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celebrating the power of possibility.

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I'm Susanna Navarro and I believe anything is possible.

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I'm Halloran Hilton Hill and this is Anything is Possible.

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Great stories about great people whose lives prove that anything is possible.

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This is Dr. Susanna Navarro.

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Welcome to the broadcast.

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Thank you so much. I am so happy to be here.

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I am so excited to meet you.

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And I'm going to tell you why I'm so excited to meet you because I've heard about you.

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I've heard a lot about you.

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I think I met you once before.

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And when I was looking at all that you've accomplished in your life, it's pretty amazing.

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Thank you.

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Does it amaze you as well?

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Certainly. Certainly amazing.

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Take me back to the beginning of your story.

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Did you imagine that you would build such an incredible, like it's one of the largest woman-owned engineering firms in the country?

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Well-respected. Did you imagine this?

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Absolutely not.

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Since I was a little girl, I was very dedicated, very focused, but I always grew up in Mexico City.

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And I always, I think the importance of the role models that you have.

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My mom is an engineer and she is a professor, so I thought I would be a professor.

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I never imagined if you had told little Susanna many years ago, you are going to own a business and you're going to grow it.

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I would have said you're talking about somebody else completely different because I probably do something technical, some technical work.

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But I didn't have that background or I didn't know anybody that had a business that would have been a role model in that area.

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So coming to the U.S., our country has so many opportunities for anybody to excel at anything if they work hard.

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If they want to.

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Yes, if they work hard.

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Now you said as a little girl though, you were very focused.

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You remember being focused as a child. Was it a function of you wanted to live up to the expectations of your parents?

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Or was it just your curiosity?

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Yeah, I was.

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And you liked the way it felt to be excellent?

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Yeah, I was, I guess, born that way.

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You have siblings, by the way?

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Yes, I do.

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I knew I was different because I was studying all the time.

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My friends and my brothers and sisters were playing outside.

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I wanted to read, I wanted to study.

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I knew I was different.

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But I enjoy doing that and I just stayed true to what I wanted to do.

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So you stayed with it.

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So walk me through your early education.

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So I went to Catholic school in Mexico City and we were, we were, my mom, we didn't have a lot of money or a lot of resources when we were growing up.

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But my mom value education very highly.

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So the little we had, she invested in private schools for five kids.

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Wow.

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So we will go to a private school, a Catholic school, and there were a lot of other kids that were much, much well off than we were.

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But we, we really benefited from that attention to importance and priority that she gave to education.

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So you go through the Catholic school system in Mexico City, when did you come to the United States?

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So.

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And how much of your education was in Mexico?

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All the way to, I finished my, my BS in Mexico City.

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And as you were doing all of your early education, was it bilingual?

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No.

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Okay.

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100% Spanish.

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Yeah.

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100%.

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So this, this is really interesting, right?

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So continue.

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So, so I did my BS in Mexico City in engineering physics.

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And then I, at that time.

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Why engineering and why, your mother, your mother was a.

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Chemical engineer.

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Chemical engineer, but why did you choose engineering physics?

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I just like so many subjects.

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I like all kinds of engineering.

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I like physics.

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I like, even philosophy.

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I like just about every subject.

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And I felt like engineering physics would give me science and it would give me engineering.

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It was more broad.

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Are you a very curious person?

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Yeah.

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And you seem like you love learning.

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I do.

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I do.

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To this day, right?

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To this day, yeah.

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Yeah.

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All right.

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So you finish your BS in engineering physics.

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Yes.

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Right.

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And then you make the decision to come to the U.S.?

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During, when I was doing my BS, I decided I needed to learn English and come to the U.S.

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because I wanted to do a PhD in nuclear engineering at that point I decided.

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I'm just imagining the language leap.

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Yes.

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Because it's just the nuances of language are huge, but then language on top of a PhD.

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So I work after I finish my BS, I work for two years to study English and to study for

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the old exams to get into the PhD, the master's and PhD programs in the U.S.

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And yeah, it was hard.

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When I came to the U.S., I didn't have so much trouble understanding the classes in

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English, but as soon as I stepped outside of the classroom and somebody would just talk

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to me in the back of my head, I would have no clue what they were saying.

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Because there's so much nuance.

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There's so, you know, as I know, I don't know any, I studied German, I want to learn

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Spanish, but the nuances, that's where the magic is.

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And so I would imagine that that was both challenging and interesting.

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And interesting, yeah.

