Marilynn Martin

I attribute my success to hard work, and more hard work. I've always been stubborn in the sense that if somebody said I couldn't do something, I would prove them wrong. My dad used to say I had a lot of Alabama mule in me. I think it's just persistence. When you're told you can't do something, that determination to show people they're wrong has been a driving force throughout my career. It's about not giving up, no matter what obstacles are in your way.

The best career advice I ever received came from my boss when I worked at Allen. He told me that I was too smart to work there, and that if I wanted to get ahead, I was going to have to leave Duke. And he was right. In utilities, they pick their tokens when they're in that hiring phase, but once that token is picked, there will be no others until that one leaves. It was hard to hear at the time, but understanding that reality helped me make the decision to move on and advance my career elsewhere.

I would tell young women to think about the future and what it might hold for them. You may not see the benefit immediately of a decision you make, but you need to always be thinking about what the future might hold. I once encouraged a friend's daughter, Christy, who was planning to major in math, to consider engineering instead. I told her that if she got an engineering degree, she could always teach school, but if she got a math degree focused on teaching, she would never be able to be an engineer. She took my advice, majored in mechanical engineering, and when her marriage later failed, she was able to take care of her kids in the way she wanted as an HVAC engineer. That's the kind of thinking I encourage - always plan for all possibilities and give yourself options for independence.

The biggest challenge in the power utility field right now is that it remains very male-dominated, and I'm not sure the pendulum hasn't swung way back, even worse than it was before I was hired. When we had a push to hire women, I think we had a chance, but since they've done away with DEI, I think that's gone by the wayside. Another major challenge is that women are not always kind to other women in this industry. There's so much pettiness and jealousy among women professionals that they don't necessarily bring their own along. I made it a point to try to help the next woman coming up, because there were so few of us in that industry. If I could do something for the next person, I absolutely would. But that seems to be missing nowadays. Women have to be as good and much better than men in order to get the recognition that a guy would have gotten easily. The good news is that multitasking comes easily to us - that's our superpower.

I think having integrity is the most important value. It's a very important thing, and if you lose it, you won't get it back. You need to be true to yourself. And if someone asks you to do something that you know deep in your gut is wrong, wrong, wrong, you need to have the courage to say no. That integrity and staying true to what you know is right has guided me throughout my career and personal life.