The New York CWEEL Group held a virtual lunch chat on Thursday, May 13. Three special guests: Amalia Cuadra, Daphany Rose Sanchez, and Katelyn Tsukada, joined the panel and discussed the unique experiences and challenges faced by women in various career stages. 

After a warm welcome offered by the AEE-NY Chapter President and NY-CWEEL Lead, Davetta Thechas, the panel moderator, Cissy Bai, kicked off the discussion by asking the panelists what brought them to the energy and environmental field and how they built the expertise that needed to thrive in their current roles. Amalia Cuadra, the Senior Director of Engineering from EN-POWER GROUP, described that her technical interest and goal-oriented mindset equips her to oversee the company’s growth strategy and manage large capital projects. Daphany Rose Sanchez, the Founder and Executive Director of Kinetic Communities Consulting, spoke about her life growing up and dealing with situations like Hurricane Sandy, which drove her to the pathway that she called “energy social work and technical advisory services”. Katelyn Tsukada, the External Partnership Lead with one of the largest energy companies in the United States, Con Edison, built up her career from pursuing environmental justice, managing energy efficiency programs for millions of residential customers, and creating robust engagement strategies for external partnership management. 

When talking about navigating graduate education, Katelyn encouraged the audiences to proactively deal with challenges and focus on the value-added to their professional growth. Daphany and Amalia recommended developing “professional self-awareness” when planning a career pathway. They also gave very honest advice on financing graduate education. Meanwhile, the panelists provided insights on technologies and resources that are under-rated in addressing the climate crisis. They all emphasized the necessity of collaborating with all the disciplines and addressing real issues that local communities are facing. 

The audience also joined the discussion by submitting questions and the panel responded accordingly. At the end, the panelists shared their favorite activities outside of work and everyone on the call would agree that some fresh air, exercises, time spent with family, and things that excite us release stress in the mid of the pandemic.