Belridge, San Ardo Oct 3, 2018

Two from Aera honored with 2018 GRIT awards

At Aera, being passionately engaged is one of our values, and that’s exactly what two women from the Aera team were honored for when they won the 2018 GRIT Awards at the Experience Energy event in Houston, Texas.

Aera’s Mysti Barrett and Johanna Hoyt were selected as part of 12 individual winners from hundreds of nominations. In total, 38 people were recognized by the awards program across all categories.

Mystie Barrett and Johanna Hoyt were honored with 2018 GRIT Awards.

Barrett is a process specialist supporting Lost Hills. Barrett was anonymously nominated by one of her colleagues, who lauded her efforts to operate responsibly and safely: “To both empathize with people and ensure work is getting done correctly was on full display as she helped lead her team through . . . a workplace injury,” the nomination read. “[She handled] the most challenging event in the career of an operations staff member in the most effective manner I have ever seen.”

Aera’s second award winner Hoyt is a geologist who supports San Ardo and was also nominated anonymously. Her work in San Ardo has helped make the field more productive, and she’s also been actively involved in Aera’s employee resource groups.

Winners were selected through a blind application review by four external judges. The judges included Tracey Bentley, executive director of Colorado Petroleum Council; Jay Copan, senior vice president at the American Gas Association; Paula Glover, president and CEO of the American Association of Blacks in Energy and Melody Meyer, non-executive director at British Petroleum, AbbVie, and National Oilwell Varco.

Vicki Codd, a speaker at the event and marketing director for NES Global Talent said, “The industry is working to build the workforce of tomorrow. Part of that transformation means pulling together the brightest minds and recognizing those who are changing the industry from within. The GRIT Awards accomplishes all those things, and we were thrilled to be involved.”

Also nominated were:

  • Cindy Pollard, public affairs director, who joined Aera in 2014, “has forged a path . . . that is striving to create a new future for the industry by shifting the public narrative about the work we do,” writes nominator Kathy Miller, Aera’s public affairs coordinator.
  • Jorge Haiek, information supervisor, was nominated for the male champion category by fellow Aera Information Supervisor Kristi Culligan. Haiek served as Culligan’s supervisor before he took on the position of the IT supervisor for the data management team. When he moved, Culligan replaced him. “I nominated Jorge because he is a constant support to me and the women that work with him,” she says. 
  • Joann Christensen, leader of Aera’s transformational innovation project, Trailblazer, was initially hesitant to leave her role as engineering technology manager for the Belridge light oil recovery team. But she realized “this was a great growth opportunity for me, a potential game-changer for Aera, and with 33 years in the industry, an opportunity to leave a legacy.”

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