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Study Pulled by Covenant Health, Home Federal, and the Knoxville News Sentinel.

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But you don't just come to the United States to pursue this, this PhD.

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You end up at one of the most prestigious schools in America, which means you must

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than a heck of a student.

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Yeah, I work really hard.

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Let's just say that.

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I liked the way you said that.

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Yeah, yeah, I was very fortunate.

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I was, I applied to several schools.

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I was admitted in some, but they didn't give me the scholarship.

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I needed money, I needed a scholarship.

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I could not just admission.

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Like MIT admitted me, but they didn't give me scholarship.

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So, um...

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So you got into MIT?

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MIT, Berkeley, UCLA, and RPI.

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And Berkeley, UCLA, and RPI gave me money to come.

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And I selected RPI.

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You know, state New York with the winters from Mexico City.

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I don't know, some days.

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I wonder, why did I do that?

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But I love RPI.

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So, you know, it was a very good experience

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and a very good opportunity to be in one of the top programs

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in the country.

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So you finished a PhD in engineering.

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What type of engineering?

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Nuclear engineering.

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Nuclear engineering.

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That's...

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You...

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My dad probably would have said it this way.

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You're a smart cookie.

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That's what he was...

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Smart cookie.

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So, what were you going to do with that?

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My plan, since I thought when I was younger,

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was to be a professor at that point.

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So, I applied to become a professor.

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And I was accepted to be a tenure track at Madison, Wisconsin,

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the University of Madison, Wisconsin.

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But at that time, I had already married.

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And there were no two jobs in Madison, Wisconsin.

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So, I had to compromise and came to Oak Ridge National Lab.

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That's how I ended up here.

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And so, I worked at Oak Ridge National Lab

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before starting the company.

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And boy, did you start a company, right?

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I think when I was looking at some of the information,

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you have a company that has $180 million in revenue.

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You've got offices all over the country.

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What?

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It's one thing to work at the lab.

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It's another to launch a company.

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It's another to scale like this.

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What happened?

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How did that happen?

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Well, of course, it started with two people and no revenue.

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But early on, even though I love to do technical work so much

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and I wanted to do research, I surprised myself on saying,

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I want to focus 100% on growing the company.

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And so, I dedicated.

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And when I focused on something, I'm very focused in terms of,

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you know, very driven.

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So, I didn't have any training in business at all, zero.

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It was all technical training.

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So, and government contracting, you really need,

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there are so many rules that you have to follow all of them.

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You have to make sure that you are always compliant.

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So, I learned all that on the go.

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But it seems like that fits your personality.

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Like, you follow the rules.

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You solve the problem.

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You show up.

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You make a grade.

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So, that attention to detail.

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But also, we need people in the world that,

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for whom attention to detail is a delight.

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It seems like you're delighted to be that way.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Like, it's the full expression of who you are.

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You like being that way.

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Absolutely.

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And I like also building something.

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I started, when we started, it was mainly a nuclear

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and nuclear quality safety company.

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And early on, I had to make a decision.

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Do I stay very niche, highly nuclear services company?

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Or do I broaden the services to something,

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start building a large company?

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Early on, I decided, no, I want to build something

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that will be different, that will be less focused on

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how much profit I make and more focused on,

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do I make a difference?

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Am I doing a good service to my clients?

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Am I making it more efficient?

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Am I making a difference?

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So, I decided to methodically increase the amount of services

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to logical things that were not a big leap.

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Like, from nuclear criticality to safety,

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from safety to environmental.

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And then from environmental, jump into clean up,

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environmental remediation and clean up of nuclear waste

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and nuclear contamination.

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So, broaden the capabilities of the company significantly

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over the years, very methodically and well thought through.

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Did you run into any challenges

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being a female entrepreneur in that space?

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At the very beginning, maybe a little bit,

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I did have one meeting one time and I came by myself

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to the meeting and there were two men and they say,

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is your husband coming?

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No, I'm making the decision.

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But I think my personality is such that...

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People know pretty quick.

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She's the boss.

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Pretty quick, right?

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So, when you think about coming from Mexico and here,

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you were mentioning early on that America is a place of vast opportunity.

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And you were building on that.

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Let's go back to that.

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I can't express how much gratitude I have for this country

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and all the opportunities that are afforded to us.

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Because I don't believe that if I had to stay in Mexico,

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I would have been able to build what I built here.

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The opportunity, if you, for all the kids that are driven,

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if you really have a dream,

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if you really have something that you want to accomplish,

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you can hear.

