009: Inspiring the Next Generation of Engineers, Encouraging Women in STEM and the Power of Creativity with Liz Newcomb

Did you know ECS launched a podcast? Coffee Talk: From the Ground Up is meant to be educational, entertaining and encouraging with practical advice you can apply directly in your work and life.  Listen and subscribe now on AnchorSpotifyGoogle Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts.

———–

Intro

Steve Gosselin:

Welcome to Coffee Talk: From the Ground Up, an ECS Podcast, where we strive to provide a more personable way to communicate with employees. I’m Steve Gosselin, but you can call me Goss. And I’m part of our senior leadership team. And I’m joined here by Julie Smith, who is part of the marketing communications team and our resident chocoholic. Say hi, Julie.

Julie Smith:

Thanks, Steve. Hey, everyone. I’m glad you’re joining us today. So, Steve, what are we doing here?

Steve Gosselin:

Great question, Julie. One of the struggles with the company our size is getting a message to the masses, without it being diluted along the way. From projects and people, to services and career insight. We hope this podcast helps provide an avenue to communicate the stories that are worth sharing. It’s to learn about our culture and feel more connected and to have some fun along the way.

Julie Smith:

So what you’re saying is we hope this podcast is educational, entertaining, and encouraging, with practical advice, you can apply directly to your work and life.

Steve Gosselin:

Well said, Julie, and that’s why you’re in marketing.

Julie Smith:

So grab a cup and settle in. Our attorney makes us say this. This podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only. Nothing here in shall be construed as providing professional engineering services or used to establish the standard of care. This podcast, and the comments contained there in represent only the personal views of the participants and do not reflect those of ECS. While we make every effort to ensure that the information we are sharing is accurate, we welcome any comments, suggestions, or correction of errors.

***

Steve Gosselin:

We’re really excited to have Liz Newcomb, who’s joining Julie and I this morning. We’re going to start with safety minute. And today we’re going to be talking about winter slip prevention. And this is something good to talk about. I’ll speak for myself, but I’m sure everybody here has had an unfortunate slip or fall or spill something they didn’t expect. And you end up on your back or your hip or your elbow or something like that. Just a quick reminder to everybody, use extra caution, keep yourself on your feet this winter. Don’t hurry when conditions are likely to be slippery, give yourself plenty of time to get to your destination.

Steve Gosselin:

If at all possible wear slip resistant footwear that are appropriate for the weather, always around the office, on job sites, at home, practice good housekeeping habits, clean up things, make sure you don’t leave trip hazards around, water or liquids in place where they might freeze. Keep a skid resistant doormat available outside the door. Try to think ahead and anticipate hazards as you’re walking. Like I said earlier, slow down, take your time. You can take shorter steps if you think it’s going to be slippery. And the most important thing, just pay attention when you’re walking after dark, the worst spill I’ve had on ice was in the evening and just step on a slick spot and ended up on my hip.

Steve Gosselin:

Remember also the drivers have a difficult time seeing you. That almost happened to me Saturday evening. I was out making a turn into a parking lot and a guy was walking along a sidewalk and he was in all black, had a black hat on and he had back beard, all you could see was his eyes. And luckily I wasn’t in too much a hurry, but he was walking out in front of me. So I had to hit my brake. There’s a lot of clothes nowadays that have reflective stuff on them. Be sure to wear something that would reflect light or is light colored in, and really just watch out for vehicles and crazy driver. Winter Slip Prevention and Caution.

Steve Gosselin:

So quick introduction. Liz Newcomb is the branch manager of our Louisville office and joined ECS in 2018. She earned both her civil engineering degrees from the University of Louisville, CoCards.

Liz Newcomb:

Yes sir.

Steve Gosselin:

And completed three co-ops over the course of five years before taking time to travel the globe with her husband. With nearly a decade of engineering experience, Liz has worked on a portfolio projects that are both varied and vital. As the child of two creatives, it came as a serious shock when she chose a STEM subject career, but Liz believes that imagination instilled in infancy only enhances her engineering expertise.

