National Women’s History Month (March 2017) provided an opportunity to reflect on the significant contributions women have made, and continue to make.
April 19, 2017
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Pictured L to R: Gwen Hooten at the Piqua, Ohio, Decommissioned Reactor Site. Tracy Ribeiro hiking atop Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park, Utah. Tashina Jasso conducting a site inspection of the Spook, Wyoming, disposal cell.
National Women’s History Month (March 2017) provided an opportunity to reflect on the significant contributions women have made, and continue to make, to the success of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management (LM). Today women make up 53 percent of LM’s workforce. In honor of Women’s History Month, Gwen Hooten, Tracy Ribeiro, and Tashina Jasso shared their experiences pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.
LM continues to see an increasing number of women in leadership roles. Gwen Hooten, an LM Environment Team leader, remembers the early days of her career and how more women now work alongside her than ever before. Hooten served in the Colorado Air National Guard early in her career, while also working full time. She was the first female commissioned officer in her unit. “I remember going to many meetings where I was the only one whose legs were showing. It was all men in the room. There’s a lot of focus when you’re the only one,” she said. After leaving military life, Hooten became a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) project manager for sites requiring remediation. “I provided regulatory oversight of 16 Superfund sites. I’ve been through the entire [Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act] CERCLA process. Each had its challenges,” she said.
The biggest challenges Hooten faced while at EPA were regulatory requirements. “We’d ask parties involved in contamination to pay for cleanup, even if what they did was legal,” she said. She remembers when EPA asked family-owned gas stations to help pay for cleanup at a mismanaged, contaminated recycling facility. EPA eventually cleaned up the contamination and refunded some of the monies back to the families that had owned the gas-stations. “By that time, we were refunding the sons and daughters of those originally involved. We did the right thing, although, it took a long time to gain acceptance to move in this direction,” Hooten notes.
Tracy Ribeiro also remembers how few women were interested in chemical engineering when she was in college, but that didn’t deter her, because her interest in science started as a child.
“Going into science never fazed me. I was a tomboy growing up,” recalled Ribeiro. In her first classes as a chemical engineering major, her professor said one third of the students wouldn’t be there after the first test and another third would be gone after the second. As a chemical engineering major, Ribeiro said, “I didn’t like how I was treated as a student.” She powered through calculus and differential equations but wanted to find a new major where she could apply her skills. Ribeiro wanted to explain how mountains are formed and why rivers look the way they do. She scanned the government’s occupational handbook before taking her first geology class. “I was hooked. I changed over to that major instantaneously,” she said.
After she graduated, Ribeiro wanted jobs where she could work outdoors. Early in her career, she worked for a university that served as a sister agency that conducted environmental investigations for the Virginia Department of Transportation. Curious for more, Ribeiro began her master’s program while working. She earned an engineering management master’s degree that equipped scientists and engineers with business skills they could use in the future.
Some of Ribeiro’s most interesting work was during the time she was the LM Shiprock, New Mexico, site manager and trying to figure out if uranium from the adjacent Many Devils Wash was naturally occurring or from the former mill site. “When I was the site manager, they first started determining where the contamination was coming from in Many Devils Wash. It’s a puzzle. Sometimes the puzzle isn’t solved, but it doesn’t mean we can’t keep putting pieces into it,” she said.
Nowadays, pursuing a STEM profession is common for women. Tashina Jasso grew up in New Mexico and wanted to study environmental science, with a focus on fate and transport of contaminants in groundwater.
During her undergraduate studies, she interned with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). She developed her skills as a hydrological and geographic information system technician. She then worked for the LM contractor as an intern beginning her graduate studies. Some of her contractor positions included being part of the environmental monitoring team, contributing as a project coordinator, and helping manage sites as a site lead. “Getting the field experience helped me understand some of the bigger issues,” said Jasso, who visited 23 sites during her work with LM’s contractor.
After a few years working for the LM contractor, Jasso was ready for the next challenge. This year, LM hired her as a site manager. “I’m grateful for the opportunity and am enjoying being more involved in the decision making process,” said Jasso. “Coming to DOE, I am seeing more women in these types of roles. It’s always encouraging.” Jasso is ready to take on the challenges faced at her LM sites.
“When it comes to STEM, I still see more opportunities for women to move into management roles. When I came to LM, I could look up to quite a few women. I’m thankful that they’ve helped pave the way,” said Jasso.
Looking toward the future generations of scientists and engineers, Hooten encourages, “Follow your dreams. Today, we have women in all kinds of positions. If there’s an interest in STEM, follow your dream. You can do it. The obstacles of years past have been torn down.”