International Women in Engineering Day (INWED), observed annually on June 23, celebrates the exceptional contributions of women engineers around the world. INWED focuses on innovation and inclusion across the engineering industry. This year’s theme is Engineering Intelligence, displaying the expertise and creativity women leaders bring to their fields.
At AEP, women in engineering roles are making an impact across the company as we work to strengthen the grid, implement new generation solutions, demonstrate environmental respect and prepare for the incredible growth ahead.
Katie Earnest, director of Transmission engineering training, helps to empower and prepare the next generation of engineers and focuses on employee development, intern program management and the hiring and onboarding of internal talent within the Grid Planning and Engineering organization.
“A day in the life is exciting especially right now. We are working to stand up technical boot camps for new hires for each role. This is developing 40-80 hours of training and development for a new hire from week one. Also, with it being summer, we recently onboarded a new summer intern cohort for Transmission which consists of 170 students,” Earnest said.
She has worked in engineering for more than a decade, moving through different roles at AEP as well as at other companies. But her path into the field wasn’t always clear.
“I started my first semester at Virginia Tech studying architecture. Then just before my finals that semester, I had the realization that I wanted to be a civil engineer,” she explained.
Earnest said she understands the uncertainty many young engineers face when exploring career paths and encouraged them to stay open to new opportunities.
“My advice would be to really dig into the why behind wanting to be an engineer; find the path that you are truly passionate about and that will ultimately make you feel like your work is not work,” she said.
In the end, she’s found her “why” in her current role.
“The training and development of the future generation [of engineers] is a passion of mine,” she said. “Being in a position to shape how we grow and develop our teams is really exciting for me.”