Shelly Ortega is an investigator for Consumers Energy she is also Co-Chair of the Women’s Advisory Panel. Melissa Sherman is a Lean Coach and Co-Chair of the Women’s Engineering Network. Listen as they share their perspective on Women’s History month, the power of mentorship and much more.
William Krieger
Hello everyone and welcome to Me You Us, a wellbeing podcast. It’s another well-being Wednesday here at Consumers Energy and I’m your host Bill Krieger. Today we’re going to talk about women’s history month. And to help me out with that I actually have two guests. So, let me introduce my first guest, Melissa Sherman. She is a lean coach within Dennis Dobbs’ organization here at Consumers Energy. So, Melissa, please introduce yourself.
Melissa Sherman
Hey, Hi, Bill. How are you today? I’m Melissa Sherman, I’m actually a repeat employee here at Consumers Energy. I came into the organization back in the 90s as a designer for electric distribution and decided to stay home after about nine years with kids to raise them. When I came back here at Consumers, I started again back in that design group, and then worked my way up. And I’ve been in generation from Ludington pump storage, doing business support down to Campbell, doing scheduling for our unit three, took a career in change management here at Consumers and currently in the lean office and helping with everything as we know as CE Way here at Consumers Energy. A couple of other things too, I do teach higher education. So, in the background of management, entrepreneurship in various engineering and project management courses.
William Krieger
So, I wouldn’t say that you have a lot of spare time then between work and kids and teaching class.
Melissa Sherman
I do now, kids are grown. So, I am an empty nester. There was a time where I didn’t have that, I was involved in soccer 24/7 365 days a year, I believe with my son. But no, now I do have more free time. I don’t teach every quarter. So, there’s some open time there. But most of my teaching is online. So that gives me that flexibility like we have working from home. I had that flexibility and I’m not in a classroom on any particular evening.
William Krieger
Well, that’s very helpful. And just maybe the audience doesn’t know. But we’re actually not doing this in person. We’re doing this online through teams. So, things really changed. After the pandemic, I think we’ve gotten really good at doing things virtually.
Melissa Sherman
I’ll just add quick. I don’t know if I could do my job in person. My current role has always been virtual. And so, I have two screens, one with I’ll just say some notes to follow along and one to help everybody walk through their problem solving.
William Krieger
Well, that’s interesting, and we’ll have to talk about that as we get into the podcast. Thank you for the introduction, Melissa. My next guest is Shelley Ortega. She’s an investigative supervisor here at Consumers Energy. So Shelly, if you’d introduce yourself, we’ll get the conversation started.
Shelly Ortega
Absolutely Bill. And thank you for having us both. So, my name is Shelley Ortega, and I am the co-chair of the Women’s Advisory Panel, actually going on 23 years here with Consumers Energy following a stint in the United States Air Force. And I do want to note, Bill, because this is close to your heart. I am a daughter of a career Marine. So, I’ve had the opportunity to travel around the world. But for the last 23 years, I’ve really enjoyed being part of this company. I do you have twin boys 11 years old. And they very much dictate my time, much like Melissa’s children did with very much a large sports curriculum. So, it’s constant running around for whatever sport is, you know, during the season.
William Krieger
And I remember those days. So, I’m an empty nester myself, I have three children, they’re all out of the house and on their own and doing their own thing. But I remember band and marching band and cross country and karate lessons and all of those things that we did, dance, all kinds of things. So, when they were out of the house, I had a lot of free time, but I kind of missed having all that stuff to do and in hearing what was going on. So, enjoy those twin boys. And I know, Melissa, you can definitely relate to having the kids out of the house and it’s a blessing and a curse all at the same time. Today, like I said in the introduction, we’re going to talk about women’s history month. But I want to talk a little bit about the history of Women’s History Month I did a little research and found out that this was actually a recognition that started back in 1978 in California where they had Women’s History Week in Sonoma County. And then from there, President Jimmy Carter actually created an executive order and designated Women’s History Week and after that Congress got involved in kind of put it into law to recognize women’s history month. And every year, our Commander in Chief gives a proclamation around women’s history months, I’ll be interested to see what our current president has to say about it. And that should be coming up either, probably shortly after this podcast comes out. But Melissa, I wanted to go back and talk with you a little bit about what does Women’s History Month mean to you? And how are you involved in helping women within the company?
