Kelly Ferneau, Site Vice President at America Electric Power’s D.C. Cook Nuclear Power Plant, recently took over our Twitter account (@womeninnuclear) to share her “Day-in-the-Life” story. Ferneau is a member of the first cohort class for U.S. WIN’s Nuclear Executives of Tomorrow (NEXT) program, NEXT20, and she has previously been featured in a U.S. WIN member spotlight. Check out her tweets below!
Good Morning! I'm Kelly Ferneau the Site Vice President at Cook Nuclear Plant. Today, I'm taking over @WomenInNuclear to share my #dayinthelife. Along the way, I'll share some of the things that I have learned and some things I wish I knew earlier in my career. pic.twitter.com/5KJeOEmmqG
— U.S. WIN (@WomenInNuclear) July 12, 2023
My day so far: – awake at 4:15 – at the plant by 5:30 – Stopped by the I&C shop to listen to their morning briefing and to provide some appreciative feedback to one of the technicians who found a way to reduce the time we were in a single point vulnerable condition. 👏
— U.S. WIN (@WomenInNuclear) July 12, 2023
0630 – plan of the day meeting. I monitor this meeting remotely so that I can ensure the team is working cross functionally and so that I can ensure I stay in role and not slip into the plant manager role – staying in role is something I work on every single day. pic.twitter.com/SsE1AoqEys
— U.S. WIN (@WomenInNuclear) July 12, 2023
Here I am meeting with Projects Director Scott Liddick for our 1 on 1 meeting. I have these meetings monthly to ensure that we have the same priorities and goals. We also focus on providing feedback to each other on performance. It is important to take dedicated with each other pic.twitter.com/6VWju3DLWj
— U.S. WIN (@WomenInNuclear) July 12, 2023
Hi – just finished our outage meeting. We have an outage coming up this fall and outages are critical times to ensure plant reliability for the next 18 months. Great cross functional engagement from the team! pic.twitter.com/rd9rYIqM9I
— U.S. WIN (@WomenInNuclear) July 12, 2023
I Just finished my plant walkdown including a check in with the control rooms. My goal is to get into the plant every day – I may not meet that goal every single day but I am close. I learned that I have to control my time and dedicate time to getting into the field. pic.twitter.com/76WgZymHHS
— U.S. WIN (@WomenInNuclear) July 12, 2023
Today I have 11 meetings on my calendar which is a typical day. Don't be a slave to your calendar. Make sure you block out time to do the other things that you need to do. I typically block out 2 hours a day with no meetings, time to observe training or go in the plant, ect. pic.twitter.com/S3x8mi5LnW
— U.S. WIN (@WomenInNuclear) July 12, 2023
3 things I wish I knew sooner:
– you do not have to blend in – we need all people to be part of the team – be yourself
– sit at the table – don't take a back row seat – be seen and heard
– you do not have to be 100% certain before you speak up – just be part of the discussion pic.twitter.com/fIjNIFG8tE— U.S. WIN (@WomenInNuclear) July 12, 2023
Getting ready to head home for the day – thanks for sharing my day! I really love my job and am proud to be generating carbon free energy for over 1.5 million homes. @IN_MI_Power pic.twitter.com/hHJbPnP5x4
— U.S. WIN (@WomenInNuclear) July 12, 2023