No One Rises Alone
No One Rises Alone
Progress in our industry is not built by individuals. It is built by people who help one another rise.
Each March, conversations about Women+’s History Month surface across industries and organizations. While the month recognizes the contributions of women+ throughout history, what stays with me most are the stories about how people help one another rise throughout the year.
In an industry like energy, where progress depends on collaboration across disciplines and generations to build and maintain the systems that power our world, those stories resonate deeply.
Early in my career, I believed success meant reaching the next milestone, project, responsibility, or leadership opportunity. Like many people entering technical fields, I assumed advancement was largely an individual pursuit. Work hard enough, learn enough, and push forward, and the path would unfold.
Over time, I learned something different.
The most meaningful moments in my career did not come from individual accomplishments alone. They came from people. Mentors who shared their knowledge. Colleagues who opened doors. Communities that created spaces where ideas and support could be exchanged freely.
Advancement is not just about moving forward ourselves. It is about making sure others can move forward too.
Collaboration and Connection
Energy systems are complex by nature. Engineers, technicians, regulators, policymakers, scientists, and operators all play a role in building and maintaining the infrastructure that powers our world.
Over the course of my career, I have worked across several of these environments, including nuclear energy, offshore oil and gas, and offshore and onshore wind. What became clear quickly is that no single person or organization can move these systems forward alone.
The infrastructure we build and the energy future we are navigating are simply too complex for that. Progress requires teams, partnerships, and networks of people willing to share knowledge and support one another.
Throughout history, progress has often depended on people who helped connect others.
One example is Elżbieta Zawacka, a Polish resistance courier during World War II known by the codename Agent Zo. She carried intelligence and messages across Nazi occupied Europe between underground resistance networks and the Polish government in exile in London.
The work was dangerous and often carried out quietly. Couriers moved across borders alone, ensuring resistance networks could stay connected. Without them, coordination and strategy would have been impossible.
Zawacka’s impact came not from standing at the center of the story but from enabling others to act. In many ways, her role reflects something we still see today. Progress often depends on people who help others move forward, even when their own contributions remain behind the scenes.
Community and Mentorship
Organizations like NEWIEE create something that is often rare in fast paced technical industries: intentional spaces for connection.
They bring together people at different stages of their careers who might not otherwise cross paths in their daily work. These communities make it easier to ask questions, exchange ideas, and learn from people who have navigated similar challenges.
At a moment when I felt caught between paths and unsure what direction my career would take, my manager, Kristy Abel, Senior Director of EHS at Avangrid Power, helped me step back and see the bigger picture. Her perspective, shaped by a career spanning natural gas networks and renewable energy, helped me think more intentionally about the long arc of a career in this industry.
Mentors like this shape not only individual careers, but the communities and industries that grow around them.
Often, mentorship becomes the foundation for something even broader: people who create spaces where others can grow together.
My colleague Tamika Jacques, Manager of Workforce Development at Avangrid and Chair of NEWIEE’s DEI Committee, embodies that kind of leadership. She builds community.
Tamika creates spaces where people feel supported, heard, and encouraged to contribute. More importantly, she creates environments where people support one another. In those environments, people shine.
At some point in our careers, something shifts. We move from being the people seeking guidance to becoming the people others turn to for it.
A colleague of mine, Karolina Zakrzewska, Senior Manager of Organic Growth Budgets and Processes, once reflected on what she would tell her younger self: trust your voice earlier and do not wait to be invited to the table.
Your ideas and perspective matter, even when you feel less experienced than others in the room.
She also spoke about the importance of integrity, believing that success without values is never worth it.
For her, leadership is not simply about reaching the top. It is about lifting others along the way, especially other women+.
Now, as the mother of a baby girl, she often thinks about the kind of world she hopes her daughter will grow up in. A world where she can lead with confidence and opportunity.
Building the Future of Energy Together
The energy sector continues to evolve. The future of energy systems will require innovation, collaboration, and a broad range of expertise.
It also requires communities that support the next generation of leaders.
Along the way, it is worth asking ourselves:
Who is your Kristy?
Who is your Tamika?
Who is your Elżbieta?
And just as importantly, who might you become for someone else?
Because the future of our industry will not be built by individuals working alone.
It will be built by the people who help others rise, and by the communities we create for those who will lead after us.
Written by
Alicia Calero
EHS Manager, Avangrid Power
Member NEWIEE DEI Committee
© 2026 New England Women in Energy and the Environment (NEWIEE). NEWIEE is a non-profit, tax exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