Melissa Sherman
Yeah, thanks, Bill. So, Women’s History Month, I mean, there’s a, I probably could talk for hours on what it means to me, right. But it’s, it’s really looking at blazing that path forward, for those that follow. Whether somebody that’s in, I’ll say, a unique role. So back in the 90s, when I started here, Consumers, I was one of the very few female engineers. So really being able to blaze that path forward for, you know, for the kids behind me, and even some women that are ahead of me right into those unfamiliar waters, and territories.
William Krieger
So, what I find, especially here, is a lot of women that are in what I would call nontraditional roles, when you talk about women who work in engineering, traditionally you think of that as a male dominated role. And I think that women at least here are really kind of breaking through that glass ceiling to get to some of these jobs that are out there that what we would traditionally think of as male roles. But you’re involved in a group called the Women’s Engineering Network, and what do you do with them? And what’s that all about?
Melissa Sherman
I am the co-chair here in 2022, for the Women’s Engineering Network, and I’ve actually been involved in on the steering committee since about 2015, when Laurie Fobes, who was the co-founder came on and said, “hey, you would be a good candidate.” And I’m like, “Yeah, but I’m not in an engineering role”. Because I wasn’t at that time, you know, I was in a business support role. And so really, what we do from an organization, aside from doing things with FIRST Robotics and STEM related…is really looking at STEM related fields. So maybe there’s that individual that’s a works in administrative support person, but they’re doing data analytics, or they’re involved with this new digital producer items that we have here at Consumers Energy, so it’s not focusing on just the females in a, quote, engineering role. But those that are in that, I don’t want to say mindset, but in that capacity, where they’re doing more of that data analytics, or technical type work, so it’s really there’s a support system for them.
William Krieger
So, let’s talk about STEM for just a minute because it comes up on a daily basis. I get what the acronym means. But we may have a lot of listeners who don’t even know what you’re talking about. When you’re talking about STEM. So, what is in how does that apply to what you’re talking about?
Melissa Sherman
Yeah, so STEM is actually two acronyms. STEM, so science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. And there’s also a second version, we’ll call it steam as S T E A M, which adds arts in there for the A. So again, that’s anybody working in the, you know, a discipline where you you’re working with the science area, again, technology data analyst, digital producers, a true engineering, what I would quote, the true engineering area. And then mathematics, I mean, you could even think of that as an accountant in finance.
William Krieger
And when we talk about STEM and STEAM, it’s anyone, man, woman, whatever, it’s anyone who’s in that field. But I think that, typically, at least when I guess I grew up in the 70s, and 80s, right, and we really, the school systems really pushed guys into the math in the STEM and STEAM areas and women were pushed into other categories. And I know that we have really seen some changes and some strides in those areas. But we have a little way to go, I think, to really get to where we want to be.
Melissa Sherman
I would agree. I too, grew up in the 70s and 80s. And so, it was nontraditional that in high school I didn’t want to do home economics. I wanted to do drafting and I was fortunate in my small school to do that, and then even take some college courses at night from that, but that’s not status quo. And I’d say even today, it’s not status quo, right? We do have more females going into that STEM arena. But I see friends that have young girls that are like, Oh, I’m not smart enough for that. Why not? And it’s really building up their self-confidence and saying yes you are and showing them how to, how to get involved. Do you have, particularly females, but any young kids that are interested or think they might be interested, have them get involved in a robotics, whether it’s a FIRST Robotics, there’s various other organizations. And those aren’t just building the robots or driving the robot. There are marketing reps, there’s accountants, there’s communications, there’s a bunch of different areas. But that’s a great area for young kids to truly get involved in that more technological field.
William Krieger
I know as a company; we do a lot of different things around that getting kids interested in those programs. So, thank you for that, Melissa. I’m going to switch over to Shelly, kind of the same question, Shelly. I did want to say a shout out to your parent who was a career Marine, semper fi, my stepdad was in the Marine Corps, and I grew up knowing how to make hospital corners and understand the importance of not taking showers that are too hot and not using too much toilet paper during the day. But I think we could talk about that for forever if we grew up in those types of families. And I’m just curious, before we get too far into the discussion, what did you see as a child of a service member, when it comes to maybe strong women in the military? And did that influence you?
