Gemco Valve Engineering Department welcomes its newest member, Engineering Associate, Mazie Ayers. Ayers is an adult student in the Industrial Engineering Department at Rutgers University. Mazie, who spent much of her childhood building houses with her family, chose engineering specifically because of the rigorous curriculum the field requires. “After being away from school for nearly a decade, I wanted to challenge myself—really put my brain to work.” She cites the hands-on process of analyzing a problematic situation and then fixing it, as a key element in making engineering her career choice. “I’ve always been drawn to making and repairing things and I enjoy finding ways to improve efficiency and generally make something better than it was before,” said Ayers, looked at Chemical and Electrical engineering before settling on Industrial Engineering where she is the only woman in most of her courses. “School is great and I’m learning a lot– not just in class, but also how to hold my own– and how to work with people who might not be expecting to find a woman doing what I do.
Gemco Valve President, Jim Lenihan says that Mazie’s logical approach to problem resolution and strong verbal skills have made her a valuable addition to the company roster. “She was the right person, with the right skill set, at the right time for us.” Ayers currently heads the Gemco Valve Global Standards and ISO 9001 coordination team. “Her efforts support quality compliance and adherence to ISO Standards by confirming that all our processes follow defined procedures, improves the customer’s experience and adds to the quality of the final product.” Lenihan added.
“Gemco immediately felt like a good fit for me. I like that we are a small company—one that is really customer solution focused. And because we specialize in custom valves for specific kinds of applications, not general one-size-fits-all manufacturing, problem solving is at the core of the work we do,” Ayers said. “If my work can make things better and to help other people do what they do more effectively, then I feel like I’m part of contributing to something bigger-something beyond myself.”
Mazie plans to keep working on Industrial Engineering projects in conjunction with continuing her studies at Rutgers where she plans to apply for the accelerated Master’s program in Business and Science.