Steve Gosselin:

When she’s not working, Liz is continuously creating anything from paintings to pottery. And I’m glad that’s in the introduction. When I first met Liz, when she and the folks in Louisville joined ECS and we’ll get into how that came to be. We were at lunch one day and Liz and I were talking and I told her a little bit about myself, said, “Tell me about you.” And she’s like, [inaudible 00:05:12] your parents are artists, right?

Liz Newcomb:

Yes. Both of them.

Steve Gosselin:

Yeah, yeah. So she told me about her parents being artist stuff, like I said, “That’s fascinating. So how’d you get into engineering?” Hopefully we’ll get into some of that story. So some rapid fired questions to get us ready. Being from Louisville or the Louisville area, what’s your favorite bourbon?

Liz Newcomb:

My two go-to’s are Woodford and Rabbit Hole.

Steve Gosselin:

Yeah. My golfing buddies and drinking buddies love Woodford. They go for that all the time. That’s the first choice. Favorite place in the world?

Liz Newcomb:

It’s either Switzerland and the Alps or Rome.

Steve Gosselin:

Oh man. Two great choices.

Liz Newcomb:

Yeah.

Steve Gosselin:

Yeah. What are you addicted to?

Liz Newcomb:

Whichever creative endeavor that I am into at that moment, whether it be painting or jewelry making or right now I’m really into resin and making jewelry pieces. I’m also doing resin painting. So I’m adding paints in it and making these fluid, abstract art paintings.

Steve Gosselin:

Nice. Well, I wish y’all could see the video here because Liz is always sporting some pretty cool jewelry and she is this morning… Did you make that stuff?

Liz Newcomb:

I made the earrings.

Steve Gosselin:

Nice.

Liz Newcomb:

I didn’t make the necklace. It’s a cartouche of my first name that my parents brought back from Egypt for me whenever I was in high school.

Steve Gosselin:

Oh, awesome. And what is something most people don’t know about you?

Liz Newcomb:

Whenever I was in high school, I actually had to be tutored in English, which would surprise most of the people around here because I review all their reports and I’m constantly picking apart their grammar and how it’s being said. And they’re like, “Oh again.” The fact that I had to be tutored for that would surprise most of them.

Steve Gosselin:

Wow. That’s really good to know. I know that I reviewed a lot of stuff too through my career and being a scientist English is just not a strength. I’m good enough, but yeah, there’s a lot of things that I miss or don’t pick up and I don’t know that English is really taught strongly in schools in Texas, either. For me now, whenever I hit review on documents and I see what Microsoft Editor to tries to do to my documents, I’m like, “Holy cow, I really had no idea.” So good for you man. That’s admirable. I like that.

Steve Gosselin:

Okay. So Liz, tell us your ECS story. Tell us a little bit about how you got here. And I think some of that would involve getting with GEM Engineering. So you could kind of tell us about that path. The floor is yours.

Liz Newcomb:

All right. Well, so I started at GEM Engineering, right out of college after I had taken some time off and I graduated U of L with my masters. And Jerry Vandevelde, the previous branch manager here in Louisville and the owner of GEM Engineering was one of my adjunct professors. So he had me in class and then whenever I came out looking for a job, he was like, “Oh, I think this is something you would like.” I had done everything in structures. He’s like, “You just don’t seem like the type of person that wants to sit behind a desk all day and not talk to people.” So he’s like, “You need to come try this out. If it doesn’t work out, that’s fine. We’ll figure out something else.” But he’s like, “Will you give it a shot?” And I was like, “Okay, I’ll do that.”

Liz Newcomb:

So I came in ready to go and I loved it from the moment. I loved being outside. I loved going out and talking to people and getting a real world feel for engineering, not crunching numbers all day. While I like math and science, I don’t like being inside all day. I really loved it and I kind of just grew. I started as a technician. I was doing 2:00 AM pours and floor flatness in the middle of the night for about a year. And then I moved up and started doing the geo reports and drilling and just have kind of worked my way up.

Liz Newcomb:

Then in 2018, I was a project manager at the time. And that’s when we became a part of ECS because our upper management was starting to be like, “Hmm, I need to retire soon. What are we going to do?” So we then were acquired by ECS and I got to meet a lot of new people and I had got a lot more resources, which I loved, because I always liked going after the crazy projects. Like I loved railroad bridges. That was my thing at GEM. And I was the one that did it because I did all the research and figure it out. And it was nice to know that I had other people I could count on once we became ECS for that.