Shelly Ortega
Absolutely. That’s great question. First of all, thank you for that recognition for my dad. And to answer your question is yes, my mother, because we were overseas, and my father was away with whatever duty station that he had to go to or support, she was the one that was our primary parent and supporting us. And that was everything from morning until night. So, a lot of respect for the families that have active duty, personnel that support them. On a day-to-day basis, it’s really important for the success of anyone in the service and the success of a family growing within the service.
William Krieger
I think sometimes it gets forgotten that it is difficult to be in the service, I’m a Career Service Member myself, I retired after 21 years. But it’s also very difficult to be the spouse and a family of a service member. And, you know, thank you for bringing that up about your mother, because it’s so important that we really focus on the veteran, which don’t get me wrong is very important. But many times, we forget about the family members that hold that all together while that veteran is off doing their job in the military.
Shelly Ortega
Yeah, definitely. They’re definitely the glue.
William Krieger
So, let’s talk a little bit about women’s history month and what it means to you. And as you said, you are a member of the Women’s Advisory Panel. So, let’s talk a little bit about that, and also how that interacts with the Women’s Engineering Network.
Shelly Ortega
So, for me, it’s a great opportunity to reflect on women that have made a difference. And much like Melissa stated, for those that have come before us and those that are side by side with us going forward. And really, I use it as an opportunity to celebrate the moments of success. So, every success that we’ve had is a gain for everyone, both within traditional and nontraditional roles. But not only at Consumers Energy, I do have to have bragging rights there as far as the Women’s Advisory Panel, because we are the first and oldest obviously, employee resource group established in 1985. So really what we do within our group is that we do with our mission statement, have a corporate strategy to achieve NS support the retention, development, and success of women, right here and Consumers Energy.
William Krieger
And, you know, surely, you mentioned something that kind of triggered something in my head. And that is that yes, we talk about getting girls and women interested in STEM and STEAM and different careers. But also supporting women who want to have a different career or maybe want to have that career that is not in those fields or maybe choose to stay home with their children. And in today’s society that could be men or women that choose to stay home with the kids. I see it on either end, but it’s really supporting women in whatever endeavor it is that they want to go after. Is that what I’m hearing?
Shelly Ortega
Absolutely, it’s it comes down to basically an opportunity. I think everyone can develop a skill set if they’re just given an opportunity. And one of our focus going forward in 2022 is mentoring and coaching because that’s very valuable as far as women coaching other women or even men coaching women and vice versa. So, when it come to diversity, equity, and inclusion really, we hold on to that as far as that this is very much an everyone in kind of thing as far as support is concerned.
William Krieger
Personally, I can’t overstate the importance of mentorship. There have been many points in my life in my career where I’ve had different mentors that have helped me get to where I’m at. And I think we’d all be fooling ourselves if we said, we got here all on our own. Because there’s always been that helping hand or someone who’s helped us along, and we don’t want to forget that. So, thank you for bringing up mentorship. And I want to go back, Melissa, to something you were talking about in high school, where you were taking classes that most girls didn’t take at the time, you weren’t interested in home economics and other things you wanted to do math and drafting and so on. And I, you know, I think there’s an important thing to talk about here. And that is, what’s it like to be like, maybe the only, or maybe one of only a couple of people in a classroom of people who don’t look like you, right? If you’re in a classroom full of men who are doing drafting, what was that like for you? And did that motivate you?
Melissa Sherman
It did, it did motivate me a lot. So being an only child, again, not having brothers and sisters, I didn’t have a good comparison from that perspective. But yeah, it truly was a combination of an eye opening and a motivation. So small country school, I think a graduated with like 110 students. So yeah, I was the only girl, but I knew all my classmates. Going into college, it was a challenge, because it was a diverse group. And so, a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds. And then being the only female in a drafting room, and then being short and not being able to reach the top of the table and literally kneeling on it. But by doing the work and working hard, I earned that trust from the colleagues both I’ll say colleagues in work and college mates in school and the instructor. So, it really helped me learn how to build trust, and then also ask questions from a curiosity perspective, not have a oh, you should do it this way? Or why don’t we do it that way? Just to have that curious mind, I think is what helped me get through that hurdle, back in the late 80s.
