Hamraz Salehi

M.S. Business Administration and Management (MBA), NSU, Broken Arrow-US, 2020
B.Sc. Electrical Engineering, Azad University, Tehran-Iran, 2003
AEPGA, Calgary-Canada, 2016- Now
IEEE, Women in Engineering and Power & Energy Society, Tulsa-US, 2016-Now

I was inspired by my sister, Homa to work hard and keep my determined, adventurous, and enthusiastic spirit through growing and earning the social rights as a woman in Iran’s patriarchal environment. Living in Iran and growing up in the war zone with minimum of life facilities lead my exploratory and creative mind to find solutions for earning things that I need or wish to have. My difficult childhood made me to be a creative and problem solver that is fundamental in the engineering world. With support and guidance of my sister, I became the first female engineer within my family.

Before I put all my life in eight suitcases to immigrate to Canada in 2011 on Christmas eve, I had worked eleven years in Iran utility industry from junior protection and control engineer to a supervisory position in the Transmission projects. My professional journey started in North America when I got my first job as “Engineer In Training” and joined IEEE. Presenting my mixed-media art works in many events along with volunteering with CCIS helped me to get more involved in the Canadian society and satisfy my soul by helping newcomer refugees to get settled in their new home country. My creative art was awarded by the mayor of Calgary in 2014. During assimilation into Canadian societies and working with refugee families, the value, and the power of women in the structure of family and society got bolder to me. I learnt that women have been discriminated and prevented from realizing their inner potential in the world history.

Earning Professional Engineer designation (P.Eng.) from APEGA opened a new horizon in my professional life to let my free spirit to fly one more time and get a job as Engineer II in addition to immigrating to the US in 2016 and become a member of IEEE in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Once I narrowed down where my professional interests lie, I decided to go back to school for my master’s degree in business. No matter where my personal and professional life leads, I have always been certain of one thing – I want a career that satisfies my ambitions, passion for discovery, and serving people. Working in utility industry is a fine way to serve the society by delivering reliable electricity to the peoples’ homes. Also being a successful female engineer in management role can light up the road of success to the young girls like my daughter.

Attending at Women of Color STEM in 2020 and receiving Women of Color STEM reward in 2021, motivated me to empower not only the women around myself but the professional female engineers all over world. My two amazing mentors Dr. Ashenayi, former TCPC of EDPG within PES and Dr. Novosel, past president PES, encouraged me to join IEEE-PES-Women In Power. I would love to be a part of IEEE engineering family to share my international engineering and management experience with enthusiastic professional engineers and serve our society.

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