Session Title: Growing a Male Allyship Program in Your Engineering Workplace

Abstract:

This presentation will discuss how allyship in order to be successful needs to be multi-layered, multi-faceted. Also, I will showcase allyship in Associated Engineering, including some of the data collected and initiatives undertaken at the corporate level to support the female staff. This example will discuss this specific office situation, and the things that are within the control as office manager, to support career development and the micro-environment at the office.
I will also discuss allyship from my individual perspective, and how men taking parental leave normalizes the behavior, and levels the field for the benefit of women.

Claudia Gomez-Villeneuve, M.Eng., P.Eng., PMP, DTM, FEC

Claudia Gomez-Villeneuve is a professional engineer, university instructor, and EDI champion. Before switching to academia, she worked at Enbridge managing petroleum pipeline projects for over 15 years. Today, Claudia works in different universities teaching courses in pipeline construction and project management. In April 2019 she shared the APEGA Summit Award, as a Champion for Women in Engineering and Geoscience, with the CCWESTT 2018 Conference Steering Committee. Claudia is also the founder and two-time Chair of WES, Women in Engineering Summit, a non-profit organization, which debuted with WES 2018 after learning how many women leave their engineering careers – after many years of education and work experience – when there are many workplaces solutions available to retain them. She was granted a FEC, Fellowship with Engineers Canada, in 2021 for her over 15 years volunteering for APEGA in many roles including elected Councillor.

Alvin Pilobello

Alvin Pilobello is a Professional Leadership Development Coach in Toronto, Ontario. In the past he held roles in strategy as an infrastructure engineering professional. He delivers experiential workshops to entrepreneurs, creatives, and engineers and designers in the STEM field, and support their personalized development through 1:1 coaching. He believes strongly in evolving self- and social-awareness as it informs our ability to communicate with the people that we work closely with. He helps them tap into the diversity within themselves, and others, for innovative approaches to problems, instead of fostering division and staying stagnant. Male allyship is definitely an innovative approach that leaders an all organizations can use to increase diversity in the workplace.

Callie Lissinna, B.Sc, EIT

Callie Lissinna is the COO and Co-Founder at Wyvern which develops high-resolution hyperspectral imaging telescopes from space and makes it commercially accessible. This information-rich imagery is changing the game in agriculture, forestry, environmental and emissions monitoring, energy, and defence. She has nearly 6 years of experience working on 4 different satellites at the University of Alberta and has a bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering. In the evenings she teaches jazz and ballet classes for competitive dancers. While at University of Alberta’s AlbertaSat team, she wrote the academic paper Human Resources Procedures for the Advancement of Gender Parity in Student Space Mission Projects, addressing how to overcome leaders’ biases which prevents more women from being promoted to technical positions.

Martha Vega-Smith, P.Eng.

Martha Vega-Smith holds a B.Sc. degree in Civil Engineering from Venezuela where she started her professional career before moving to Canada in 2001. She successfully transitioned into senior technical and leadership roles in Pipeline Integrity, Management Systems and Enterprise Risk, for two leading energy companies in North America, Enbridge first, and now Suncor. Since arriving to Canada she has reviewed hundreds of resumes as a recruiting manager and has helped as many individuals customize and optimize their resumes and prepare for interviews as they navigate their own career path. She earned her P.Eng. with APEGA a few years after arriving in Canada and has many lessons learned about the process for internationally-trained professionals, from her own experience and from the experience of her colleagues and mentees.

Andrea Marciales, M.Sc, EIT (P.Eng. in Progress)

Andrea Marciales is a Corrosion Engineer-in-Training (E.I.T.) with Innotech Alberta. She holds a Master degree in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Alberta, and a Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering from Universidad Industrial de Santander in Colombia, South America. Andrea is skilled in applied research for internal corrosion in pipelines, heavy crude oil, petroleum/reservoir engineering and solvent injection. She is an E.I.T. registered with APEGA since August 2015 and is currently in the process of applying for her P.Eng. following the new procedure of 22 competencies. She is a mentor for many colleagues who are also applying for their P.Eng. and has collected many lessons learned.

