Alumni spotlight
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Gina Wozney, BSc'79 (Mechanical Engineering)
Reflecting on a long career as an engineer
Gina Wozney was one of only “a handful” of female grads in 1979
When Gina Wozney was finishing high school in Strathmore in 1974, she made a list of careers she might want to pursue. Because she was strong in math and sciences, engineering was near the top. But when she discussed her plans with her guidance counselor she was told: “Girls don’t do engineering.”
Fortunately, Wozney didn’t listen. “Being a rather stubborn soul, I went into engineering,” she says. “It isn't like my back was really up. I was just trying to make a decision from a diversity of options, and that was the deciding factor.”
She graduated from the University of Calgary with a BSc in mechanical engineering in 1979, one of only “a handful” of women in the faculty.
When we graduated there would've been four women in mechanical, maybe three civils, about four chemicals and maybe a couple of women in electrical.
Gina Wozney, BSc'79 (Mechanical Engineering)
After the obligatory summer backpacking around Europe, Wozney started building her career in oil and gas. Over the last 40-plus years she’s worked operations in the field, facilities engineering in the office and aced other roles in thermal production engineering and oil sands.
“I have enjoyed every opportunity I've been lucky enough to have in the oil and gas industry,” she says “There's such a diversity in experiences and the ability to switch completely. You can go into something directed more toward finance. You can do hands-on engineering, keeping the technical. You can go into management if that's your wish.”
Starting in the late 1970s, Wozney was a part of pioneering steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) with Shell’s pilot projects near Peace River. “It was a pilot, so we got to try a lot of things,” she says. “Shell had a bunch of technical experts in Houston that we had the opportunity to interface with, and some of them have published papers or books. It's really neat to have met some of these guys.”
After coming back to work after a four-month maternity leave in 1986, Wozney was told she would have to be “full-time or no-time.” She picked “no-time” and stayed home for 11 years raising her family. “Three kids later, I was fussing to my husband about what I was going to be when I grew up. I ended up going back to Shell on contract to the same job, the same people and the same project.” Wozney’s retired “four or five times” over the years. Since 2022, she’s been working three days a week doing production engineering on yet another SAGD project.
She’s also busy playing field hockey on a Pan Am Masters team, most recently traveling to Buenos Aries for a week-long tournament. Wozney has plenty of other pursuits too, including making tables with wood and resin running through the middle—“river tables”—for friends and family.
Wozney has loved her long career, what she calls her “checkered thermal past,” and is grateful she decided to go into engineering all those years ago. “It was probably one of the best decisions I'd made in my life,” she says. “It has led to so many amazing experiences. I've been really blessed.”