Liz Newcomb:

And then as part of ECS, I was tapped on the shoulder whenever my manager decided she was going to move on to a more technical career instead of consulting. And she was like, “Hey, I think you’d be good to take over the Geotech department. So I did that. And then whenever Jerry retired a year ago, he tapped me on the shoulder and was like, “Hey, I think you should try managing the branch.” And I was like, “Okay, let’s do it. Something new. It’s a new adventure, I’ll try it.” So that’s the shortened version of my story of how I got where I am now.

Steve Gosselin:

Awesome. That’s great. How’s it going? I know every day there’s different challenges and some unique challenges. Just share a couple stories with us, tell us how it’s going, some things you might have anticipated and expected and then some of the things you really didn’t expect.

Liz Newcomb:

Okay. So I love branch managing right now. It’s like a new adventure every day. I don’t do the same thing. There are so many things that I get to learn now. Business side of things definitely is an interest right now for me of how we come up with certain budgets, how do we do these multipliers? How does all this relate? And how do I make us as efficient as possible? That’s kind of my little pet project right now as branch manager, which is something that I didn’t really have a whole lot of control of before now. It’s definitely been a learning experience and a steep learning curve on that side of things.

Liz Newcomb:

I had been exposed to all the engineering and the technical side of things and also business development and marketing, which I like to do as well, because I like to go out and talk people, but it’s on a different level now, even with that. And I like that, being able to think about how do I want to get our name out there? What pursuits do I want to make sure that our office goes after hard, that is a new aspect of something that I was already familiar with, but it definitely has been interesting to me and has been something that I like more so than some of the other paperwork, and fact that I don’t get out of the office as much. But the marketing does get me out and talking to clients, which is really a big part of what I like to do.

Steve Gosselin:

Yeah. Awesome. Liz and I got on a little early and we were chatting. I was just checking in and I was asking her how it was going and a couple things she shared with me and I’ll ask you to share it with the listeners is that she jumped into this, almost inherited a longstanding, pretty well run, solid operation. And I don’t want to put words in her mouth. I’ll let you take it from here. But what she said is, “Well, it’s time to make it mine.” So just tell me a little bit about that and talk about planning and things like that. So yeah, just enlighten us and tell us about why you’re excited, how enthusiastic you are, some of the things you were telling me.

Liz Newcomb:

Yeah. Well, as you said, I inherited a well run, very established office here. Our clients know us very well and we have a name in our local community, but it has always been Jerry’s and Samantha’s and mike’s. And so last year was a transition year, which for Jerry to me and this year, it’s the first year that I feel like it’s really mine, I get to start from day one and it is me a 100%. And I’m super excited to get in there and change some of these things, but not change everything, because we are well run. So I’m excited to be able to come up with new ways to do things and make us a very efficient office and also to try out some of the new marketing strategies that I have that we hadn’t pursued in the past. I get to tweak and kind of fiddle a little bit and make this run how I think it should. I’m excited about that.

Steve Gosselin:

Yeah. Awesome. Well, based on the performance so far during the transition and you taking over and being established as branch manager, based on our project proposal registrations, and that’s a pretty good indicator of how one of our business units, our operations are doing. The market and the staff are responding to your leadership quite well. You guys are really starting to take off, so congratulations kudos to you.

Liz Newcomb:

Thank you. I’ve gotten a lot of help. I hired a new [inaudible 00:15:56] department manager, Tom Jones, and he is a marketing genius.

Steve Gosselin:

Awesome. Well, that’s the first key right there in good leadership is surrounding yourself with excellent people. You’re going to do a great job. Your enthusiasm is contagious and people want to work with you. You obviously have the technical background, but yeah, the more people that you can surround yourself with that are good and do a great job and are excellent at certain things, especially things you’re not strong at the better you’re going to be. And I know you’re figuring that out.

Steve Gosselin:

There’s another part of your story and I want to throw this out there. You’re one of three female branch managers in ECS, Southeast. We’ve got you in Louisville. We have April Tutor in Memphis and we have Allison Pursley in Greenville, South Carolina. And in a particularly male dominated industry and company and stuff like that, you three are really, really setting a trend. All three of you are doing a great job. So first of all, I want to acknowledge you, let you talk a little bit about that. And then I do have a question, a follow up, do you all spend time talking to each other on the phone?