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There is the opportunity if you just learn about what you love,

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learn about what you want to do,

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and then focus on it and work hard and keep your faith.

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It's always...

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I believe that it's hard work,

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but also I believe the hand of God is there to help us to...

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Talk about your faith.

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So...

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I notice you have your cross and...

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Yeah, talk about your faith, do you?

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Yeah, yeah.

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I am a Catholic and I've been all my life,

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very religious person and strong faith.

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And I believe that the energy...

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I'm full of energy,

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but I believe a lot of that is coming from my faith too.

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It's interesting this thing we call faith.

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In the world of quantum physics,

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they're really trying to figure out,

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is there some type of physical connection?

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Is there a thing because we do get energy from faith?

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And I don't know what it is.

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I don't know if it's a vibration, I don't know what it is,

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but when people do have some type of essential faith,

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it creates a resilience and a fuel.

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At least that's what my experience has been,

258
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because I can't imagine...

259
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I can't imagine me without faith.

260
00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:22,640
No, I can't either.

261
00:15:22,640 --> 00:15:23,520
What about your family?

262
00:15:23,520 --> 00:15:24,560
Do you have family?

263
00:15:24,560 --> 00:15:29,760
Yes, my mom, I have two brothers and two sisters,

264
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mainly engineers and doctors.

265
00:15:34,960 --> 00:15:38,080
And the only one that's in social science is the brother,

266
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not the sister but the brother.

267
00:15:40,800 --> 00:15:41,440
You have children?

268
00:15:41,440 --> 00:15:42,080
Yeah.

269
00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:45,440
So I have two, my daughter is 19,

270
00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:48,480
and she goes to UT in the business school.

271
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Is she coming to work in the company?

272
00:15:50,400 --> 00:15:53,920
Yes, she says she wants to be a pilot,

273
00:15:54,560 --> 00:15:58,880
so she's already getting her license, her pilot license,

274
00:15:58,880 --> 00:16:00,960
so that's what she wants to do.

275
00:16:01,520 --> 00:16:06,160
And then my son is a nuclear engineer too, from RPI too.

276
00:16:06,960 --> 00:16:09,360
Wow, you got to be really proud.

277
00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:13,920
Oh yeah, so I brought my son to the company to start working,

278
00:16:13,920 --> 00:16:16,960
and then I rotated him in different projects across the country.

279
00:16:16,960 --> 00:16:21,600
But then he decided that he wanted to make it on his own first.

280
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Sounds like his mom.

281
00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:27,840
He wanted to go make it on his own and then come back.

282
00:16:27,840 --> 00:16:32,160
So he's right now working at Y-12 as a criticality engineer.

283
00:16:32,160 --> 00:16:33,120
What have you learned?

284
00:16:33,120 --> 00:16:36,560
If there is a person watching today,

285
00:16:37,440 --> 00:16:40,000
name of the show is anything is possible.

286
00:16:41,440 --> 00:16:42,800
What's your secret sauce?

287
00:16:42,800 --> 00:16:47,120
Don't be engaged, believe in yourself,

288
00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:54,480
and work, set your goals and work hard to achieve them.

289
00:16:54,480 --> 00:16:55,360
Focus on them.

290
00:16:56,320 --> 00:16:58,400
How many hours a day do you work?

291
00:16:58,400 --> 00:16:59,600
Are you...

292
00:17:00,560 --> 00:17:01,920
All the time.

293
00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:05,040
Even sometimes it depends on the situation.

294
00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:06,880
Sometimes I get up at three o'clock thinking

295
00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:10,320
about something and ride it down, and then go back to sleep.

296
00:17:10,320 --> 00:17:17,600
to work hard, but also you need to be smart about it and how what you spend your time

297
00:17:17,600 --> 00:17:18,600
on.

298
00:17:18,600 --> 00:17:22,040
You don't want to be like a squirrel just following the light, you know, whatever.

299
00:17:22,040 --> 00:17:29,240
You know, focus your energy on what's going to let you achieve your goals.

300
00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:34,400
Don't be afraid of trying new things, even things you didn't think you could do.

301
00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:44,160
Give me an example of something you were afraid of that you decided, I need to do this.

302
00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:49,680
Exactly starting the business when I thought I would do research on a little cube or in

303
00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:52,520
a little office myself all the time.

304
00:17:52,520 --> 00:17:59,680
Going out there and saying, well, I'll try to see what it is to run a business.

305
00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:07,280
Not leap, you know, that getting out of your comfort zone and trying it, it takes a lot

306
00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:08,280
to do that.

