We recently celebrated Women in Construction Week at Energy Transfer, highlighting the many women who help make our energy infrastructure projects possible – from designing and engineering to constructing pipelines and other facilities that ultimately keep America running.
We were fortunate to work with the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) Philadelphia Chapter to highlight three women engineers working at the Marcus Hook Industrial Complex in Delaware County.
Monica Styles, Rochelle Sheridan and Amanda LeeMasci shared their inspiring stories in a video, which you can view here. Take a look to learn more about their experience as women in the oil and gas industry, and find excerpts from their interviews below.
“I was really interested in the environmental piece from when I was in eighth grade, and just coming out of college, it seemed like this was a good opportunity to do something for the environment – so oil and gas has been a good industry. I’ve been here for about 20 years now, I’m really enjoying it, and I’m seeing a lot of progress.”
“Initially, yes, there was an underrepresentation [of women]; however, I think it’s changed and we’re progressing as an industry.”
Monica Styles
Director, Environmental Projects, Northeast Region
20 years in industry
“I started in 2003, right out of school at Lehigh University, recruited by Sunoco Chemicals as an engineering associate. … Going into school, I definitely knew I wanted to be a chemical engineer. I had an opportunity in high school to meet some engineers and just was so encouraged by their work, and I’ve always loved math and science.”
“For my career, I haven’t had that experience [of underrepresentation] – I’ve been really blessed in my group. We actually have more women than men in our project engineering and process engineering group.”
“Energy Transfer has done a really great job of reaching out to colleges, reaching out to kids – we have Bring Your Child to Work Day, and it’s so cool to see these kids come and perform engineering experiments and get excited about oil and gas.”
Rochelle Sheridan, PMP
Staff Process Engineer
18 years in industry
“I don’t think it was originally part of my career path when I was coming out of school necessarily, but I was fortunate enough to get into a rotational program with Sunoco right out of college, which was an opportunity to see a different industry and learn a whole lot of stuff. It seemed like a good opportunity and I wanted to learn more, and it kind of worked out for me in the end.”
“I’m pretty fortunate to be a part of a group that has a lot of women, which is exciting. I think 15 years ago, [it was] maybe not the same story and I was one of very few at the time. But I was really lucky to have a female engineer manager, which was wonderful to have as a model for what was possible.”
“I think it’s really important to highlight what opportunities there are. They say ‘if you see it, you can be it’ – so it’s nice to have those examples for people to look up to.”
Amanda LeeMasci, PMP, MBA
Capital Projects Staff Engineer
15 years in industry
Thank you to NAWIC for helping us highlight a few of the many talented women at Energy Transfer, and for shining a light on women in the energy, chemical and construction industries as a whole!