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Voting for next year's AIChE Board of Directors is under way as of September 6th at http://www.aiche.org/election. Have your say and help direct the future of AIChE by voting!
The Young Professionals Committee (YPC) asked potential members of AIChE's board four questions about Young Professionals and AIChE. They were asked to answer two main questions, and were given the option of choosing to respond to additional questions, so you may not see responses from every candidate for every question. Answers are shown in alphabetical order by position and the candidate's last name.
In addition to learning about the candidates here, you can also learn more about candidates and the election process on the AIChE election page. You can also hear from candidates for president-elect in this debate.
Q: How has AIChE leadership impacted your personal and professional life?
For President-Elect
Liese Dallbauman
Participating in the Separations Division, as a member, director, and ultimately as division chair, provided a great opportunity to broaden my perspective on how similar technologies could be applied to challenges in different settings. It also allowed me to learn about new developments from the very people who were doing the developing. Relationships that began in SepDiv or the Chemical Engineering Technology Operating Council formed a natural foundation for other collaborations.
Christine Seymour
The most important part of AIChE to me has been the friends that I have made — these friends have been a constant in my life through multiple career changes and since before my kids were born. I really look forward to going to the AIChE Annual Meeting to see my friends. I distantly remember all the rare times I had to miss an AIChE meeting, usually due to a major event in my life.
Also, AIChE gave me a space to practice being a leader before I had opportunities in my career. I organized and set the strategy for large topical conferences and for the AIChE Spring meeting long before I had that amount of responsibility in my job.
For Treasurer
Dennis Griffith
Leadership in AIChE has provided excellent opportunities for me to enhance the organizational skills that I use in work and other volunteer activities in which I am involved. The leadership skills that I have acquired from AIChE have been recognized professionally by my employer, which has helped to advance my career by providing opportunities for growth and greater responsibilities. Examples of applying my AIChE leadership skills in my volunteer activities include that while serving on City Council, I liaised with several boards such as the Zoning Board of Adjustments and the Civic Activities Board, which is similar to the liaison assignments of AIChE Directors, and I also participated in the budgeting process, which involved responsibly spending the taxpayers' money.
Chemical engineering is a very broad profession, and AIChE has provided me the opportunity to meet and work with chemical engineers from different areas such as petrochemicals, specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals, government and academia. This has provided me with insights and ideas from other areas of our profession that I have been able to transfer and utilize where I work.
Finally, AIChE leadership experience has helped me to learn how work with many people who have diverse views and different opinions. Leadership in AIChE has provided opportunities to work with both staff and volunteers. It has taught me that while the objectives of staff and volunteers are the same, their perspectives of various issues are different, which has provided unparalleled opportunities to work as a group to achieve the common goals.
Rosemarie Wesson
AIChE leadership has had a profound impact on both my professional and personal lives. I began my AIChE leadership roles as a Session Chair. In an effort to schedule interesting and thought provoking sessions, the Session Chair positions challenged me to interact one-on-one with leaders in the field and establish connections that I may not have otherwise made. These interactions quickly developed into research connections, as well as personal friendships.
As Treasurer of the Management Division I grew professionally by learning accounting procedures that have helped me in my career. I also interacted with other Leaders in the Division and developed new friendships.
As co-Chair of the AIChE Washington Internships for Students of Engineering (WISE) program, I have had the privilege of continued interactions with undergraduate chemical engineering students. These students are interested in learning more about policy related careers and have definitely kept me on my toes technically and have really expanded my everyday knowledge.
Finally my membership on the AIChE Board of Directors has also impacted me both personally and professionally. I learned a great deal from the interactions with both industrial and academic colleagues on the Board and made life long friendships.
For Director
Billy B. Bardin
AIChE leadership roles have provided many opportunities to grow professionally and personally during my career. I have met countless new colleagues and enjoyed learning about the technology they support and develop. The breadth of technologies in which today’s chemical engineers are involved and the challenges to which those technologies can be applied to solve critical problems for our society is truly amazing. As one who works routinely across industry, academic, and national lab interfaces, I have used my leadership positions to develop opportunities for the commercialization of new technology and to drive the development of technology from the bench to the industrial plant. Without question, the network of chemical engineers across the world that I am able to tap is much larger as a result of my leadership positions in the field, both within and outside of AIChE. My leadership positions have also allowed me the opportunity to mentor many less-experienced chemical engineers and perhaps impact their long-term career development in at least a small way. I derive great satisfaction from seeing my mentee’s successes and my leadership roles have allowed me to help a broader number of people than I could have potentially impacted otherwise. In my personal life, through my AIChE interactions, I have gained a great number of life-long friends upon whom I can call at anytime. In some regards, because of this the AIChE meetings not only become a place to discover new technology, but also an extended family reunion.
