On April 20th, members of the Women in Chemicals community were joined by a panel of industry leaders as we discuss the chemical industry’s role in sustainability, heard about what companies are doing to further their initiatives, and discussed how to debunk the bias that is often placed on the chemical industry when it comes to sustainability.

Presented by McKinsey & Company

On March 8th, members of the Women in Chemicals community were joined by the team at McKinsey & Company for a presentation on their Women in the Workplace report, a newly launched innovation survey focusing specifically on the chemical industry. Following the webinar, attendees participated in facilitated breakout sessions to further reflect and discuss the data presented and what they could do to drive change.

During our Conversation with your Co-Founders event, we shared the milestones from Women in Chemical's second year, introduced our new Leadership team, and had a Q&A session that allowed the community to learn about the Co-Founders, Amelia Greene & Kylie Wittl. We also took a look into the future to see what Women in Chemicals has planned through 2026. Some major milestones over the past two years include:

Presented by ICIS

On January 12th,  250+ members of the Women in Chemicals community were joined by the team at ICIS  for a presentation on the current state of the chemical industry from the team at ICIS including insights on the economic outlook, current trends and expectations for commodity markets, supply chain challenges, sustainability, and the importance of diversity and inclusion within the industry.

Women in Chemicals had the pleasure of hosting Bonnie Garmus, Author of Lessons in Chemistry on November 15th. Her best selling novel follows the story of Elizaeth Zott, a brilliant chemist who is forced to become a TV Chef when she finds herself a young, single mother. Our interview with Bonnie spans many themes, including:

It was an honor for Women in Chemicals to have had the opportunity to hear from three terrific women in our community about their journeys in raising children while working. We started our panel discussion with hearing from each of our panelist about her family, her career, and the overlap of the two when it was time to start a family.

WIC had the opportunity to learn from Candice Heidebrecht on World Mental Health Day 2022. We learned from Candice the keys to maintaining ourselves and the relationships that we hold with others. Additionally, we discussed steps that we can take to properly respond to biases both in larger group settings and one on one.

It is an honor for Women in Chemicals to have had the opportunity to hear from four terrific women in our community about their journeys in working through pregnancy and birth. We started our panel discussion learning from each panelist their family planning processes, each sharing their unique stories. We talked about if there ever truly is a right time to have children, and the way that their priorities are constantly changing since finding out about their pregnancies (Alexandra is currently expecting!) or since having children.

Women in Chemicals recently hosted a webinar with Helio Fred Garcia called Maintaining Trust in a Crisis. Helio Fred Garcia teaches crisis prevention and response with a mission to equip people to become leaders who ignite and inspire change in the world for good.

Ft. Natira McDermott

During the webinar, we learned how to speak up at industry events, introduce ourselves with confidence, and connect with others while feeling like ourselves. Natira also taught us that there are two main things we care about as people: our warmth and our competence, and we learned how to maintain as well as grow each of them.

Our amazing panelists shared with our 100+ attendees their tips and tricks for identifying opportunities. Christine explained the importance of networking, the importance of speaking up to management about what you’re looking for, and how you should never be afraid to embrace change! Ashley explained to us the importance of developing relationships with people who can help you achieve your goals and how you can work in your current job to meet them.

Ft. Arthur Kroeber

Women in Chemicals extends a special thank you to Arthur Kroeber - founder of China focused Gavenkal Dragonomics research service -  for his insights and expertise on short and longer term challenges of China's economy given both domestic structural change and big geopolitical shifts.

Ft. Harriet Stein

Harriet is currently President of Big Toe In the Water, LLC. and is a Mindfulness Teacher, Coach & Consultant. We spent our session learning from Harriet's life experiences and how she responded mindfully to certain situations. We were introduced to common signs of burnout, and that Mindfulness isn't always about being happy; it is about feeling in the moment and being authentic. We spent a bulk of our session engaging in a breathing exercise.

Thank you to all who joined our special edition one-year anniversary celebration: A Conversation With Your Co-Founders. This event allowed for our WIC Community to get to know Co-Founders Amelia Greene and Kylie Wittl on a more personal level. We learned the story of how WIC first came to be and we followed a timeline of milestone events over WIC's first year.

Ft. Victoria Meyer

Victoria shared with our 100+ attendees several approaches we can take with us to reframe success and negotiate on our own behalf. We learned that there are many forms of negotiation that we are engaging in every day that we may not even be aware of. Throughout this Webinar, Victoria provided us with five actionable steps we can take to negotiate our success.

Special thanks to our panelists, Meg, Beth, Nicole, & Christie, for their insights, courage, and realism. We discussed how burnout shows up for us and what our symptoms of burnout look like, highlighting specifically the point in burnout where we may lose all motivation entirely, while also acknowledging that burnout can be different for everyone.

Special thanks to our host, Michael Sherlock, for her thought-provoking commentary and guidance around her 5 strategies for success. We discussed our own personal brands and how to be our authentic selves. We talked about advocacy, and identifying your allies while in meetings but also learning from our adversaries.

Thursday, May 20th, Women in Chemicals hosted our very first generation female panel discussion. The topic — “Women Helping Women: How we pull each other up the ladder.”

Our panelists Jean, Andi, and Kristen shared with our nearly 40 attendees across the globe their insights and experiences as female leaders in the chemicals industry.