William Krieger
I gotta ask, did you feel like you had to do it better than your peers in order to just keep up with them?
Melissa Sherman
I am a competitive person, so yes, I did. But one thing that always struck a chord with me in college is, I had an instructor many times say that it’s not what you’re drawing. So, think about drafting class in the engineering field, it’s not the item you’re trying to sell. Pick on us at Consumers Energy, I’ll say a light bulb, right? It’s the quality of the design that sells the product. So that’s one thing that drilled into me. And so being that meticulous individual helped me versus maybe some of my cohorts that were more carefree.
William Krieger
I understand. And I’m thank you for that. Now, Shelly, I want to talk too about the mentorship programs, and kind of the focus that you’re having for this year. Could you maybe tell me about a mentor or someone in your life that helped you, at a time where you were struggling and how maybe you have paid that forward?
Shelly Ortega
I have thought about this quite often because there’s been more than one person that has been instrumental at different points in my career. And I always say that I have a group of five. And they’re all women from different backgrounds, different age groups, in different jobs. So, at any point in time, they all have their own individual strengths. And so, I look to them, as far as what is the best of the best? And how can I incorporate that. So, these five women in my life have been very supportive. And I call them friends as well, because we’ve developed that relationship, but they all have something that I admire and respect. And I always take that into account of, that’s something that I want to be better at. So, I use that as inspiration and guidance for me within my own career. And how has that affected me? Well, now I’m in a position of my career, where I can give back. And that was a big push for me to join the Women’s Advisory Panel because I was just at that, it’s all about that perfect timing, where I felt I gained so much and now it was time for me to give in return.
William Krieger
That’s interesting you have like that group of five people who were influential, and you maintain those friendships. I think that’s important, especially as you’re developing your career and moving along, you can always go back and talk with them and take those lessons forward as well. What are some of the things that the Women’s Advisory Panel is looking at doing in 2022? Around mentorship and how is that going to look?
Shelly Ortega
So, we’re very early in the planning stages for that, but we knew is something that we wanted to really focus on for the year of 2022, especially in this virtual environment and the uncertainty of the pandemic. So, there’s a lot of opportunity that we’re going to have to be very creative. So, what we thought of is that, like the traditional mentoring is that you’re assigned to someone or, and they could be in the same career path or a different one. So, we want to do something where it’s about events where you can connect to people all at once and have that opportunity or having women in leadership speak directly to our general members, as far as what were the obstacles in their lives, how did they navigate and overcome them. So, we’re still in the very beginning, but we’re working towards something that will be all inclusive for everyone at Consumers Energy, if they want to, you know, take an opportunity to be a part of the audience. And even we’re open to other suggestions as far as what would be the best way to kind of introduce something within Consumers Energy that we haven’t done before.
William Krieger
So, I’m excited to see what comes out of that. So, Melissa, the same question for you around the Women’s Engineering Network. So, what’s happening this year with the women’s engineering network, and what are you excited about?
Melissa Sherman
Unfortunately, at the time of the publishing of this podcast, we will have already completed but one of our biggest signature events, is… will have actually been held at the end of February. It’s called engineering week. And we have a whole slew of internal employees that are doing a variety of meetings or Lunch and Learns any events, again, all virtual. So that’s one of our big additional things. One that we’re working with WAP on is early March is celebrating International Women’s Day. This is big for both of us. And it allows us to bring all those different ethnic backgrounds and careers together in one day and truly celebrate International Women’s Day. Another big item that we do within WEN is truly back to earlier conversation is that first robotics. Consumers in itself is a big supporter of FIRST Robotics. And I’ve had the luxury of planning since 2016 how we present ourselves, Consumers Energy, at the state’s competition, that’s in early April at SVSU. So huge thing to do, those that are listening to this outside of Consumers Energy, it’s a great opportunity to come and understand. So, if you have kids interested, it is held at Saginaw Valley State University, the week of April 12. So, a great opportunity to come out and you can go out to firstrobotics.com and check out the schedule.
