Katie’s story

I was very young when I did this walk in my Shell T-shirt, in support of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. I was impressed when Shell matched my donation and I realised I wanted to work for a company with that same community commitment. That company turned out to be Shell!

Shell continues to show me they value me as a female professional, and the company offers numerous opportunities for me to develop both my engineering and leadership skills. Here, Shell sent me in a bright red shirt to the 2016 Society of Women Engineers Conference, where I learned to be a stronger communicator and collaborator in a technical team.

At weekends, I love to escape to the outdoors. As I work in hydroprocessing technology – which is used to produce cleaner fuels for everyday transport – I’m inspired to be in the conversation of working to provide for our world’s growing energy demands in an environmentally sustainable way.

I love showing the next generation of women that engineering is fun. I volunteer at a not-for-profit organisation – Scientific Adventures for Girls – that gets young girls excited about science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This is me with two of the students, launching catapults that they made.

I’ve made many friends with my female colleagues at Shell. We go on a lot of fun adventures in the Bay Area, and I’m extremely inspired and supported by them at work. I admire their career successes and they inspire me to have the same goals for myself.

I’m in my element when I’m ‘in the field’, as we call it. I look forward to suiting up and heading to see the hydroprocessing technology up close.

By having an impact on the world’s energy future, I am able to see first-hand the importance of inspiring and empowering our future generations of scientists and engineers. At Shell, I can make that vision a reality.