EMPOWERING WOMEN IN THE ENERGY INDUSTRY
As a trailblazer for women in STEM, Jeannie Gardner understands the issues women face. She demonstrates this by turning her innovative ideas into reality and it’s making an enormous impact on women in STEM careers.
Gardner is the global pricing lead at Shell Downstream Inc. and the national president of the Women’s Energy Network (WEN), a 4,000+ member organization with 13 chapters around the country. The network’s core pillars are educating women on technical aspects of the energy industry, developing skills and competencies to increase gender representation in the energy leadership pipeline, networking, connecting to build trust based relationships and empowering young girls to pursue careers in the energy industry.
She was awarded the WEN Appalachia Chapter Trailblazer award last year, in recognition of a woman who has been a model of leadership and vision in the energy industry for more than fifteen years. While blazing a trail through her passion and courage, she continues inspiring others while forming new opportunities for the future. She was instrumental in starting the executive women membership tier, providing a forum for executive women to network, exchange and develop new ideas and become visible role models.
A driver of change, Gardner works to ensure women in STEM have a seat at the table. Her work with numerous organizations helps accomplish this by educating women on the technical aspects of the energy industry, developing skills and competencies to increase gender representation in the leadership pipeline and eradicate biases in the workplace.
In the words of Jeannie Gardner:
What can be done to move women forward in STEM?
“Moving women forward in STEM will take active leadership and participation from everyone; parents, teachers, male leaders, STEM professionals, companies, organizations and the nonprofit sector. Companies need to visibly support STEM programs and implement STEM internships to better expose women to careers in STEM. Diversity and inclusion programs need to be implemented at every company and delivered at every level, making everyone aware of their unconscious bias and stereotypes toward women who work in STEM to help bridge the gaps.”
Describe your experiences as a woman in a STEM career.
“Working as an engineer in STEM there have been many instances where I have been the only woman and/or person of color in the room or on the team. There are many biases and stereotypes that women have to face every day. Trying to demystify these can be very stressful and lead to poor performance. I try to live by three principles in my life. Be your authentic self, be confident in yourself and your abilities, and understand your value and constantly reinvent and rebrand yourself to add value.”