L. S. Fan
AIChE leadership has had a broad, positive impact on me both personally and professionally. I have formed a countless number of personal friendships that I deeply value. They have afforded me opportunities through the events they hold to learn from and work with others to address a variety of issues that have impacted on sociality, education and research and technology. I have been able to provide my perspective on these important focus issues as well as learn from many respected colleagues. The importance of AIChE leadership cannot be understated. Its desire to be the world-leading resource for all chemical engineers has a profound impact in both academia and industry from undergraduate and graduate students to professors and young professionals to the executive level. I have gained a greater respect for the impetus required for the continual progress of the AIChE and the chemical engineering profession as an entirety in its technical and professional scopes and international role of coverage. This is why I have dedicated my professional career to its leadership and service because of the impact it has.
Kate Gawel
I can honestly say that without AIChE leadership, I’m not sure if I’d be at the place in my career I am today. The leadership positions I was able to take on at AIChE early in my career gave me a significant advantage over my peers when going to interview for my second role within Kraft/Mondelez. Not only did my AIChE experience give me great inspiration to draw on for interview questions, it also gave me the confidence to answer the difficult questions. After I started my new role, AIChE helped me to excel by fine tuning some of the most important skills I needed like leadership through influence, working with people from different cultures and backgrounds, and motivating a team towards a common goal.
In my personal life, AIChE has given me the opportunity to make great friends all over the world. It’s amazing to have a network of colleagues around the world who, although they may not work for the same company or have gone to the same school, still have had similar experiences and can offer everything from great career advice to suggestions on where to eat while traveling on business. This amazing network has also allowed me to be completely open to the potential for relocation at work because I know wherever I end up I’ll be able to tap into my AIChE network to help me get settled and feel at home once again.
Zenaida Otero Gephardt
AIChE has offered me many opportunities for personal and professional development. AIChE is where I presented my first paper as a graduate student. I have made lifelong friends at AIChE and continue to make new ones, and to meet and work with some of the most talented and committed people in the profession. Throughout all my life stages, AIChE has helped me to grow and to develop professionally and personally. My AIChE leadership gives me a firsthand understanding of where the profession and technology are heading and allows me to participate in shaping their future.
More recently, as 2014 Societal Impact Operating Council (SIOC) Chair and 2015 Diversity Task Force Chair I had the opportunity to actively lead and help secure funding for impactful projects. The main objective of these projects was to increase innovation throughout the Institute by strengthening and enhancing inclusion and diversity. The projects included the Women Workplace Retention and Re-entry Initiative (W2R2), two diversity workshops that obtained input from the membership and helped guide the AIChE diversity and inclusion initiatives, and the collaboration with the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) on the Safe Zone workshops to address the needs of our LGBT colleagues. I am an active board member of my local section (Delaware Valley) where I chair its Academic Scholarships and Grants Committee and coordinate the Academic Awards Banquet.
AIChE continues to be a very important part of my lifelong learning and technical development. Through my professional network at AIChE, I have easy access to technologies, pedagogies and expertise that have served to advance my professional pursuits and have been an important part of my personal development. My participation and leadership in AIChE make me a better contributor to the profession and to my community.
Mary Kathryn (Kathy) Lee
AIChE leadership has helped me develop management and personal skills which I have been able to use in my professional life. It has also garnered recognition in my workplace that has had positive career effects. More importantly, AIChE leadership has helped me enter a community of peers with differing opinions and common goals to support goals that are important to me: education of young people in STEM fields and continuing education of chemical engineers.
I have learned much from participating in AIChE leadership. I have worked with professionals that have much more experience than me in education, project management, mentorship and many other fields. They are always generous with their time and attention. Some of these lessons have been things I have brought back to my community. For example, my experience with MAC K-12 outreach helped me develop a Science Fair model that I implemented in my local charter school.
JoAnn S. Lighty
AIChE leadership has connected me to colleagues who represent all sectors — academics, industry, government — and areas of chemical engineering. As such, I have been able to learn about these different areas and the important role of chemical engineering in each of them. These connections have also expanded my network which, as a faculty member, has helped with establishing collaborations in research and recruiting students.
Al Sacco, Jr.
The AIChE has provided me with a forum to meet other professionals, to express my ideas on research, policy and future direction of technology. As a result I have made many friends both personnel and professional. Also, the variety of meetings has allowed me to help keep up with changes in our global profession.