Women in Nuclear - WiN Canada

For almost 30 years, Joan has been working for Atomic Energy of Canada Limited at the Chalk River Laboratories.  As the Vice-President and General Manager of Decommissioning and Waste Management, her main job is to lead people in the execution of a key component of the Chalk River site’s activities.  This includes carrying out  major operational programs, and developing various  new build and demolition projects associated with both decommissioning and waste management activities.  Critical to all of this is ensuring that all activities are done safely.

Joan completed her Honours Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from McMaster University in 1979 and immediately started with AECL.  Throughout her career she has been under the direction of many great supervisors who have gone out of their way to create new learning and development opportunities for her. They allowed her to take on significant activities and roles early on in her career, giving her the opportunity to interact with a large number of people within and outside the organization. They also provided a broad range of projects to work on, along with many activities from within those projects such as technical activities, regulatory interface, contract negotiation and customer presentations.

As a vice president, Joan loves the problem solving aspect of her position whether it’s organizational, program or project-related. She also has the opportunity to influence program direction and people and takes great satisfaction in watching her staff develop and accomplish their goals. Joan’s most rewarding project was turning her Research and Development experience into a commercial facility that met a customer’s need, along with the transfer of that R&D knowledge to the customer’s engineering and operations staff. 

Joan first got involved in WiN by the influence of her friendly and active local chair. Since becoming a member, she has been reminded of the large number and wide ranging roles for women in nuclear and takes great pride in knowing that she is a part of it. Because she is a relatively new member, she is looking forward to future WiN events to learn about the wide variety of accomplishments by the other WiN members, which will serve as a great reminder of the opportunities that the nuclear industry provides for us all. 

Created on April 29, 2008.