CWEEL Past Events
April 2025
Webinar: Building a Strong Financial Plan
On April 1st, CWEEL New England hosted a webinar presentation by Danielle Owens, a financial planner at Northwestern Mutual. Danielle discussed the importance of protecting one's assets and investing early. Danielle explained the 20/60/20 rule, meaning that 20% of one's income should be spent on investing, 60% on essentials, and 20% on discretionary spending. She also recommended reducing debt, especially credit card debt. The webinar ended with attendees asking about budgeting tools and tips for coping with unemployment, as well as how the current financial situation may impact individual savings.
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January 2025
2025 Kickoff Networking Brunch
On January 24th, CWEEL New England held our Annual Kickoff, and this year it was a networking brunch. A total of 18 CWEEL members and guests met at Plant City in Providence. Everyone enjoyed getting to know each other over a delicious plant-based brunch, plus we got to network and share our experiences as women in energy and environment.
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November 2024
Webinar: Demand Response with Amy Findlay and Anna Bella Korbatov
On November 19th meeting, CWEEL New England hosted guest speakers Amy Findlay and Anna Bella Korbatov at a webinar to discuss the current demand response landscape in New England. Manager of Demand Response & Managed Charging at Eversource, Amy gave an overview of the program, including lessons learned this past summer. She also shared some success stories about the bring-your-own device demand response approach. Anna Bella, who serves as Director of Regulatory Affairs at Fermata Energy, discussed a vehicle to grid (V2G) pilot program for low-income residents of multi-family housing in Dorchester (an area of Boston), who participated in a utility demand response program.
- Intro & CWEEL Overview
- Demand Response Presentation by Amy Findlay (Eversource)
- Vehicle to Grid Presentation by Anna Bella Korbatov (Fermata Energy)
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September 2024
3rd Annual Volunteer Community Harvest Project
On September 20th, AEE and CWEEL New England members and guests spent three hours volunteering at the Community Harvest Project in North Grafton harvesting end-of season vegetables. The results were impressive! Volunteers picked, washed and sorted 1,422 servings of cabbage - they also sorted and packed 140 servings of beans and 48 servings of Brussels sprouts - all while connecting with our energy community. We had a great time while doing good!
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August 2024
Plug Into the Network: Energizing Connections
CWEEL New England held Plug Into the Network, a distributed networking event on August 22nd. CWEEL and AEE members and guests met at local establishments in Boston, Hartford, and Providence. A total of 23 supporters of women's advancement in the energy and environmental industries met across the three venues to connect and share news - plus enjoy each other’s company. Discussions focused on energy topics, career changes, and summer vacations - an ideal combination of seriousness and fun, empowering women to form connections and lead.
June 2024
Life Cycle Assessments
CWEEL hosted a group of 20 attendees to hear from speakers Mahsa Ghandi and Andrea Boero-Vera on Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs), which offer low-carbon solutions for a sustainable energy future. Watch a recording of the live stream below to discover their key role in making environmental decisions and how they help create a greener world.
January 2024
2024 Kick-Off - Get Your Elevator Speech Off the Ground
CWEEL New England welcomed 2024 on January 26 at the National Grid Sustainability Hub in Worcester, MA. The morning began with a tour of the hub facility, including the high efficiency appliance, energy efficient construction, solar awning and other features. Following the tour and a light breakfast, the group participated in an elevator pitch workshop. Nicole Voudren led an interactive and insightful workshop focused on how to communicate our work and our impact to non-technical audiences in a few short sentences. We worked together on a few examples, and everyone left with a draft elevator pitch to revise and practice. This was the second time the Sustainability Hub has hosted CWEEL, and we are grateful for the opportunity to gather in-person in this beautiful space.
November 2023
Advancing Your Career With Intention & Purpose
Info coming soon
September 2023
2nd Annual Volunteer Community Harvest Project
On Friday September 15, 2023, CWEEL members and friends gathered for a community service event at the Community Harvest Project in North Grafton, Massachusetts. Although Hurricane Lee would be arriving that night, we had beautiful weather for working outside. We made new connections and caught up with old friends while working to clean up the fields and get them ready for winter. We are amazed by the work Community Harvest odes to fight food insecurity in our region and look forward to continuing this annual event.
July 2023
Virtual Networking
CWEEL hosted an excellent Virtual Networking Session with nearly 20 engaged participants from as far away as Colorado! We were joined by Chapter member Katelyn Leahy Barb who was recently appointed to the CWEEL Governing Council. Katelyn shared information on the Mentorship program revisions underway.
To ensure attendees were able to share their experiences and make deeper connections, we broke into three smaller groups and took turns answering a few questions. The discussions were lively and flowed naturally plus we got some excellent book recommendations! To wrap up we complied a quick recommend reading list and challenged each participant to reach out to a new connection via LinkedIn to continue the discussion.
