March is Women’s History Month, providing NETL with an excellent opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women from across the Lab.

As part of the celebration, women throughout our organization were invited to explain why it’s important for NETL to foster gender diversity within its workforce and discuss the steps they take to encourage more women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) or other careers at NETL.

Here are the responses and insights they offered:

• Lucy Romeo works as a geo-data and environmental scientist. “I utilize big and disparatespatiotemporal data and develop models and tools that produce scientific solutions for a range of research needs, including energy infrastructure reuse, carbon storage opportunities and potential social and environmental risks associated with energy operations.”

“Inclusion in the workspace is key for collaboration, talent retention and integrity. When everyone has a seat at the table and all perspectives are valued, a positive work culture can grow, and technical innovation can thrive.”

• Ruishu Wright is a research physical scientist. She serves as technical portfolio lead for natural

  

  gas infrastructure and principal investigator for multiple projects. Active projects include supporting safe hydrogen transportation and H2@Scale, a DOE initiative to enable affordable hydrogen production, storage, distribution and utilization across multiple sectors of the economy.

“It is very important to foster gender diversity at NETL to fully pull the strength of all talent across genders to achieve the Lab’s goals and provide innovative technologies for energy and environmental sustainability. I am committed to promoting gender diversity through serving as a mentor for the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) program and providing summer projects to STEM students.”

• Kelly Rose serves as technical director for NETL’s Science-based Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Institute (SAMI). She is also a geo-data science researcher with more than 20 years of experience developing data-driven methods and models to address energy and environmental challenges.

“Diversity of all types helps drive creativity and innovation. As we have the honor to provide public service innovating next-generation solutions to energy, environmental and societal challenges, it is important that we strive for inclusion in our teams to spark thinking and innovation that helps us meet that mission for public benefit.”

• Madison Wenzlick, a research mechanical engineer, focuses on data curation, modeling and analysis. Her expertise is crucial to complete materials property prediction and design, energy water management and infrastructure assessments.

“Diversity in perspectives, backgrounds and experiences is a very important aspect of research at NETL as diversity enables teams to be more dynamic and creative and to achieve improved outcomes in our work. I support gender diversity in STEM by speaking about my career at workshops and panels for young women, through mentorship of young women in science and by supporting my peers in research.”

• Alicia Dalton-Tingler, manager, Strategic Partnerships, works to solidify partnership opportunities for NETL and its researchers and aids moving NETL technologies toward commercialization. 

“When I entered the workforce, there weren’t a lot of female mentors, which made learning how to succeed professionally a bit challenging. Over the last decade, I’ve used my social media, my involvement in pageantry (there’s quite a large female audience in pageantry) and engagement with interns to not only encourage participation in all things STEM but to remind women to embrace their differences while doing so. Translation: You don’t have to play masculine to be a successful, professional woman.”

• Jessica Sinclair is a business analyst in support operations for SAMI, an NETL Key Lab Initiative.

“Workforce diversity is a key to innovation. Inclusivity of a variety of perspectives whether through experiences, education or approach is paramount in developing an innovative environment. I speak highly of my experiences at the Lab and have recommended the Lab to former colleagues and mentees.”

• Catherine Schooley works as a geospatial research scientist. She contributes to data curation,

  

  AI/ML model development and end-user tool development using her background in environmental studies and geographic information systems.

“We don’t know what we don’t know. By implementing gender diversity at NETL, we can utilize perspectives that would otherwise be missed, overlooked or left unexplored. To encourage other women to consider STEM fields, I speak proudly of my position as a scientist, provide resources to other women such as education recommendations and offer myself up as a reference or mentor. I also gift the younger women and girls around me with STEM-based toys/activities so they too can explore what it’s like to be a scientist. My hope is that even if these women do not decide to become scientists, they at least knew it was an option for them.”

• Alison Fritz, a research general engineer, began her NETL career about four years ago through

  

  the ORISE program. Her first assignment involved applying techno-economic analysis and statistical modeling to assess the economic viability of alternative rare earth element feedstocks. Six months ago, she accepted a full-time position as a research engineer on the Energy Process Analysis Team at NETL.

“It is critical that we include perspectives from all genders as we design an energy system for the future. Diverse groups have been shown to have higher performance in solving complex problems. Furthermore, a successful system should be designed with all members of society in mind, which requires diverse representation. I believe that mentorship is a successful way to attract and retain the diverse workforce we need; I would not be here today without my mentors. To pay it forward and encourage more women to pursue careers in STEM, I have participated in mentorship programs for high school and undergraduate students. I hope to continue these outreach efforts at NETL as a Mickey Leland mentor this summer and in the future throughout my career.”

