Her Story
About Shana
I've been in engineering education for about 13 years now, but before that I spent 25 years in the engineering industry starting back in 1994. I'm specifically focused on engineering education, and I didn't always plan to go into education - I was in the career of the engineering industry for like 25 years before I made that pivot. When I moved into engineering education, I noticed they didn't really have much in terms of mentorship opportunities, so I actually created a mentoring group for professors. During my time in industry, I was both a mentee and a mentor at different points in my career. What I love about engineering is that we create new technology for the good of humankind - that's our drive. We don't do it just because it's cool and new and interesting, we do it because there's a human need. The thing that distinguishes engineers is that we create the technology that everybody else uses to do amazing things. I'm passionate about telling people more about engineering because most people don't know what engineers do. From the education part of it, my big focus now is training students to enter that industry well-prepared, bringing my industry experience and infusing it into the classroom. I'm currently working on a PhD as well.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Shana
01What do you attribute your success to?
In any engineering-related field, you have to emphasize the communication and teamwork skills just as much as any technical skills. A lot of traditional engineers don't do that - most people think it's just the technical, and that's literally half of the job, so the other half is the professional skills, the teamwork, communication, project management, leadership, ethics, all that comes into play. It's so much more than most engineers expect. And then there's no shortage of just hard work. You just gotta dig in and do the work, and don't give up. Sometimes you have to find a way to just work within that male-dominated system, rather than trying to change it. Don't be a rebel with a cause, but pick your battles, and sometimes you just have to play along with stupid things and say that nicely, and find your path. But there's no shortcut - it's just hard work. Just do the work.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't ever feel that you can't do it. Don't ever let societal norms about women in STEM fields try to shape that men are better at it. That's just simply not true. So dig into your own worth, and dig into your own knowledge base, and just, again, just do the work. You can do it. Find that motivation, and you can do it.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The curiosity that drove it, for sure. The family values that helped shape me was do good work, and don't give up. I think that was instilled in me, partly from family as well. I just like to know why - that's my favorite question, so I like to figure things out. I'm a little competitive, and that helped me not give up. There was no real sense that I was ever gonna give up. It was not an option in my mind, and that was based on doing a lot of different activities when I was younger, through high school and college. I was involved in a lot of things, whether it was sports teams to band, to drama and acting, to leadership, service groups, church, whatever. I think being involved in a lot of stuff kind of kept me going too, because I never got bored. I don't like to give up, and I like to know why. You gotta keep that love of learning going. I want to be a continual learner. The thing that distinguishes engineers is that we create new technology for the good of humankind - that's our drive. We don't do it just because it's cool and new and interesting, we do it because there's a human need.
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