IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 27
She traveled back and forth by car for four
months. Her ex-husband told her to quit
because that job was a man's job.
Abdel-Karim found another job assuring the reliability of the bulk power grid
with the nonprofit North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) that
was a much better fit. During the interview, she told the manager about her
daughter in Virginia. They agreed to a
schedule that allowed her to work at corporate headquarters in Atlanta and sometimes at the office in Washington, D.C.,
when she wasn't traveling for business.
"With a new job, you have to prove
that you're a good fit," Abdel-Karim
says. "Traveling back and forth again for
nine months, working hard, and raising
my daughter was stressful. But after
I presented a paper and was awarded
the Best Paper Award at the 2014 IEEE
Power & Energy Society General Meeting, I was able to work in the D.C. office
without direct supervision, move to Virginia, and live with my daughter."
Abdel-Karim's current busy work lifestyle is as a senior engineer at NERC,
managing electric power reliability across the entire continent of North
America, including Canada, the United
States, and parts of Mexico. She assesses
and analyzes bulk power systems looking at seasonal, short-, and long-term
reliability. In her daily job, she leads and
supports several task forces, assesses
program plans, writes reports and technical papers, and supports team members on their projects as well.
"The job is fast paced, and the industry
moves much faster than academia," she
explains. "Projects have real deadlines,
and there is a lot to learn about power
system reliability challenges and emerging issues in different states. I work with
many different people in industry, government, subject-matter experts, and the
december 2016
Standards Department. Teams are bigger
than just you and your advisor."
Balancing Life at Work
and as a Mother
Her distinguished position includes a
hectic travel schedule and a dynamic
office environment that makes it difficult to complete tasks that require more
focus, like conducting analyses and
writing reports during the week. She
often brings work home because there
are so many webinars, meetings, and
people coming into the office on a daily
basis. Managing time with her daughter
became a key item for her to feel like her
life and work were in balance.
The prevailing attitude in Egypt
is that it is best for the children that
mothers stay home. But according
to Abdel-Karim, this type of thinking
is inaccurate. She believes that educating her daughter includes sharing her
IEEE womEn In EngInEErIng magazInE
27
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - Cover1
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - Cover2
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 1
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 2
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 3
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 4
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 5
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 6
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 7
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 8
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 9
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 10
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 11
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IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 14
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IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 16
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 17
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 18
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 19
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 20
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IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 26
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 27
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 28
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 29
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 30
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 31
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IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 60
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IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - 64
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - Cover3
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2016 - Cover4
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