International Women in Engineering Day 2021
International Women in Engineering Day helps to raise the profile of women in the industry and focuses attention on the great career opportunities available. The theme for 2021 is Engineering Heros!
At Wardell Armstrong, we are engaged with schools and STEM groups to provide a positive insight into the benefits to young women and men studying sciences and engineering. We are also actively engaged with a number of graduate programmes with the same objectives in mind.
Some of our female engineers share their insights and experiences from within the industry and why they enjoy their career in engineering:
From a very young age Regional Director Louise Dow had a fascination with geological sciences, her teachers in school and university guided her passion for geology and were the inspiration for her to follow ground engineering and geoscience as a career. With nearly two decades of engineering experience under her belt, Louise has taken the next step in in her career, leading a multidisciplinary team of consultants in our Cardiff office, where she enjoys a variety of technical work, developing business, client management and most importantly working with and learning from a great team of people. “I am fortunate to work alongside several great role models, both women and men, and that is what continues to inspire and motivate my own learning and progression as well as my enthusiasm to support others with their passions and career.”
Emma Keegan works as part of our Civil Engineering team in Stoke-on-Trent as a Principal Environmental Scientist: “I chose my career as I thrive on a challenge and engineering certainly provides that on a day-to-day basis! I love working on a wide variety of projects, and using my geological and geographical background in conjunction with my environmental and civil engineering experience to help clients achieve their goals whist also helping to ensure a sustainable and resilient future for the next generation!”
Environmental Scientist, Laura Hoath from our Bolton office works in
Ground Engineering, specialising in contaminated land: “Engineering is all about having a problem and finding or designing a solution. Who wouldn’t want to be a problem solver for their career? Jane Plant is my ‘hero’ in engineering as among many of her achievements pioneered a system that could map chemical concentrations over the land surface which could then be linked to population health. She also found links between food types and types of cancer whilst suffering from breast cancer six times in her life. She is responsible for helping to create the field of environmental health.”
Associate Director Kerry Whitehouse is based in our Birmingham office, where she is responsible for a managing a team developing flood risk assessment and drainage strategies for developments, as well as supporting local authorities fulfilling their drainage role. Her role within our Civil Engineering team gives her the opportunity to work in her chosen specialism on a wide variety of projects for different clients. “No two days are ever the same, there is always a new challenge to overcome or problem to solve which is what makes engineering such a great career choice.”
Karen Green works as part of our Ground Engineering team in Stoke-on-Trent as a Principal Engineering Geologist: “I chose engineering for the balance it would give of being able to work with numbers, be out on site supervising investigations and time in the office writing reports. As well as the benefit of being able to see what you’ve calculated or written about being built.”
