She Engineers with Stephanie Slocum

Stephanie Slocum, was quickly moving up the corporate ladder planning to enjoy the engineering career of her dreams. As an architectural engineer, she loved designing the “bones” of a structure, buildings that have lower environmental imprint using sustainable materials. She has built hospitals, schools, laboratories, and university buildings. These buildings will stand through hurricanes, earthquakes, and blizzards---as a testimony to her work.

On the surface, the future looked bright. As a rising star in a male-dominated profession, Stephanie minimized the severity of daily workplace inequality, bias, and the fallout of not utilizing her true talents. Then a close family member died suddenly from a rare incurable cancer, unable to fulfill his many retirement dreams. Turning to food as a respite from all the stress, Stephanie found herself one hundred pounds overweight and suffering from acute acid reflux, which became so severe she was unable to speak. 

Stephanie’s oldest daughter was sharing an elementary school book project; looking back in the rear-view mirror at her young writer, “I’ve always dreamed of writing my own book” she lamented. “Why don’t you do it Mom? You always tell us  'if you want to do something the time to start is now.' ”

Stephanie wrote She Engineers: Outsmart Bias, Unlock Your Potential, and Live the Engineering Career of your Dreams, during stolen moments of time that was not her own—while working over fifty-hour weeks at her engineering firm and raising three young girls.  

Six months after publishing her book, she pivoted from employee to entrepreneur, founding Engineers Rising in 2018. A self-described reluctant entrepreneur, Stephanie found the courage to make that leap by embracing a mission larger than herself: to normalize women as leaders in the technical STEM fields. Today, she helps women become influential leaders while having a life, and she assists organizations committed to gender equity in STEM to create work environments that retain and engage their people.

Stephanie is a keynote and women’s empowerment speaker, corporate trainer, mom of three girls, proud introvert, and winner of the 2020 Connected World Women in Technology Award for her work empowering women in STEM. In the last two years alone, she has spoken and inspired more than 5000 technical professionals through her talks, presentations, and workshops in organizations ranging from Fortune 500® companies to small businesses, non-profits, and universities.

 Stephanie’s audiences learn how to embrace their unique skill sets, stop second-guessing their worth, and articulate the business case for themselves so that they can become recognized for the leaders they are. Stephanie holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in architectural engineering from Pennsylvania State University.  It was a pleasure to catch up with Stephanie during her episode of Intrinsic Drive™.

Intrinsic Drive™ is produced by Ellen Strickler and Phil Wharton and Andrew Hollingworth  is sound editor and engineer.  For more information on this and other episodes visit us at https://www.whartonhealth.com/intrinsicdrive.