March 10, 2020
CHARTING HER PATH
When Chaman Iftikhar was growing up in Pakistan, she heard a common refrain when she told people at school that she had an interest in engineering: That’s a man’s job, they said. Her parents encouraged her to follow her dream. They paid extra tuition for science and math classes. They were also on the other end of the line when — on her first assignment — Iftikhar found herself dispatched to a remote power plant in the Pakistani province of Sindh: She called them to bemoan her lonely fate. They told her to keep it up — and of course, Iftikhar wouldn’t have it any other way. She’d requested this job specifically because she knew she needed to master field engineering.
Paying it forward: Iftikhar stayed at that plant for three weeks, helping with a modification of a GE gas turbine during a planned outage. “I learned how to be on my toes all the time,” she said. “I learned how to work when you’re out of your comfort zone.” Though Iftikhar is no longer in Sindh, she’s still in a somewhat lonely position: Fewer than 10% of STEM professionals in Pakistan are women. That’s why — in addition to her day job as a controls engineer for FieldCore, a GE company — she mentors young girls, hoping to expand the talent pool of female engineers in the country. “My parents gave me everything,” Iftikhar reflected. Now it’s her turn to pass it on.
International Women’s Day was Sunday, March 8, and GE Reports celebrated with a profile of Chaman Iftikhar — here — and several other blazingly talented women. Read on for more.
EDISON’S FOOTSTEPS
Visiting Iceland as a 24-year-old biochemical engineering student, Katherine MacManus saw some of the country’s famous volcanoes — and she came home erupting with ideas. MacManus was taken with the fact that more than 97% of Iceland’s installed power capacity comes from renewable resources. How’d it get that way? Could other countries follow Iceland’s lead? Later joining GE Gas Power as an intern, she’d soon find herself someplace that matched her ambition and fed her curiosity: The Edison Engineering Development Program, a GE program that provides a pipeline of top engineering talent to the company’s core businesses.
Out of the box: The Edisons, as MacManus and her cohort are called, rotate through three to five different work assignments in core GE businesses, each lasting six to 12 months. “I like that I have not had to settle yet,” MacManus said. “I get to be open and explore new things or learn different facets of the business.” Though it’s about exposing elite engineers to various skills and their applications — MacManus, for instance, surprised herself by getting into computer programming during her final rotation at GE Power — there’s a larger question at stake: What makes a great engineer? Executive program manager Marshalla Schile says “great” has to do with curiosity, creativity and adaptation: “We don’t want all type-A, straight-A personalities.”
Learn more here.
THE FEW, THE PROUD
When Jenna Dolan was appointed to the Naval Academy in 1992, women weren’t allowed to fly combat aircraft. That policy soon changed, though, and Dolan — who grew up wanting to be a pilot in the U.S. Marines — embraced the challenge with gusto. Her focus and precision helped break boundaries for female Marine pilots: During the Iraq War, Dolan was the first woman in combat to fly the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II jet, which can take off and land vertically. She flew more than 120 combat missions, mostly at night, in two tours of duty. Dolan was considering accepting a third term when her husband, Matt, was diagnosed with cancer. That’s when she knew it was time to come home.
Smooth landing: Matt is healthy today, and Dolan still enjoys a high-flying career. In 2009 she joined GE’s Junior Officer Leadership Program, which gives officers transitioning into civilian life the opportunity to complete three eight-month rotations in different GE functions. She’s one of many veterans who have found a home at GE, which has made a point of hiring service members: Currently, about one in every 13 U.S. employees at GE is a vet. Dolan’s a natural fit, of course, and today plays a role in military customer support, working on the F414 Super Hornet jet engine. “The ability to handle stressful situations and keep a good head on your shoulders is something that I really take from the challenging experiences that I had in the military,” she said.
Learn more here.
— VIDEO OF THE WEEK —
— QUOTE OF THE DAY —
“Where is the guy who will do the job? I had to say, ‘I am him! You are looking at him!’ ”
— Chaman Iftikhar, controls engineer at FieldCore.
Quote: GE Reports. Image: Chaman Iftikhar.
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