March 2023
Building Community at Work
Thank you to everyone who joined our “Building Community at Work” event with Sharon Schiffer on March 31. Sharon helped us understand and recognize microaggressions. The workshop included interactive scenarios in which we were able to practice and review tips and tactics for bystander intervention. We all left feeling more confident about our skills and ability to promote inclusiveness at work, within AEE/CWEEL, and elsewhere in our lives.
January 2023
Women & Diversity in Energy
CWEEL kicked off our first event of the year in true new years fashion- focused on health and fitness. The event was hosted at the National Grid Sustainability Hub in Worcester Massachusetts. As participants shuffled in all were welcome to a plant and fruit-based breakfast. Yum! Roughly 20 people attended and were treated to an athletic workout facilitated by former CWEEL member Deanna Sansorrasi.
November 2022
Women & Diversity in Energy
Shalaya Morissette, Chief of the Minority Business and Workforce Division in the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity for the Department of Energy, discusses the Department of Energy’s commitment to equity, minority business, workforce development and how to access federal dollars in support of this.
Moderated by Ruth Georges, Supervisor - Equity, Strategic Partnerships and Workforce Development at Eversource Energy.
October 2022
A Talk with JKMuir
Jennifer K. Muir, President of JKMuir, shares her experience as an entrepreneur, as well as what's new in our industry.
July 2022
Whole Food Plant-Based Cooking Class
CWEEL New England had an intimate group participate in the Plant-Based Cooking Class, led by owner of the Vegan Nest Café in Clinton, MA. She taught health benefits of plant-based cooking, and talked about how she and her husband educated people who live in “food deserts” to lobby for themselves to get the healthy groceries they need at their local stores by working with local farmers and co-ops. The group left with tips on cooking with oils, making tofu, full bellies and leftovers!
March 2022
Leveling Up Communications with Visuals
Did you know that people remember only 10% of what they hear and 20% of what they read, but recall 80% of what they see? CWEEL New England member Kiersten Washle delivered an engaging presentation on March 24th that covered the theory and practice of using visuals to make your message stand out.
Kiersten outlined the elements that make a strong visual design, and followed with a demo of a few free web tools for creating powerful graphics, including Canva, Venngage, and Lucid. There was also a lively chat discussion in which we shared our favorite books, websites, and other resources for communicating technical information.
Kiersten assigned some “homework” where she encouraged attendees to make their own graphics with one of the tools they’d just learned about. Another CWEEL member, Nathalie Osborn, did just that - check out her work below!
January 2022
Salem & Beverly: Resilient Together
The women shared a theme of applying their diverse backgrounds and experience to make a positive impact. When delving into their work on Resilient Together, the discussion included the challenges and successes of community engagement (social media was the strongest tool for engagement), communication (focus on co-benefits like reducing school bus fumes and establishing community gardens), and ensuring equitable impact (comparing survey results with community demographics). Technical challenges included GHG accounting (only Scope 1 and Scope 2 were included) and funding. In addition to shorter-term goals that include a joint training project on residential deep energy retrofits for existing buildings & net zero design for new construction, they are also focused on long-term creative solutions that integrate with other municipal and regional goals.
November 2021
EmPOWERing Women
The Council on Women in Energy & Environmental Leadership (CWEEL) supports career development for professional women, mentoring, networking, and scholarships for women aspiring to pursue technical education and careers in the energy and environmental fields. CWEEL is a division of the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE). The New England CWEEL Group, part of the New England Chapter of AEE, aims to build a regional network where professionals that identify as women, as well as those who support diversity in the energy and environmental industry, can network and support each other in their career growth.
Dr. Beth Offenbacker and Nathalie Osborn joined our AEE CWEEL New England community on November 16th for a 2-hour workshop on self-empowerment and personal career planning. First, Nathalie led the nearly 50 attendees through reflective exercises completed in small breakout rooms. Then, Dr. Offenbacker offered frameworks for planning near- and long-term career goals. Attendees left feeling more assured of their own value and with guidance working towards the most fulfilling career for them. Members of CWEEL New England that participated left with the bonus of a copy of Ignite Your Leadership, featuring a chapter by Nathalie, thanks to a giveaway generously sponsored by Eversource.
September 2021
Community Harvest Project
The group worked to remove irrigation hose and cover on the fields to get the farm winter ready. It was a wonderful opportunity to spend some socially distanced time with one another and the Community Harvest staff.
To learn more about the Community Harvest Project and volunteering opportunities, check out their website here; to learn more about CWEEL, click here.
July 2021
How To Get Recruited on LinkedIn
Many thanks to Brendan Andersen for an energizing and inspiring tutorial on making the best use of LinkedIn to boost your searchability, leverage your job metrics, and set yourself apart.
Brendan is an experienced recruiter and founder of Climate People, a ClimateTech Recruitment firm in Boston, MA. He has over 20 years of agency recruiting experience and is passionate about helping people transition their careers into climate tech and sustainability.
View the slides below for excellent tips and strategies to look for new opportunities and make the best use of LinkedIn in your current roles, as well as Brendan’s contact info. A full recording of the presentation will be posted soon!