Jason Vanderzwaag, MASc, P.Eng, LEED AP, PMP

Jason Vanderzwaag is a civil engineer with 20 years of experience, focused on community infrastructure and development, project management, technical leadership and mentorship. He has been an APEGA councillor since 2017. Jason was team leader for disaster response and recovery following the 2016 wildfire and 2020 flood in Fort McMurray. Afterward the project was the recipient of CEA and ACEC awards for recovery works. He is currently a Manager at Associated Engineering’s office in Fort MacMurray, Alberta, and he is glad to report that the majority of the engineers and technologists in the office identify as female.

Kinia Romanowska, BA, MA

Kinia (Adamczyk) Romanowska is a career strategist for working parents, founder and CEO of Pros&Babes, creator of the MoMBA program, and champion of engineers balancing motherhood. She transforms successful, leadership-minded women who are temporarily overwhelmed by new motherhood into confident parents, skilled leaders, and thriving moms, without them having to compromise family happiness or health. As a business owner, wife, and mother of two, Kinia has helped hundreds of women pursue leadership, develop stronger, more intimate relationships with their partners, bond more closely with their children, and take the right actions to consistently achieve their career goals.

Samantha Daly, BSc Geography

Sam Daly is an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) professional in London, UK working for Jacobs. She began her career in Document Control before progressing via a leadership shadowing programme and has now been working in this field for the past six years. Her experience includes delivering EDI within major Government departments and on projects in the UK such as the Environment Agency, Network Rail, Transport for London, HS2 and is now the client’s Head of EDI on the Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal. Her work has been recognised by winning the Senior Diversity Champion Award at the Employer’s Network for Equality and Inclusion. Sam is hugely passionate about all areas of inclusion but is particularly committed to delivering systemic changes to create sustainable long-term solutions in EDI.

Erin Austen. M.ASc (Aerospace), EIT

Erin Austen is our Chair for WES 2022. She has had a great experience volunteering at WISEST and AlbertaSat at the University of Alberta. Erin holds a Bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta, and just finished her Master of Science degree in Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical/Space Engineering from Carleton University in Ottawa. She currently works as a mechanical engineering designer at Medical Makers since 2018 and is now looking to grow her career as an Aerospace Engineer anywhere in Canada, the United Kingdom or the European Union. Of all the coolest courses or jobs she has ever had, one in 2012 was as CaNoRock V Payload Manager, at the Andøya Space Center in Andøy, Nordland, Norway. If anyone can say “this is not rocket science” is most definitely Erin Austen.

Svetlana Yanushkevich, PhD (Engineering)

Dr. Svetlana Yanushkevich is the new Associate Dean of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Research at Schulich School of Engineering. She is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Software Engineering, and her research focuses on biometric technologies, data analytics, pattern recognition, machine reasoning, probabilistic decision-making, wearables, and digital design. Dr. Yanushkevich directs the Biometric Technologies Laboratory, the only research facility dedicated to biometric system design in Canada. She is a Chair of the Biometric Taskforce in the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society. With her team, she is developing novel decision support and risk assessment strategies based on machine reasoning, with applications to biometric-enabled access control (risk assessment of misidentification) and healthcare monitoring systems (gait abnormalities detection, action/activity recognition, face attribute analysis).

Sandy Birrell, PhD (Engineering)

Sandy Birrell is the current Chair for the Engineers Yukon 30 by 30 Committee. Engineers Yukon is the provincial regulator for the practice of engineering in the Yukon, which has been very successful in applying the 30 by 30 Initiative. She holds a PhD in Engineering from the University of Victoria. Sandy is also an associate level leader and manages the mechanical engineering team at the Stantec office in Whitehorse, Yukon. She is a senior mechanical engineer and project manager specializing in cold-climate projects in the North including Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Northern British Columbia. Her primary engineering focus has been on commercial and institutional building heating, ventilation, and air conditioning design and project management, with both conventional and alternate energy systems such as biomass and geothermal.

