From Math to Mentorship

From Math to Mentorship: Dr. Julie Gilpin-McMinn's Journey in STEM Advocacy

"Stay technical."

That's the advice Dr. Julie Gilpin-McMinn, or Dr. Julie as she's known by many colleagues, has found herself giving many times over her 27-year career.

Dr. Julie is a Technical Fellow at Spirit in research and development who specializes in human factors and ergonomics technology. She has a passion for research that she discovered in college; when she started she knew she was strong in math, but it took some direction from others who saw her potential to direct her to research.

"I was fine at English, I was fine at the social sciences, but I was really good technically," Dr. Julie said. "Junior year in college, I was doing research in a cognitive laboratory with Dr. Marilyn Turner, [doing work] which involves statistics and design of experiment, and very technical. I was excelling to the point where I became her laboratory coordinator and realized, well, I'm really good at research."

A mentor in STEM

Dr. Julie's college and early career experience, along with her self-acknowledged empathetic tendencies, led to another passion - mentoring and educating others about STEM careers.

"I'm passionate about mentoring in general," she said. "When I was young, I just didn't know the resources that were available to me."

This is something she wants to change for others. In addition to speaking at local schools and STEM events, Dr. Julie mentors other professionals looking for advice in their careers. She keeps a board on her office wall with all their names.

"I have 18 people on my board right now."

And though she mentors men and women, most of her current mentees are women as they have connected over similar experiences.

"I just really love these women and trying to keep them here [at Spirit]," she said. "They're all engineers and technical women and they're brilliant. I think the absolute world of them."

Dr. Julie had many mentors of her own throughout the years, who taught her valuable lessons she passes along today. One piece of advice came after earning her Ph.D., when a mentor told her to add the title "Doctor" to her badge and email signature.

"She said 'Julie, when people look at you, they can tell that you're young and that you're blonde and really friendly and funny, but they can't tell that they need to listen to you.'"

Dr. Julie was hesitant but agreed.

"I marched over there, and I got my badge, and I put it on my signature box," she said. "I will say I've never told anyone that they need to call me that, just so you know. But in general, people out here call me Dr. Julie."

She learned this was about gaining the confidence to present your expertise without apology.

"She was right," Dr. Julie said of her mentor's advice. "And then I learned that I need to back up what I'm saying. If somebody doesn't agree with me, I don't need to back it up with, 'Oh, I'm just really sorry,' but I need to back it up with the data that are out there."

Many people have received Dr. Julie's advice over the years. One tradition she has started is giving bracelets to those she's mentored, which has led to some fun interactions for the mentees.

"I had one of my people go to a conference, and she ran into someone else who had on the same bracelet," Dr. Julie said, "They looked at each other…it was like a special club."

Stay technical

Throughout her career, Dr. Julie was offered management positions, but she decided to remain in a technical role and pursue that route.

"I said 'You have a Ph.D., you're good at what you do.' Being technical is not always the glamorous job in the world, but dang it, I love it. I love math, I love this stuff."

This, in part, is what has led to her catchphrase, of sorts: "Stay technical."

Dr. Julie said she's often seen those with good people skills in STEM, particularly women, be offered management roles. She likes to encourage people who enjoy the research and numbers side to consider all their choices and not be afraid to keep learning and growing.

"You don't have to be a whiz at absolutely everything to be successful, and you can have people skills and still be really good technically," she said. "You don't have to go into management. You can do really great, scary things and be successful at them."

For Dr. Julie, staying technical and eventually earning the position of Technical Fellow, is what has allowed her to do work that matters to her and, as a human factors and ergonomics specialist, to help others.

"The thing that I'm most proud of is the work that I've done out here that has kept people employed," she shared. "Because part of my job - for a while and still can be - is to design things so that people who are injured can stay and continue to do the work that they're doing."

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