How Industry Can Support Women in Turbomachinery

Susan Scofield, a co-curator for the Celebrating Women in Turbomachinery program at Turbo Expo 2025, shared her insights on how the industry can and does support women in the industry. Scofield is also the Vice President of Business Operations for North America at Siemens Energy, Vice Chair of the IGTI Strategy Department, and Executive Conference Chair of the Turbo Expo Organizing Committee.

How can the industry support and uplift women in turbomachinery?

Going into it, sometimes you fall into a great role model—a great mentor who gives you that boost of courage or just shows you what the future possibility is like. Other times, you have to be intentional around it. We have great opportunities with things like the ASME mentoring program and the Young Student Advisory Committee, which promotes what jobs and careers could look like in turbomachinery. And then sometimes you get lucky with professors like Jackie O'Connor at Penn State, who are just fantastic and do awesome work. You then get a chance to showcase what you've learned and build a bridge into an industry of what the future possibilities could be like for your own career. So, building these networks in the places that do exist—there are places that exist with a lot of great opportunity—is a key to helping the next generation of women and men be fantastic in the turbomachinery industry.

Click here to hear the biggest challenges for women working in the turbomachinery industry.