Women in Standards & Certification Event Introduced During Boiler Code Week

The ASME Standards & Certification department held the first-ever Women in Standards & Certification (WiSC) event, during ASME Boiler Code Week last month in Minneapolis, Minn.

More than 75 people attended the inaugural WiSC event, which was established to highlight and celebrate the valued participation and contributions of women on ASME’s various Standards & Certification (S&C) committees and provide women engineers attending Boiler Code Week with the opportunity to meet and network with one another.

ASME Past President Madiha El Mehelmy Kotb served as the guest speaker for the event, which was held Aug. 5 at the Doubletree by Hilton Bloomington-Minneapolis. Kotb, an independent consultant who was the former head of the Pressure Vessels Technical Services Division for Régie du bâtiment du Québec, also took part in a panel discussion with fellow standards specialists Annemarie Appleton, president of Alloy Stainless Products Co., and Stacey Marks, quality manager at Alfa Laval.

During the panel session, the three standards experts discussed a variety of topics including their experiences working on standards committees within ASME and other standards development organizations, their advice for engineers attending Code Week for the first time, and how S&C committee participation has helped to shape their careers. The women also talked about their biggest career challenges and accomplishments and offered some words of advice for engineers in the early years of their careers.

The panel session was moderated by Grace Bolan, S&C project engineer, Conformity Assessment, who also served as the leader of the organizing project team. Other members of the WiSC team included Allyson Byk, Nuclear Codes and Standards (C&S); Kathryn Hyam, Nuclear and Standardization and Testing; Erika Lawson, Pressure Technology C&S; Colleen O’Brien, Pressure Technology C&S; Michelle Pagano, Standardization and Testing; Lauren Powers, Conformity Assessment; and Kimberly Verderber, Nuclear C&S.

WiSC expects to offer additional events in the future. For more information, contact Grace Bolan at bolang@asme.org.