Liz Newcomb:

I’ll answer the last one first. Yeah, April and I talk quite a bit because we’re in the same region. And we also went through Future Leaders together. So we kind of established a connection then and talk on a regular basis. We usually talk at least once a week, on our calls that we all have. And then I’ll ask her questions, she’ll ask me questions because we have similar geology, we have similar backgrounds, similar interests too. So I’ve gotten to know April fairly well. I haven’t gotten to really interact with Allison too much. I did just meet her at the manager’s meeting for the Southeast and she seems really nice and I would like to get to know her better.

Steve Gosselin:

Yeah. Well all three of you all are awesome and it’s not going to go without saying, you went to the University of Louisville, Allison went to the University of Alabama and April went to the University of Arkansas. So you all are pretty close together that way as well too. And all three schools, they’re primary color is red, which is kind of interesting. So there’s a lot of connections there. Make sure you take time to get to know each other. I think there’s a lot of synergy and then positive energy that’ll come out of that. Julie, how about you pick it up from here and kind of move into our next set of questions?

Julie Smith:

Yeah, sure. So Liz, we want to chat with you today. One, to hear your story, obviously your growth and career path has been awesome, but I also know that outside of your personal development, you’re also pouring into the next generation and you’re involved in some mentoring and some volunteering outside of your creative pursuits outside managing a branch. I don’t know how you do all these things, but to kind of start off on that, where do you get your inspiration? Who inspires you?

Liz Newcomb:

My biggest inspiration came from my grandmother. She was a big part of my life. She was a very strong individual and I always wanted to do the best I could to make her proud. I don’t think she would’ve been proud of me no matter what I did, but she wasn’t afforded a lot of the opportunities that I’ve been given.

Liz Newcomb:

So I want to make the most of that for her. Because I think she would be very happy with that. Because she would’ve been a fashion designer or something but she got whooped into becoming a stay at home mom for seven kids. And she would’ve loved to have been a career woman, but the time just wasn’t right for her. And so she always wanted someone to pass that along too. And I feel like that was always me. I’ve always been very career minded. I have always wanted to go above and beyond what I thought was possible. You tell me you can’t do something, I’m like, “Okay, I’m going to go do that. And then I’ll get back with you.” Because it’s setting that challenge and just her being there and being supportive of me in that respect and also that kind of same mentality that she passed along to a lot of her grandkids.

Julie Smith:

Oh, that’s awesome. You and I were chatting earlier and you shared with me about two different organizations that you’re involved with in terms of mentoring and encouraging students to pursue STEM related careers. How did you find out about those? Can you share a little bit about both those organizations?

Liz Newcomb:

Okay. So the first one is Inspiring Girls USA. I got involved with them through one of my good friend’s mothers, actually, she was a Dean at Butler University and one of her students is the Southeast chapter president for that organization. And she was like, “Hey, you two need to connect because I think you all would get along great. And you’d be able to add and help out in Louisville or in Kentucky.

Liz Newcomb:

Inspiring Girls is a great organization. It is nationwide. It’s also online. So I’ve talked to girls across the country, not just in my area. And it gives a platform for middle school, high schoolers, young girls that are trying to figure out what they want to do.

Liz Newcomb:

And I’ve been put in the STEM section of what they do. And I’ve talked to seven or eight girls this year about getting into college. What they’re kind of looking or in a program, what is engineering? Sometimes it’s just basics like that or, “Hey, what’s it like to go to college and be a female in a STTEM program where you are the minority, you’re surrounded by men and does that make a difference? And who can I talk to or who can I go to for advice on how to deal with some of these things that typically don’t come up, if you have a male professor and how do you navigate that world?” And then sometimes it’s, “Hey, who do you room with?” Some of the easiest questions and sometimes they’re hard questions, it’s a platform so that they feel comfortable, have somebody to talk to that has been there, has done that and they can relate to.

