As we celebrate Women's History Month, it's the perfect time to reflect on the unique experiences and perspectives within our own team.

Katie Brekke, Senior Business Manager at Andersen Windows

Tell us about a significant turning point in your life? I started at Andersen in 2005 as a young, new-to-manufacturing engineer. I was learning quickly but kept getting called out to the manufacturing floor to fix equipment. My background was in process and system design, not in machinery. I didn’t know how to work on equipment, so I established a rapport with the mechanics who had the skills to fix equipment. At my next manager 1-on-1 meeting, I questioned if I was the right fit for the role. My manager told me she specifically hired me for my background, with the goal of changing how engineers support the plant. She encouraged me to be confident in my skills and continue to engage all members of the team. 

I took two key learnings from that early experience that I have used throughout my career. First, bring YOUR skills to a new role. I’ve held roles in many different functional areas including engineering, supply chain, customer service, logistics, and business management. The key to my success has been learning how to apply my skills in different ways across the organization. Second, build your network and use your resources. When you connect people and skill sets in the right way, your team will deliver great things!

Melissa Brown, Senior Director, Talent & Organization Development at Andersen Windows

If you had a superpower, what would it be? My superpower is curiosity. Since childhood, I’ve always been inquisitive and relentlessly asking questions. While it was exhausting for my parents, they nurtured my curiosity and answered my many “why” questions. My interest in learning also made me very comfortable not having all the answers and skilled in figuring out how to get them. In my career, that same curiosity keeps me open to exploring alternative points of view, having an eye towards continuous improvement, and being a collaborative leader. I’ve also learned that my questions not only feed my own curiosity but can also spark innovation in others.

Heather Teskey, Vice President, Marketing at Andersen Windows

What subject could you talk about for an hour if given a microphone? If you wanted to get me started in a passionate conversation, it would be around character and values and the power of those in life, or about the journey of being a career women and mother and how to balance the two, or about the "three crowns" I learned from a longtime mentor who said you only have control over three things: your attitude, the effort you give, and the respect you show yourself and others. If you focus on these three crowns, good things will happen.

Morgan Patterson-Hepp, Associate Marketing Manager, The Home Depot division at Andersen Windows

How have you built resiliency over the course of your career? After I graduated from college, my first full-time role with Andersen was as a sales rep for our Home Depot accounts out in New Mexico. Not only was I the youngest person on my team by at least a decade, but I also was the only woman, and I was moving to a brand-new state where I didn’t know a single soul. While the situation was intimidating at first, I told myself this was my opportunity to lean in, get the most out of the experience that I possibly could, and show myself and others what I was capable of. I focused on creating connections with my team who I had SO much to learn from, finding joy in the parts of the job that I loved, like product training and building relationships with my stores, and reminding myself that I love to learn and wasn’t this the ultimate learning opportunity? The experience taught me to be confident in who I am, and I proved to myself that I could be resilient no matter what challenges were presented. Looking back, I cherish the experience I had and know the skills I learned during this period will continue to benefit me as I move forward in my career.

Mai Lor Lee , Contact Center Lead at Renewal by Andersen

What are you most proud of in your career? I feel like I’ve done so much and so little at the same time. One I would like to highlight is how proud I am of being able to work on a team that provides candidates with an unbiased, equal, and fair chance to communicate their experience and abilities for a given role without the requirement of a written resume. Another would be how proud I am that we created the AW Guide to Gender Transition to positively shape the experience of Andersen employees who are transitioning in the workplace.