Sonia is currently the Director of Joint Projects and Services at the CANDU Owner’s Group (COG). She is responsible for the line of business that develops solutions to problems and common issues in the CANDU community through innovative new approaches for longer more robust plant life. She has over 23 years of experience in the nuclear industry with past employers being Candu Energy and Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. She holds a Chemical Engineering honors degree from the University of Toronto and is a licensed Professional Engineer with the Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO).
Sonia has been a WiN Canada member for 15 years! She serves on the WiN Canada Board of Directors and is currently the Chapter Chair for WiN Canada’s Golden Horseshoe West Chapter.
She was inspired to join WiN Canada after attending the last WiN Global Conference hosted by WiN Canada. She realized the mission and vision of WiN was close to her heart. Up until then in her career, it was clear to her there were not enough women in positions of influence in the nuclear industry and the new generation of women entering the industry were unable to envision a path to the C-Suite. She realized there was a lot of work that needed to be done to educate the general public on the benefits of nuclear energy as there are misconceptions that hurt the industry’s public acceptance. In addition, being a mother of two boys and one girl, she could observe how there needed to be a bigger push in the school system to encourage kids towards STEM related fields, especially for young girls. Also, she finds encouraging women to progress in their careers and providing them with professional developments tools through training seminars and panel discussions is very rewarding.
Sonia affirms “As a society we are benefiting from nuclear in so positives many ways, how could I not be passionate about working in nuclear?” Having the knowledge that she works in an industry that provides her family with a reliable and clean energy source that contributes significantly to fighting climate change encourages her to continue her work in the nuclear energy sector. In addition, understanding that the production of life saving nuclear isotopes are produced as a result of nuclear energy makes her appreciate the industry even further.