEM fields represent opportunity and higher-paying jobs from which women have been traditionally excluded due to perceived lack of ability and desire or the need to fulfill household or caregiving duties. Women not only benefit from being trained for and included in these jobs, but they also excel at them and bring a lot of unique perspective, skill and experience to the table. STEM is for everyone!
 

Kylee Underwood