Morgan Trujillo

What really keeps me going and has driven my success is knowing that change is possible. I'm a romantic about hope, and I believe that just because there are one or two bad apples somewhere doesn't mean the whole industry is broken - it's no longer male-dominated, it's male-populated. The question is how do we get out of this legacy of what the norm has been and reteach what the norm should be. That's what keeps me in this position - knowing that my daughters, their friends, and the teenage girls I work with on a day-to-day basis at high school and college levels can benefit from the path I'm creating. If we train and teach correctly at those levels, then we preemptively remove harmful situations from occurring to the next woman. Time and time again, a random woman has seen me and said they love my story, asked where I'm trying to go, and then helped me get into that seat. Now I operate in the same sponsorship level, both professionally and personally, because if I want to keep what I have, then I need to give it away. When I implement that into a professional space, the math is no longer 1 plus 1 equals 2, it's 1 plus 1 equals 3, because both of us are leveraging at the same point to advance in our careers.

Take up your space. Don't feel small in your space. Use your voice and ask questions. Find who your allies are - at a high school level, all of those male students are the female students' allies, and if we teach them at a high school and college level what allyship looks like, it makes a huge difference. Don't shrink in your space, and when someone does question you, stand firm in what you've said. I know what I'm talking about, and just because I'm a girl doesn't mean that you're smarter than me. It means that I'm capable of knowing what I know, and if you don't want to believe me, then that's your loss, not mine.

Right now there's a crisis occurring in Iran and we're facing fuel source and diesel shortages. This is creating significant challenges in the energy sector, but it's also creating opportunities for those of us in power generation to really step up and provide solutions. I'm excited about the opportunity to get to that next level in a regional position where I can focus more on business development and training, implementing what power generation looks like in the energy sector, especially given these current challenges.

The most important value to me is creating a path of safety for the women who come behind me. I'm such a strong individual, but I've still encountered sexual harassment and assault in this industry, which really highlights how severely the industry is undereducated about how to treat female employees regardless of their age or position. What's near and dear to me is paving the path so that the women who come behind me don't have to encounter what I encountered - that the conversation has changed, that the awareness is there, that the education exists, and that unconscious and conscious bias have been debunked. I want that elephant removed from the room so it creates the space for women to take their space. I also believe strongly in accountability as a healthy part of relationships, leading by example, and the principle that if I want to keep what I have, I need to give it away. In my personal life, I'm really heavily involved in my church with my daughters, spending time doing church activities, volunteering, and fellowshipping.