Steve McMahon, B.Sc (Civil)

Steve McMahon is the COO, Chief Operating Officer, for InnoTech Alberta, a wholly owned research and technology subsidiary of Alberta Innovates. InnoTech was set-up by the Government of Alberta to provide the venue, expertise, and equipment for Alberta’s core and emerging industries and public sector to conduct scaled applied research and accelerated technology development. Their services offering portfolio includes the energy, environment and bio-industrial sectors, along with cross-sectoral monitoring, testing, and applied data science. He is proud to lead a team of highly skilled researchers and technical experts who are making an impact in Alberta and the world; and also of the continued success of their gender equality initiatives at work.

Ingrid Pederson. P.Eng. (Civil)

Ingrid Pederson is our past Chair for WES 2021. She won the 2020 AWSN Athena Outstanding Volunteer Award for her long-standing service to an organization whose primary focus is to connect, unite, support and promote STEM programs. She also won the APEGA Summit 2019 Award as Champion for Women in Engineering and Geoscience, which she shared with the CCWESTT 2018 Conference committee. Ingrid started her engineering career working on offshore oil rigs and this experience motivated her to actively encourage young women to pursue STEM careers since 2008. She works as an engineering specialist focusing on external corrosion prevention to help maintain the integrity of Enbridge’s crude oil pipelines. Ingrid holds a Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) in Chemical Engineering from Dalhousie University.

Réjeanne Aimey, BESc., MBA

Réjeanne Aimey is a mechanical engineer by training and in 2020, she became founding Director of Black Engineers Canada. When she was young, her family moved from Winnipeg to Trinidad and Tobago, where she found herself in an environment that guided her towards engineering. After high school, she returned to Canada and attended the University of Western Ontario, where she completed a BESc in mechanical engineering in 2003. In 2007, she went on to earn an MBA from the University of Phoenix—a degree she completed part-time, while working in her first professional job. Currently she is an Engineering Manager at Inmotive, and is past President & Chair of PEO -Professional Engineers of Ontario.

Deanna Burgart, P.Eng.

Deanna Burgart is both an engineer and technologist who began her career in 1998 as a technician analyzing oil sands in a Calgary laboratory. She is a Senior Instructor at the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering in Chemical and Petroleum engineering; and is the first Teaching Chair focused on integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Engineering. Deanna is co-founder and president of IndigeSTEAM, an Alberta based non-profit focused on creating ethical space for Indigenous youth and professionals in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math). She serves on the Board of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) where she co-leads the Education committee.

Ari Copeland, BS/MS (Civil and Environmental)

Ari Copeland is an Operations Specialist with Black & Veatch Corporation and has 16 years of experience in the Water and Wastewater Industry. He has a BS/MS in Civil/Environmental Engineering. Ari is a man of transgender and queer experience (transgender queer man) and was perceived as female for approximately a quarter of his career. Ari came out as trans to the world in 2011 and has spent the last 12 years or so years becoming the person he is today. Ari co created and founded Black & Veatch’s Pride Employee Resource Group and has done presentations to various engineering firms, large companies such as Veritas and Beiersdorf, about his experiences as a transperson in the workplace. Ari runs the wandering water bear website – www.thewanderingwaterbear.com that provides resources to assist anyone to be more inclusive.

Mairim Neves, P.Eng(Civil and Environmental)

In 2020, Mairim Neves launched a not-for-profit organization, Mujeres Omega Inc., which profiles a role model for Latina women and focuses on providing opportunities for women to experience personal growth, networking, and thoughtful conversations. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering obtained in Venezuela, her country of origin and has more than 20 years of engineering experience in the design and execution of complex projects. She specializes in the field of hydrometallurgy in her current role as Senior Mechanical Engineer at Sherritt International. In addition to the above, Mairim gives to the community in multiple ways, including chairing the 2021 United Way Campaign at Sherritt International, continuous participation in APEGA’s Mentorship program, as well as participation in a work lead Employee Resource Group (LeadHERS) focused on Diversity and Inclusion aspects.

