Finding Fertile Ground: Stories of Grit, Resilience, and Fertile Ground
Society & Culture
Michele Heyward is a civil engineer who built the U.S. power grid. Now she's a tech startup founder building the future of work at PositiveHire.
Michele grew up in rural South Carolina in a three-bedroom house full of kids. She had four siblings. She describes herself as the weird kid, really good at math.
Encouraged to pursue science and engineering, she went to engineering camp 30 years ago at 13 years old.
“But what really got me sold on engineering was when I was 12, a Category Five hurricane hit South Carolina and my mom's younger sister and her family live near Charleston where the hurricane hit...They had a newer brick home that was destroyed during the hurricane while they were in it. I couldn't understand: how could a home that new be destroyed by something called a hurricane? And that's how I literally got interested in civil engineering and decided to major in it.”
She learned about people who had designed an indestructible egg-shaped home on the coast, and she thought,
“How do you build a home or structure like that? It really started me into the path of civil engineering.”
After working in the corporate world for many years, Michele got tired of being “the only.”
“Something that is really common, unfortunately, is the ‘only’ experience for a lot of Black, Latinx, and indigenous women in STEM. What I mean is you're the only one, you're the only Black woman. You're the only Latina engineer on your team, group, department, company. For years out in construction, I was the only Black woman engineer. I was only Black woman, period…so many other women quit.”
Michele stayed at her her previous environmental engineering firm for 12 years.
“I told myself somebody else is going to come who doesn't have the wherewithal to do what you've done this amount of time by yourself being the only.”
Then she received a message from God that said, “you're not supposed to be here.”
“I cried. I'd been through so much being the only, but it was time for me to go and build out something else…now it's time to go execute. It was time for me to go put in the work.”
Michele founded a company, PositiveHire, that connects Black, Latinx, and Indigenous women who are experienced scientists, engineers, and technology professionals to management roles.
“As a Black woman engineer I've seen companies complain they can't find diverse talent, when their real issue is retaining Black, Latinx, and Indigenous talent in STEM. The issue isn't a pipeline problem but the lack of responsibility that management teams have in creating workplaces which will retain and attract Black, Latinx, and Indigenous talent.”
Michele and I had a fruitful discussion about what it’s like working in spaces run by white men and how important it is to change the culture of a company before focusing on recruiting people of color. We also talked about how to write inclusive job descriptions and postings that bring in diverse candidates.
Please drop me a line at marie@fertilegroundcommunications.com to let us know what you thought about this episode.
I help professional services firms avoid BORING and boost employee engagement, productivity, and readership. I translate technical, complex, and lackluster language into accessible, dynamic, story-driven text. Get known in your industry through outstanding thought leadership content. Walk your talk through outstanding, effective communications with your employees and clients.
Fertile Ground Communications LLC is a certified women-owned business enterprise, disadvantaged business enterprise, and emerging small business.
Cathy Marie Buchanan: Tenacious writer who creates colorful historical novels about resilient women
AmiCietta Clarke: Escape from Liberia and an autoimmune disorder couldn’t keep her down
Carol Gavhane: Surviving infertility and loss to create a purpose-driven life
Court Wakefield: Not a NICU mother or father, but a parent
Madison Ways: Rebuilding her life after losing her father
Lauren DeVera: Rebooting and taking risks to help people banish burnout and live a life on purpose
Mx. Harris Eddie Hill: Celebrating the joy of trans and gender identity
Jasnam Daya Singh: Wearing a turban and composing music for justice
Joy Fowler: Surviving the loss of a child and becoming “just” Joy
Ash Prasad: The Inclusive Screenwriter
Serving and Advocating for Those Without a Voice: Annette Stixrud
Finding Healing in the Forest: Katrina Nilsson-Gorman
Surviving PTSD with Love, Warmth, and Resilience: Stephanie Coren
Kris Gowen: Grief, Music, and Sex
Changing Lives through Education in Chiapas: Miguel Ochoa Castellanos and April Brenden-Locke
My Story: Resilience Is My Life's Motto
Farheen Raza: Unapologetic Modern Muslim Woman
Marie Cecile Anderson and Katy Frame, Reformed Whores: Feminist Musical Comics
Sankar Raman, Collector of Immigrant Stories
Raina Casey, Death Doula and Survivor
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Just Dumb Enough Podcast
Voices of Misery Podcast
House of Whimsical Terror
Stuff You Should Know
Timcast IRL