Liz Newcomb:

And then NAWIC is our women in construction and our local Louisville chapter, they reach out to elementary schools, middle schools and high schools with their STEM programs. We did an event back in the fall where we talked with elementary school kids about STEM and engineering and construction. And we built little toothpick bridges and pop stick bridges and did the kind of very basic stuff. And it was a lot of fun. Just kind of getting engineering out there and making it seem not so scary or like this big, massive thing that it’s like, “Oh, I’m not smart enough to do that.” “Yes you are. You can do that. It’s problem solving, it’s logic.” I don’t have to be the very best at math and be able to rattle off this big, long equation in my head. It’s looking at something and looking at it in a different way. And so being able to talk to kids about that, it makes it seem like it’s an attainable career path, which it is. And so many people I think, do not believe that.

Julie Smith:

Yeah. I love that. So obviously we heard in your intro, you’re the child of some creatives. You yourself are very creative. How does that help you when you’re connecting with these students?

Liz Newcomb:

Well, I feel like art is a very basic language. Doesn’t everybody speaks art? Whether you draw stick figures or you can paint Mona Lisa, it very easy to connect with somebody on a visual level, whether you’re just sitting there doodling something out or you’re expressing an idea visually. It’s very relatable, it’s something that you can relate to, you can get some feedback from immediately. Like I can draw one thing and then somebody else can add to that. And it’s just a back and forth of being able to express an idea that you might not be able to say, or you might not be able to come up with the right words to describe what you mean, but you can draw a basic picture and show it. So it just makes it a little bit easier. And then the crazy hair colors are always a great opener.

Julie Smith:

Yeah. That’s awesome. I don’t think you need me drawing anything. It would definitely be stick figures. It would not look pretty, but we can kind of go from there. So obviously you’re very successful in what you do. You’re a leader in our company, Steve alluded to the fact that you’re one of three female branch managers in the Southeast, but what advice would you give to someone who’s listening who might be interested in being a mentor to a student, and they’re feeling like, “I’m not as high up as Liz. I don’t have as much experience as Liz.” What’s your someone listening who may want to be a mentor? What kind of next steps should they take?

Liz Newcomb:

Well, anybody can be a mentor. Kids are always just looking for somebody that they can connect with. And honestly, a lot of them get intimidated by someone that is really high up. So if you start out in the beginning with them, then it’s like, “Oh wait, you’re very relatable.” So getting involved early is great. But even if you don’t, it’s still great to get involved and to help these kids. Because there are so many kids out there that don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t know what they want to do.

Liz Newcomb:

And I know how I was as a kid, my parents told me to do one thing and I’m like, “Mm-hmm (affirmative), no, you don’t know what you’re talking about.” But if somebody else came and told me about something, I’d be like, “Oh, well.” Maybe I would listen to that person more than somebody like my parents or an aunt or uncle.

Liz Newcomb:

So they just need somebody to talk to and best place to first get involved is universities, universities all have outreach programs to their local high schools, local middle schools, because they’re trying to bring in students when they graduate. So they know who to talk to. They know who to get in contact with. They already have something in place. So if you get involved with the university, they’ll go ahead and they’ll be like, “Yeah, that’s great.” Because they’re always looking for volunteers. That’s the best easiest place to get involved.

Julie Smith:

Yeah. Okay. And from a real practical standpoint, does this mean that I have to get on TikTok? Do I have to get on Snapchat? No. How are you communicating with these students?

Liz Newcomb:

Zoom and Teams are east way and sometimes it’s text message. I’m from Owensboro, Kentucky back in Western Kentucky and I’ve got some friends of friends that have kids, that are thinking about engineering and I’m like, “Just give them my phone number and I’ll text back and forth with them.” Because that’s the easiest way to get in contact with them. And I am terrible at social media. I’m just awful at it. I try a little bit on LinkedIn and then I’m like, “Yeah, that takes a lot of effort. I don’t want to do Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram. Oh, all the other [crosstalk 00:30:17].

Julie Smith:

Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. No, I think that’s encouraging to hear that, it’s as simple as things that we’re already doing, we’re texting people, we’re already clearly using Teams or Zoom or some other platform. And so you mentoring and engaging with these students is a fairly simple way to do it and you’re just building those connections. Right?

Liz Newcomb:

Yes.

Julie Smith:

So I think that’s great. That’s an encouragement to me. I don’t want to have to get on TikTok. I don’t want to have to do any of that. Sounds like we don’t have to, to be able to do that. That’s awesome.