• Ranjani Siriwardane, research scientist, specializes in the development of catalysts and

  

  oxygen carriers to produce hydrogen, a clean fuel, from various domestic fuel sources including waste plastics without emitting carbon dioxide. Previous projects include sorbent development to remove sulfur from fuel gasification processes and to capture carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, generated by fossil energy production and industrial processes.

“STEM careers are rewarding and provide financial stability. Traditionally, women have been discouraged from considering STEM careers. It is important for us to provide opportunities so that young women receive STEM education and are encouraged to pursue careers in science and math. Contributions by a large percentage (approximately 50%) of our population to improve our society will be wasted if women don’t participate in STEM fields. Women who have been fortunate to participate in STEM careers have contributed to new inventions that have helped to improve our standard of living.”

• Alison Metz, physical scientist, is a new federal project manager in the Technology

  

  Development Center who serves on the Integrated Carbon Management Team. One of her primary responsibilities involves overseeing the scope, schedule and budget for projects initiated through partnerships with outside organizations. Before her role at NETL, she completed seven years as a chemist working for the U.S. Navy.

“The only way to grow in STEM as a community is to approach problems from a variety of different perspectives. The only way to gain those perspectives is through diversity in the workforce. To encourage more young girls to pursue careers in science, it is important to show them how STEM fields relate to the world around them and help to solve current problems. In the past, I have enjoyed volunteering in STEM workshops for school-age children to help inspire a love for science at a young age.”

• Erin Russell-Story, technical project officer/Clean Cities Northeast Regional manager, has

  

  worked in the alternative fuel vehicle sector since 1997 and has been at NETL since 2009.

“Why is it important for NETL to foster gender diversity? It’s simple. While most project managers/officers at NETL have the same or similar duties, men and women are not the same. Women and men think differently, frequently communicate differently and bring different perspectives and viewpoints to their work. These differences add to the overall strength of NETL by expanding the options for problem-solving and enhancing approaches to our everyday work. I am a member of Women of EVs (Electric Vehicles) as well as WTS (formerly known as the Women’s Transportation Seminar), which works to advance women in transportation-related careers. Supporting and collaborating with other women in the transportation and energy sectors helps to reinforce that these avenues are viable career paths for women.”

• Amanda Harker Steele, research economist, supports the Research and Innovation Center’s

  

  Strategic Systems Analysis & Engineering directorate as part of the Energy Markets Analysis team. Her research has focused on the development and deployment of carbon capture and storage technologies, electricity market infrastructure changes, identifying new markets for domestic decarbonized fossil energy assets, demand response for natural gas and energy and environmental justice.

“Fostering gender diversity encourages a culture of inclusivity that considers various viewpoints, increases employee engagement and promotes a safer and more equitable workspace, all of which can help drive technological innovation and growth. At NETL, I am working to promote gender diversity by creating a welcoming environment where the voices of all of my colleagues can be heard regardless of their gender; participating in training activities and exercises focused on diversity, equity and inclusion; and mentoring young scientists in such a way that promotes and encourages gender diversity.”

• Kym Arbaugh is an IT project manager whose duties include maintaining the schedule, scope and budget for organization-wide IT projects and ensuring alignment with organizational goals. She also establishes standards, processes and best practices to ensure those projects are successful.

“Since I started at NETL in 2011, our organization has come a long way in becoming more diverse. I think that gender diversity in the workplace increases creativity, innovation and productivity and lifts morale. I am very proud to be part of the NETL team.”

• Tracey Williams, a senior activity manager, leads the Computational

  

  Science and Engineering, High-Performance Computing and Research Applications teams within the Federal IT services contract at NETL.

“NETL fosters an appealing diversity, equity and inclusion program and promotes and encourages STEM careers, which promotes a sense of belonging. We can engage and learn so much from others’ diversity, backgrounds and perspectives. This workplace culture promotes individual contributions and opportunities and sparks innovation regardless of dissimilarities that lead to success toward our mission and career success. I enjoy providing tours of NETL’s Supercomputer Joule 2.0 and our ML/AI System WATT as well as being an integral part of the Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship summer internship program where we provide training and deep dive into Joule 2.0 and WATT hoping to drive interest in STEM careers.”