Session Title: Maximizing the Network of Women Supporting Women for 30 by 30

Abstract:

Whether you are an individual with a passion for gender equality or if you are tasked with responsibility for equality, diversity and inclusion, this session will explore how a systems thinking approach can help bring us together to explore issues relating to gender inequality and develop effective action by looking at connected wholes rather than separate parts.

Our Learning Objectives:

• – Using a systems thinking approach to understanding gender equality issues.
• – Choosing the appropriate tools to implement change.

1. – Case study 1:  undoing cultural expectations and barriers relating to menopause.

• – Case study 2: undoing cultural expectations and barriers relating to Domestic Violence and Abuse.

Session Title: Coordinating Dual Engineering Careers Toward Family Management

Abstract:

• – Understanding the key components of a dual-career and parenting success plan: short, medium, and long-term considerations.
• – Choosing the appropriate planning tools for every season of life (including planning for kids, planning a leave, and preparing for various caregiving duties).
• – Understanding key-dual career planning concepts (emotional labour, parental leave splitting, cash flow planning for families, etc).

TBA EDI Panelist

TBA

Session Title: Impact of Male Champions and Sponsors on Advancing Women’s Careers

Abstract: Coming soon.

Session Title: Reversing the Bias Blocking Women from Technical and Leadership Roles

Abstract:Coming soon.

Session Title: Applying for a P.Eng. as an ITP (Internationally-Trained Professional)

Abstract:Coming soon.

Session Title: Fixing Toxic Workplaces

Abstract: Coming soon

Session Title: How the Canada Employment Equity Act Enhances the 30 by 30 Initiative

Abstract: This session will give attendees a fresh perspective on the potential impact of the 30 by 30 Initiative by Engineers Canada, by comparing it with Canada’s Employment Equity Act and with other targets or quota initiatives that have improved the world for minorities. The biggest advantage of the 30 by 30 Initiative, which seeks to achieve by the year 2030 that 30% of newly-licensed engineers and geoscientist will identify as female, is the fact that it is being measured as a number, as a target, as a quota. Project Managers and Business Owners the world over know that having a clear target to reach for, either in a project or in a business, will increase its chances of success. The number becomes the goal that focuses human efforts towards success. It has been over 30 years since Canada decided to increase the number of women in Engineering, but the progress has been slow. It is time to treat diversity in engineering and geoscience the way we treat businesses and projects, by giving it a clear goal and clear progress milestones. We have only 8 years before the 30 by 30 Initiative reaches its natural end, so let’s make sure we exceed the goal of 30% which is scientifically considered the tipping point of permanent change.

Erin Throp

Erin Thorp Bio here

Lara Murphy, P.ENG. Presentation

Coming soon.

Lara Murphy, P.ENG. 

Lara Murphy is the co-founder of Ryan Murphy Construction Inc. (RMC), the only female-owned commercial construction firm in Calgary. She serves as RMC’s director of business development and strategy managing numerous multi-million-dollar projects in corporate, commercial, health care and residential construction. Her company, co-founded with Karen Ryan, has been recognized nationally as one of the country’s fastest-growing entrepreneurial initiatives, featured in publications such as Canadian Business. She is currently the Chair of the Board of Directors for YWCA Calgary, in the Board of Directors of Calgary Chamber of Commerce, and Member of the International Women’s Forum. Lara is also passionate about giving back to her community: including donating her time to SAIT as a Women in Trades and Technology committee, a mentor to students as part of the Social Entrepreneur Capstone Project. Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Murphy is a graduate of Mount Allison University.