Liz Newcomb:

Text message, email, the Teams chats, the Zoom calls, they do it all. It’s just real easy to get in touch with them.

Julie Smith:

That’s awesome.

Steve Gosselin:

That’s really good stuff. Excellent advice. And I think the most important part is just a personal connection and that’s what you’re saying. And right now that’s hard to do with the social distancing and some of the challenges we have, trying to get together. But anyway that you can connect personally with somebody makes a big difference. I know the three of us and really all of our listeners, there’s not anybody out there that didn’t have somebody at some point in their lives, probably in middle school or high school that they had a conversation with that helped guide them or get them along the right path. I was fortunate, my dad had actually had a coworker that he asked me to connect with and the guy was waiting for my phone call. So he was really nice when, he was a young engineer and we sit down, we had a long conversation about, what do I really want to be when I want to grow up? Where do I want to go to school? What do I want to study? That type stuff.

Steve Gosselin:

And it did help a lot, because just like you said, Liz, I did kind of listen to my parents, but I was the first one, in fact I was the only one on my side of the family that has gone to college. I was the first one and the only one. So I really didn’t know. And so talking to somebody who had an engineering degree, not only was I in awe it a profound effect. So just keep doing what you’re doing because you really don’t know the impact and the difference you’re making in people’s lives. You kind of have a sense of it, but you’ll find out later on in life, you’re going to get a phone call or a letter or an email from somebody and it’s going to be, “Oh wow. I had no idea.” So good for you. Keep it up. I really appreciate what you’re doing. And so do the ladies that you’re working with. Okay, we’ve got time to wrap it up here. A final question. What fills your cup? What makes you happy or brings you joy?

Liz Newcomb:

I will like supporting people. What makes me happy is whenever I can do something and I can see that it’s helping someone and making them happy and fulfilling them in some way. That fulfills me a lot. I also like to do things for me, like go to the spa and do my creative stuff, but really what drives me is being able to help others.

Steve Gosselin:

That’s great. Bringing and creating joy for others brings joy for you. That’s wonderful. Yeah. Before we sign off Julie, anything else? Anything you want to end with?

Julie Smith:

No, I think this has been great, Liz. I really appreciate your time. Okay. One more question, because I alluded to it. How do you do all the things? How do you make time to be a branch manager to pour into your staff, to pour into students and create jewelry? And do you sleep? I do have questions.

Liz Newcomb:

A little bit, just a little sleep, lots of caffeine and not a lot of sleep.

Julie Smith:

[inaudible 00:34:05]. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Liz. I really appreciated hearing from you today. I think this was a great conversation and I hope it encourages some of our listeners to get engaged with students, just being a sounding board, being a mentor, so that we can see the ripple effects that we have on students lives. But thank you again, Liz for your times.

Steve Gosselin:

Yeah. Thanks for making time for us. I’ll just pile onto what Julie said. I know that you’re really busy. I know you got a lot of stuff going on, both inside and outside of work, and creating time for us to do this. It’s important to the folks that are listening. It really is. We’re trying to get the message out and trying to connect people inside the company. And the more stories like yours, we can share, the more connected we’ll be as a company. So we really appreciate you doing that with us and sharing your story and taking time.

Liz Newcomb:

Well, thank you guys. I really appreciate it. I love the platform. I think inspiring girls and then just in general, connecting with your local teenagers and preteens, I think it’s a great opportunity. And I think if you have any sort of desire or passion for that, it, I think it’d be great for everybody to do just a little bit.

Steve Gosselin:

All right. Very good. That’s a wrap.

***

Outro

Steven Gosselin:

Thank you for listening to Coffee Talk: From the Ground Up. We hope you enjoy today’s episode. If you have an idea on future topics, guests, or up for round of call, you can call me, text me, email me, just get in touch with me and I’ll get it to Julie and we’ll get it set up.

Julie Smith:

And for those of you don’t want to play golf and you may hate talking on the phone. That’s okay. You can send us an email at ecsmarketing@ecslimited.com. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to this podcast so you never miss an episode.

Steve Gosselin:

Thanks Julie. Here’s to having a great day.

Podcast