End of An Era

On January 1, 2025, I will officially hand over the reins to the organization that has become the most rewarding endeavor of my career. To say it's bittersweet would be an understatement, but it's time. As of January 1, 2025, Women in Chemicals will have its first full-time, paid Executive Director.?

Kylie and I never intended to start an industry organization. We were simply trying to address our mutual desire for a female peer network and increase our access to aspirational women executives in the chemical industry. We were two amateurs hoping to make our professional lives just a little better. In less than 4 years, our initial 40 woman virtual network has grown to include 4,500 members globally - showing there was a clear need for women in the chemical industry to connect authentically. We never expected Women in Chemicals to become the organization that it is today with extensive networking, professional development and mentorship resources. With limited leadership experience and no previous nonprofit experience, we built it step-by-step, learning through trial & error, and the selfless guidance of others who believed in us.

For the past four years, Women in Chemicals has been our passion project, our baby, and it’s filled every second of our free time. Kylie and I have had the honor of shaping every part of it? - from designing the logo to hand selecting the women and allies on leadership team and advisory boards. Transitioning from Kylie and I managing every aspect of the day-to-day operations and programming in the first eighteen months of WIC, to now having a team of 17 women on our leadership team was transformative and forced me to grow. One of the moments that stands out as the turning point for Women in Chemicals’ evolution was the first time that the leadership team challenged my opinion, something I initially resisted. We were narrowing down the Woman of the Year applications to the top three finalists for our inaugural Woman of the Year award in the summer of 2023. To select the top three finalists, the entire leadership team reviewed the applications and participated in a blind vote. There were two finalists who were in sustainability functions. I thought this redundancy diluted the potential impact of the Woman of the Year program. I suggested that we replace the woman who had received the lesser votes with the next-highest-ranked woman. The leadership team respectfully disagreed, insisting that we stick with the results. Once I was able to take a step back, I realized how powerful that moment was. Women in Chemicals had become bigger than me and my vision alone. It wasn’t just my decision anymore - it was a shared purpose that we all owned.

Our powerhouse team took ownership of their roles, allowing Women in Chemicals to grow in ways I couldn't have managed alone. It was liberating. I hadn’t realized the weight I was carrying, fearing that if Women in Chemicals failed, it would be on me. Trusting the team, I began to let go, inspiring the 2023 theme for our team: “extreme ownership.” Once I was able to take my finger off every single decision that was made and empower our team, Women in Chemicals started to evolve at speed.

With every success, I’d find myself thinking, "What’s next?" How could we reach more women? What were the gaps in development that we hadn’t yet addressed? I've always been a dreamer, and thankfully, Kylie kept me grounded. She warned of scope creep and bandwidth concerns. Kylie’s concerns were warranted, and as usual, they were also correct.

In June of this year, as we were gearing up for our first conference, I was experiencing an extremely heavy workload in my day job resulting in long and stressful days. Everyday was mentally taxing and finding the motivation to do my Women in Chemicals work on nights and weekends was becoming extremely hard. Our team, committed and excellence-oriented, continued to take initiative, embodying extreme ownership. At the same time, we had the looming commitment of our conference. Regardless of what was happening in other aspects of my life, 370 women were coming to Houston on September 9th, and they were expecting a quality conference. I didn’t want to let them down.

I tried to put my head down and manage all my commitments, but it was getting hard and I was getting increasingly resentful. I became short tempered, snapping at requests from the team that were in my scope as Executive Director. I started to let things slip. When asked for our certificate of good standing in the state of Delaware to receive a tax benefit for the Conference, I realized that I had let our state registration lapse. We had to pay hundreds in fines to get back into good standing. We also started to talk about the conference for 2025. The first conference was a much heavier lift than anyone on our team anticipated and talk of taking it all on again was filling me with dread. I just wanted to survive this one - how was I supposed to consider signing up for this again next year?

The burden of Women in Chemicals’ success was creeping back, making me feel like I was failing our team, sponsors, and community. I knew that something had to change, and that Women in Chemicals deserved more than I could give it. I approached Kylie mid-summer and told her something we both already knew, but were hesitant to admit to ourselves: Women in Chemicals had become a full time commitment and it deserved full time leadership. We agreed that we would try to find a solution by the end of the year.

By mid-summer, we began exploring options, from association management companies to individual contractors. But none seemed right; Women in Chemicals was built on passion and we couldn’t entrust it to someone who might see us as just another client. We started to realize our end of the year goal to have full time leadership for WIC might not be viable. We were looking for someone who had non-profit experience, chemical experience, meeting planning experience, and someone who truly believed that Women in Chemicals was an important part of shaping a better future for the chemical industry. We were looking for Amber – though we weren’t aware of it at the time.

Then came a pivotal moment. We were four months out of our conference and we hadn’t finalized the contract for our venue. As our conference planning lagged behind, one of our advisors introduced us to Amber, who had extensive association management experience. Amber stepped in, made introductions, and shared best practices, simply because she believed in our mission. Her professionalism, commitment, and alignment with Women in Chemicals’ purpose was evident. She did all of this in a strictly volunteer capacity, with no expectation or desire for recognition.

Around that time, I shared with Amber that I felt completely burned out and mentioned our search for full-time leadership. Without hesitation, she expressed interest. Through a series of conversations, Kylie and I quickly realized she was a perfect fit: her experience, hands-on approach, and understanding of our mission made her uniquely qualified to lead Women in Chemicals forward.

Stepping aside as Executive Director wasn’t something I anticipated, but it’s time and Women in Chemicals deserves full-time leadership. I feel immense confidence knowing that Amber will complement and support our leadership team, ensuring Women in Chemicals continues to grow and make an impact. Starting January 1, 2025, Amber will officially take on the role of Executive Director, while I transition to focus on what I enjoy most: developing corporate partnerships to expand Women in Chemicals’ reach.

This is a pivotal step for Women in Chemicals as we move into our fourth year, marking our evolution from an entirely volunteer-driven organization into a new chapter of professionalism. Our volunteer leadership team’s commitment remains the foundation of Women in Chemicals, and I am endlessly grateful for each member’s selfless contributions, working toward a more inclusive and empowering industry for women now and into the future.

As I close this chapter, I want to extend my deepest thanks to our community, our incredible leadership team, and especially to Kylie, who has trusted me as her partner on this journey. The past four years have been a profound experience, made possible by each of you who has believed in Women in Chemicals and poured your time, energy, and heart into our shared mission. While this marks the end of an era for me, it’s only the beginning of what Women in Chemicals will do to uplift the women in our industry. To support in building this future, I ask you to engage with our programming, share our resources within your networks, and advocate for your companies to support Women in Chemicals as sponsors. Together, we can ensure our ability to create vital resources for women in our industry to grow and thrive.?