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P R O F I L E
Apple orchards and water rights Taylor Dayton, EIT, is a project engineer at Aspect Consulting’s office in Wenatchee, Washington.
By RICHARD MASSEY Managing Editor
“M y clients seem to value responsiveness above all other aspects of communication,” Dayton says. “Four years ago, I would have interpreted ‘responsiveness’ as having my phone on at all hours of the day, but I see nu- ance to it now. My clients value timely responses where I don’t come in swinging right off the bat with the ‘magic’ so- lution.” A CONVERSATION WITH TAYLOR DAYTON. The Zweig Letter: You started out as a biochemist at NASA. What did you learn from that experience that has been useful to you as a project engineer? Taylor Dayton: From my first day on base, I was around women engineers of all ages, serving in a variety of roles – the head of my program office, the aeronautics project man- ager that stepped up as my mentor, the chemical engineer I shared an office with. As much as I knew there must be women engineers out there in the world, it was a very dif- ferent experience witnessing them in action – solving very complex engineering problems, managing large technical
teams, and directing entire programs. I suddenly had a doz- en role models that were like me in some way and actively encouraging me to get involved in the missions they were passionate about. Their enthusiasm was infectious, and they made sure there was a path available to anyone who wanted to jump onboard. As a project manager, I want to grow into that role with my junior staff and with clients. It is easy in a technical field to hoard work and information because engineering problems grow in complexity very quickly. I am still learning but ac- tively trying to be intentional about creating that space to share my enthusiasm for pumps and pipes and keep it ac- cessible for anyone who wants to come along for the ride. TZL: What has it been like going from a lab setting to working in the field, sometimes in remote areas accessi- ble only by helicopter? TD: Lab science left more room for trial and error. If my microbes died or I pressed down too hard and pipetted a reagent in the wrong volume, I could step away and come
THE ZWEIG LETTER Ju
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