307
00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:12,840
But once you do it, you may surprise yourself about how much you like it.

308
00:18:12,840 --> 00:18:16,320
And I did surprise myself.

309
00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:25,360
Do you have any, what I've found is if you work really hard, you can get burned out.

310
00:18:25,360 --> 00:18:29,960
So you have to, you've got to balance your life, things that give you energy.

311
00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:33,080
Do you have other hobbies or passions?

312
00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:35,200
A lot, a lot.

313
00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:39,600
So I like, when I'm very stressed, I like go hiking.

314
00:18:39,600 --> 00:18:40,600
Love it.

315
00:18:40,600 --> 00:18:46,920
In fact, two months ago, I was just at the Kilimanjaro taking a lot of stress out.

316
00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:47,920
Wow.

317
00:18:47,920 --> 00:18:50,360
Kilimanjaro climbing it.

318
00:18:50,360 --> 00:18:55,440
So hiking, and this is a perfect area for doing that.

319
00:18:55,440 --> 00:18:57,280
I love doing that.

320
00:18:57,280 --> 00:19:02,440
It connects you with nature and at the same time releases all the stress that you have.

321
00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:05,600
But I also love different kind of engineer.

322
00:19:05,600 --> 00:19:08,240
I love art, music, art, music.

323
00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:10,240
Do you play an instrument?

324
00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:11,960
No, I don't play any instruments.

325
00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:14,960
What kind of art, what kind of music are you a collector?

326
00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:16,840
I'm a collector of paintings.

327
00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:20,040
Do you have a favorite?

328
00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:26,920
My collection is Latin artists and Impressionists and Post-Impressionists.

329
00:19:26,920 --> 00:19:30,240
French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists.

330
00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:32,000
And you primarily oils.

331
00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:33,000
Oils.

332
00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:34,680
A little bit of watercolors, but mainly.

333
00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:38,240
You like to see the texture on the canvas and all of the colors.

334
00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:39,240
The colors.

335
00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:40,240
Yeah.

336
00:19:40,240 --> 00:19:41,240
Yeah.

337
00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:46,040
So I, and I belong to the collector's circle here in the Knoxville Museum of Art.

338
00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:47,680
So I love art.

339
00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:48,880
I love music.

340
00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:53,880
So I like Broadway shows in here and in Knoxville all the time I'm there.

341
00:19:53,880 --> 00:20:00,960
I think, you know, as I've listened to your story, your story really is a story of possibility,

342
00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:04,560
but you've got this drive.

343
00:20:04,560 --> 00:20:11,920
Do you ever, thank God that you have that drive, that desire.

344
00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:13,520
It's impressive.

345
00:20:13,520 --> 00:20:15,240
Thank you.

346
00:20:15,240 --> 00:20:20,320
I will say I'm passionate about what I do and then I imagine, oh, I could do this.

347
00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:25,280
I could do this partnership where I'm just starting a nuclear partnership with some partners

348
00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:30,880
and I start imagining all the possibilities and I get passionate about it.

349
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:35,840
So right now I'm in the middle of forming other nuclear partnerships with different companies

350
00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:42,000
and it's just, I get passionate about it and I enjoy it and it's contagious, I guess,

351
00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:43,000
sometimes.

352
00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:48,600
That's a really good insight to end on.

353
00:20:48,600 --> 00:20:56,920
I think people with hope and optimism are really special because most people take the

354
00:20:56,920 --> 00:20:59,240
counsel of their fears.

355
00:20:59,240 --> 00:21:07,280
They imagine what could go wrong and they're trying to hedge against that, but I think people

356
00:21:07,280 --> 00:21:10,800
who change the world imagine the possibilities.

357
00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:16,800
They're going to go, what if we did this or what if we did that, but this will connect

358
00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:25,600
with that and sometimes having overcome a number of things, it really does give you

359
00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:29,760
an education of possibility because you can look at your own timeline, your own track

360
00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:34,680
record and go, well, I remember I was scared here and we got that and I remember this and

361
00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:36,120
we did that.

362
00:21:36,120 --> 00:21:41,200
So thank you for being a possibility person, you are truly inspiring.

363
00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:42,200
Thank you so much.

364
00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:44,680
Thank you for the opportunity, I really appreciate it.

365
00:21:44,680 --> 00:21:47,680
You are proved positive that anything is possible.

366
00:21:47,680 --> 00:22:06,600
Thank you.