Stephanie Thompson is a licensed professional engineer. Currently she is a technical manager at General Motors overseeing a team of engineers. Stephanie is a proud Waterloo Engineering alum (BASc ’01, Chemical Engineering). She is also the founder of STEM by Steph, which organizes workshops for women in STEM.
Stephanie participated as a panelist in A Life of Impact Built by STEM: A Career in STEM Panel Discussion, moderated by Dean Mary Wells in June 2024. The Women in Engineering Graduate Student Committee sat down with Stephanie after the panel to hear her insights on what comes after Waterloo Engineering and on leadership in the workplace.
The conversation is below, edited for clarity and length.
Please introduce your technical background and professional journey so far.
I have a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, and I'm currently working as a technical manager for General Motors. I work in a facility that manufactures engines and transmissions, and I manage the team of engineers who take care of the assembly line. We buy machines that help reduce ergonomic stresses and repeatability problems with individuals. We work with automation that supports people to produce high volume repetitive job content with lessened impact on their bodies, and improved safety culture while meeting our production demands.
How did your experiences lead you to found STEM by Steph?
In 2017, Mary Wells was the chair of the Ontario Network of Women in Engineering (OnWiE), and I was at a talk where they showed a graphic of a pipeline of female students. In the graphic, it showed that in grade 10 there’s a 50/50 gender ratio in science classes, but after grade 10 to grade 11, the statistics skew to 80/20, and it never recovers from then on.
What happens when women drop out of the pipeline? I wanted to figure out who they were and what these women did. I had a vision to run a workshop series for women, like a paint night for STEM, for women to get together and collaborate. In the first year, I ran workshops over five weeks on topics like robotics, chemistry, environmental science, and space science.
I wanted to create places and spaces where women could connect. It was simply gathering and letting women talk to each other in a way that wasn't about spas or shopping. There’s nothing wrong with that stuff, but often society dictates how women decompress and how we engage with one another. So, I wanted to change that conversation and create spaces where women could connect about science.
How important is mentorship for women entering education or the engineering workplace? Do you have any advice for women graduate students around mentorship?
I have gone through many parts of my career without mentorship, and I’ve also had bosses that I recognized as mentors only after the fact. I don't always seek mentorship, but the more people you meet and collaborate with and who invest in your journey, the better.
What's really cool are the friendships and connections you make with people at your company, in your engineering society, in your classes, and in your peer groups. I have lots of people in my class that I’m still friends with, and they are now VPs or they run their own companies. There is an incredible assortment of brilliantly talented people who are now a part of your network, so peer-to-peer mentoring, maintaining friendships, and building bridges is an important skill set.
What are some factors that you find to be influential in empowering women to seek leadership roles?
I heard a quote that said men have had examples of leadership for thousands of years. Most modern businesses are built on the premise of hierarchical leadership that is based on these military backgrounds where the strong, tall person on the horse is in charge.
So, if you're a young woman and that's not your style, who else do you look to? We've only had women in leadership for maybe 50 years. So, I think it’s important to also look to alternative kinds of leaders for inspiration.
When I first started, my team was all men who were 20 years older than me. And yet I never felt that I shouldn't be there because they were happy to have somebody new who wanted to learn. And when I moved up to a leadership role, they wanted to see me be successful. If you can be a good leader, be honest and genuine, you'll find those supporters.
Do you have any words of advice for engineers who are just about to start their professional careers?
I want young women to really focus on being the best engineer that they can be – to build skills, to hone craft, to focus on that value-added portion of work. The women before you didn't have those opportunities to build their skills. So, when you're allowed to do it, explore it, be passionate, and do whatever makes you happy.