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moldmakingtechnology.com 35 the shop floor and the front office. These experiences served her well when she was thrust into a leadership position, but it still wasn't easy, she affirms. To help keep the company going, Stacey took business and accounting classes to better understand the busi- ness side. She learned how to communicate better and facilitate teamwork. She became involved with local (TMA) Young Leaders com- mittee, where she helps get young professionals engaged with the manufacturing industry. She also served a term on the TMA's board of directors and was hon- ored with the organization's first Young Leaders Award, which happens to be named after her. As her role at Bales evolves, Stacey continues to work on her company's associations and quickly realized how important it is to have a solid network of trusted mentors and advisors to turn to, sometimes just to have an outlet to vent. She and her sister also rebranded Bales, calling it Bales Metal Surface Solutions to reflect a wider variety of services offered. Stacey is particu- larly involved with the Illinois Technology and Manufacturing Association's Renee R. Nehls Tooling Engineer Sussex IM, Sussex, Wisconsin "I foresee speaking with women about handling real-life challenges in manufacturing and arm- ing them with solutions to further their success." Renee Nehls is all about injection molds, promoting the industry and blazing a trail for up-and-coming manufacturing professionals who happen to be women. Unlike many industry people before her, Renee didn't have a parent or grandparent who designed or built molds influencing her career choices. Instead, it was an industrial arts teacher who recognized her strong mechanical aptitude and helped steer her toward a career in manufacturing engineering. Renee's career in the plas- tics industry spans nearly 30 years. More than 20 of those years were spent in mold design, with the bal- ance in product design and development. In her role as tooling engineer at Sussex IM, a company specializing in custom injection molding and full-service, integrated manufacturing, she evaluates customers' product designs for manufacturability. She also procures new molds, analyzing their designs to ensure optimal function and performance according to customer specifications. Her biggest contribution to the company? Real-life, thorough comprehension of the mold design and build process. For Renee, continuous improvement is more than just a company mantra; it's a personal quest. She keeps her mold design and product development skills honed by taking classes through the University of Wisconsin system, and she also regularly attends technical conferences such as those offered by the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), in which she has been an active member since 1988. Her SPE involvement includes serving as an elected Milwaukee section board member since 2011, including a term as that section's presi- dent. She is also an elected board member of the SPE's Mold Technologies Division. "Through my involvement with the SPE, I'm able to help spread knowledge and strengthen skills in the industry. My journey has been vibrant, but not without nontraditional obstacles. It is important to me to provide guidance to women entering the industry so that they don't have to misspend energy fig- uring out how to navigate on their own." In her spare time, Renee can be found mentoring high school and college ath- letes throughout the state of Wisconsin. She herself is a rugby enthusiast and has played for many years. As with moldmaking, rugby is regarded by some as too rough for women, but Renee's not having any of it, saying, "We have to break the women-in- moldmaking stigmas!" future growth, and she says she will continue to promote manufacturing as a career. She says the key to drawing more women into the trade is "reaching them while they're young. My daughter's junior high school offered a vacuum forming program through a STEM class. She and her friends couldn't con- tain their excitement about what they had seen and learned, and that's key."