Her Story
About Lori
I started as a non-traditional student, getting married right after high school. After working at a pizza place, I realized there was more to my life than just flipping pizzas, so I went back to school. I earned my associate's degree in science while working full-time as an environmental technician at a smelter in Hallsville, Kentucky, then continued on to get my bachelor's degree and eventually my master's degree on scholarship. I did all of this with four children because I wanted to teach them that if they put their mind to something, there is nothing that will stop them. Now I supervise the Owensboro Regional Office for Air Quality, covering 12 counties in Kentucky, and I'm one of three state on-scene coordinators for emergency hazmat responses. I also teach environmental courses at Western Kentucky University. The environmental field is small, and when I teach my classes, I always let my students know that we are only given one earth, and if we don't take care of her, there's no way she's going to be able to support everything we put her through.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Lori
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to being a leader in a male-dominated field. In my position in the environmental field, when I'm on a response, like the major gas line fire we had this past week that lasted an entire week, I'm usually the only woman out there on an entire team of men. They'll bring porta-potties out for men, but I'm the female, so I have to find a place to use the restroom. I live in the middle of the country, so my job takes me in so many different directions in this male-dominated world. But I do see more and more women on our teams coming in and wanting to learn this career path, and that's something I'm proud of.
02What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The most important value to me is teaching people to be more conscious of how they treat the environment. I feel like if I can teach someone to better respect what we're given, then that means the world to me. I see a lot of damage that we do that can be prevented, but just by one person making a small change can help that. Sometimes we forget, when we go home at night, that we still have clean water to drink and fresh air to breathe, and it takes a whole bunch of people to make that work. When I teach my classes, I always let my students know that we are only given one earth, and if we don't take care of her, there's no way that she's going to be able to support everything that we put her through.
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