Pavion Women’s History Month (Ep. 4)
Episode 4 of our Pavion Women’s Month Podcast features Corina St. Jean, Pavion Integration BU HR Director; Jessica Ferguson, Senior Director of Integration; and Susan Post, Chief Strategy and Integration Officer.
As the Director of Human Resources at Pavion, Corina loves her role as she is able to bring everyone together. Corina described how it’s important for her to have other women in her life and career. Throughout her career path, she feels lucky to have strong women leaders. “Seeing people like Susan Post and Silvi Hernandez on Pavion’s executive board made it exciting to join this team,” said Corina.
Since our company is constantly evolving, Jessica enjoys constant learning and adapting to change at Pavion as Senior Director of Integration. Jessica believes that there have been more women in leadership willing to mentor each other over the past 20+ years. Women know they’re appreciated in their roles here at Pavion, which is critically important.
While reflecting on challenges in their career path, Corina recalled a male colleague at a previous job who wanted to be in control of everything. She solved this problem by leveraging other women leaders to help solve these issues, which helped her gain respect from this male colleague.
Jessica was put in similar awkward situations, having to remind others that she had a voice and can handle things herself. “As long as we have the courage to speak up and stand up for ourselves, we can keep making strides,” Jessica said.
No situation is perfect, and no environment is perfect, but it’s important to hear these stories. “People need to understand they have an outlet to express if they feel they aren’t being heard,” said Susan.
Jessica is proud of her accomplishments, and always felt that she had to work hard and prove herself. With migrant worker parents, Jessica saw directly what they were able to accomplish alone, and as a result knows there isn’t a goal she cannot reach.
As Corina received a promotion to a manager role for the first time, she knew she was working hard for it. Corina was proud that she was one of the youngest managers in the business and was female in a predominantly male environment.
This episode spotlights inventor Barbara Askins. She was at the forefront of photo technology. Barbara Askins worked with NASA to improve the quality of photos taken from space, and enhanced photo negatives as well.
Barbara Askins was extremely impactful with her invention, as we can’t imagine a world without photos. A lot of us at Pavion work remotely, and we can connect with everyone on a personal and professional level. Pictures are often exchanged, which creates a connection and community amongst everyone in a business, especially ours.
Keeping everyone connected is a great experience through pictures. They’re little things that have a major significance. With photo enhancements, not everyone has the ability to see things real time in person, being able to have photos allows you to dream big and pursue it. We can thank her for giving people the opportunity to see the whole world.