William Krieger
So, for this year, April 1, robotics and for next year, we’ll have to get you on a little bit earlier. So, we can, we can talk about the engineering week as well. But I’m sure we’ll have some things on the company sites that will highlight what’s happened there. So please, make sure you check that out and Melissa, you brought up a great point, too, if you don’t work at Consumers Energy, a lot of these things are available to anyone, no matter where you work. And if you don’t have a program like this, at your place of business, check it out, find out if there’s something that you can do that can make a difference in the lives of young people. And I know that they go on to be interns and even employees, at least here at Consumers Energy because a lot of people I talked to that’s where they got interested in working here. So definitely thank you for that. And thank you for the work that you do there. And we are coming up to that point in the podcast that we’re going to have to wrap things up pretty soon. But I don’t want to do that until I give each of you the opportunity to leave the audience with a message. So, Shelly, I’ll start with you. What would you like the audience to take away from this conversation today?
Shelly Ortega
I think it’s important to note what an employee resource group can do for your employees. And as just you know, individual human beings, what it means to be included to feel that you can bring your authentic self to work. We’re striving so hard between the two groups and the other ERG co-partners that we have. I think that it should be noted that as far as rankings concerned that Consumers Energy was named by Forbes magazine, the best among the national utilities, and we’re 19th overall, from a benchmarking perspective. It’s very important that you think about your employees because if they’re happy, then they’re going to perform and it’s just like this cycle of the better that we can be then the better we can be for our communities.
William Krieger
Well, it really speaks to that professional pillar of personal wellbeing to have satisfaction and be happy at work and you know, I’m entering my 28th year here at Consumers Energy, it is truly a great place to work. And the thing that I find is that yes, happy coworkers are more productive. But that’s not why we do it here. We do it because it’s the right thing to do. And it’s just an amazing place to work. So, thank you, Shelly, for sharing that and Melissa. Same question to you.
Melissa Sherman
I agree. 100%, everything Shelly said, the only thing that I’d like to add is that, you know, Shelly and I are here representing WAP or the Women’s Advisory Panel and myself WEN or the women’s engineering network, but we have eight or nine total ERGs. And it doesn’t matter your current career, your role, where you sit in the company, there’s a benefit to being involved with all of them, even if it’s just clicked to follow. There’s so much information you can glean from any one and all of them. And if there’s one that strikes you, as a true one that you want to be involved in, I believe it’s the fall time that we here at Consumers have that open enrollment, so you have the opportunity to get on a steering committee, and like Shelly said, be at that point where you can give back to others in the workforce.
William Krieger
And I think that’s the thing that we do at Consumers quite a bit is give back. And it’s interesting that we’re having trouble counting the number of ERG’s because just recently, we kicked off the interfaith ERG. So, when we look at overall wellbeing from that context, we have ERG’s that support all the different pillars, and some of them support more than just one. So, if you work at Consumers Energy, check out the ERGs by going out to the culture page, or the DEI site. And there are links to find one that you’re interested in. And I know that both of you have said this, in previous conversations and here’s the thing, if I want to join the women’s engineering network, or I want to join the Women’s Advisory Panel, I do not have to be a woman to do that. Right, anyone can join any one of the employee resource groups. It’s just a matter of supporting the efforts of that group and what their mission and vision is. So please be sure and check those out. And I want to say thanks, again, Melissa, and Shelly, for coming onto the podcast. This is great information. And hopefully, you get a lot of phone calls from our coworkers about what you’re doing. And, you know, I wish you luck and success in all your endeavors this year. And we’ll have to get together towards the end of the year and see how things worked out.
Melissa Sherman
Appreciate you, Bill. Thank you.
Shelly Ortega
I appreciate it. Bill. Thank you for the time today.
William Krieger
Thank you to the audience for listening in today. The Me You Us podcast is proudly sponsored by Consumers Energy leaving Michigan better than we found it. Remember, you can find the Me You Us podcast on all major podcasting platforms. So be sure to go out find us and subscribe. If you or someone you know is in crisis, please contact the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. That’s one 1-800-273-8255. If you are a veteran or know a Veteran who is in crisis, you can call 1-800-273-8255 and press one for the Veterans Crisis Line. And remember to tune in every Wednesday as we talk about the things that impact your personal well being.
