Judy Perez

My journey in the chemical industry began in May 2006 when Huntsman hired me while I was still in my last semester of college. The school and department chairman allowed me to start working before I even received my degree, which I thought was pretty cool. I started as a laboratory technician in the inks and pigments division, then about a year later moved to the home and personal care division for Performance Products. After a few years, I was promoted to technical services chemist, where I did a lot of troubleshooting for customers and served as the middleman between customers and the scientists and engineers. I worked for Huntsman until 2020, when Indorama Ventures acquired the surfactants portfolio and I moved over with them. Then COVID hit, and everything changed. My husband, who also works in the chemical industry at Shell, was facing a transfer to Louisiana, so we decided to come back home to Deep South Texas where we're both originally from. We thought with our experience we could easily find jobs, but it was incredibly hard. We lived off his severance package and my savings, which depleted very quickly. Being a mom, I felt like I needed to put food on the table, so I took any job I could get. It wasn't until this year that I finally got back into the chemical industry with an agrochemical company. Now I work in the lab as a chemist, and I love it. I feel like I'm back home, literally.