Scarlett Luis went to grade school in South Florida before graduating with an electrical engineering bachelor’s and master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, while undertaking several internships in the energy sector. She joined Florida Power & Light, firstly as a protection & control engineer, then as a SCADA database & modelling engineer, before becoming a grid automation engineer, the role she holds today. Scarlett is also the membership outreach director for a chapter of Women in Energy, an employee resource group at her organisation, and recently took part in an inclusion-focused hackathon.
“Diversity of thought is important because as a service-based business, we serve communities with different demographics, so it is important to have a wide range of representation, during meetings, or during discussions, so we can gather all those perspectives, internalise them, and make sound decisions that are representative of the communities we serve.”
Finding my people and my vibe
My background is in electrical engineering and fortunately, I was able to attend the University of Pennsylvania on a Posse scholarship. I had never lived in a different city prior to college. As background, I’m a Florida native, from Miami, and I’m the first in my family to attend college out of state and by extension an Ivy League institution, so it was a drastic change for me, but I knew it would be a good life experience, so I had to take the opportunity.
While in college, I had three summer internships with Florida Power & Light. It was during the summer of my sophomore year, going into my junior year when I had my first internship. As a junior, I was accepted into what was then called the ‘Submatriculation program’, where I was able to complete my master’s degree in electrical engineering alongside my bachelor’s. I focused my graduate studies on smart systems and distributed energy resources which were inspired by my exposure to the energy sector.
After each summer internship, I was asked to return, and I really felt welcomed and at home by the company culture — the people and the vibe. I ended up getting more and more immersed in the world of energy and power delivery. I saw the value of my placements there.
Once I graduated, I stayed with Florida Power & Light. I’ve had three roles. Right now, I’m a grid automation engineer, which is based on concepts I was introduced to during one of my internships, the idea of power auto restoration. Essentially, we use widgets to make a traditional electric grid smarter. So, instead of having just wires and poles, you add smart devices that allow you to restore power automatically and thus reduce the duration that customers experience an outage.
The power to make a difference
Today, I do a lot of project/programme management. I wear many hats, and software product development as product owner is one of them. I also lead workflow automation projects that involve proposing innovative ideas and then implementing them through research and development. I love what I do, and I really feel like I’m making a difference.
On a personal note, my parents are from Bluefields, Nicaragua and I visited several times before going to college. I have cousins and an aunt that live there, and it’s crazy because in the US, electricity and power are sometimes taken for granted. You come home, flip on the switch and expect it to turn on.
For the most part, you only really think about electricity when it’s not working, but in Bluefields, I remember hanging out with my cousins, and they were like: “Oh, there’s an outage.” And they’re saying it so nonchalantly, as if it was just expected, as if it’s another day in their life. So, for me, being able to provide a service that’s critical in scope in my community is rewarding.
I’m able to serve my community in Florida by contributing to the effort of ensuring we reliably have a basic need to go about our days. Needs such as refrigeration or electricity to power computers or simply just light for students to be able to complete their homework at night. Hopefully, someday, I can make a difference in other countries that struggle with that. I’m very mission-driven, which is why I find a lot of value in what I do.
Staying at home and staying strong during COVID
I’m already back to the office in person but when the quarantine mandates were in place, for the most part in 2020, it allowed me to focus on what I was able to do in a remote setting. A lot of the work I do involves interacting with others on projects, so it’s about making sure that communications are clear and consistent. It really pushed me to think creatively about how I go about my day, and how I accomplish business continuity.
I don’t want to try to force a silver lining, but the lessons I learned are about trying different things and I’m grateful for the fact that I remained resilient. I’m glad that during that time I was still able to help my family financially.
I was also able to exercise more of my creative thinking to be able to work remotely. I remained strong during such an uncertain time by remaining grateful for being able to continue working, albeit remotely, while keeping my family safe.
Gathering and internalising diverse perspectives
Diversity of thought is important because as a service-based business, we serve communities with different demographics, so it is important to have a wide range of representation, during meetings, or during discussions, so we can gather all those perspectives, internalise them, and make sound decisions that are representative of the communities we serve.
Championing inclusion
We have very involved employees that are part of boards and committees for employee resource groups. I’m part of one of them for Women in Energy — I’m the membership outreach director. We offer events to our employees that encourage them to advance their careers.
For example, during the pandemic, in quarantine time, where almost everyone was working virtually, we offered virtual coffee meetups where we discussed topics like transitioning into a remote workplace environment while having kids, or how to transition back to the workplace, in person, after being remote for so long.
These employee resource groups support each other’s careers through networking opportunities, and or educational content shared during events.
Hybrid hackathon
Tech Hub Hackathon 2021, Hack for Inclusion was a hybrid hackathon. The goal was to build an application with diversity and inclusion in mind. An array of ideas were presented but there’s one that really stuck with me because I can definitely relate to it.
There was an application that helps you care for the elderly. Something that really was a stressor for me during the pandemic is that my parents are over 65 years old, and I was very concerned about taking care of myself so that I wouldn’t negatively impact their health.
One application at the hackathon leveraged image recognition and cameras, connecting with a smartphone so that you can monitor and see if someone falls, or if there’s any danger around. That, to me, was a unique interpretation of inclusion.
My team created a web app that can be used by web developers, providing information on best practices for how to make websites that are accessible, to allow for anyone who’s differently-abled visually to be able to navigate a page without any difficulties, so they may have the same experience as any user.
It was an enlightening experience, and it broadened my understanding of inclusion. Now that I go on a web page, I’m thinking not just of myself as a user, but of anyone who can potentially have a different experience when they’re interacting with a web page, given whatever circumstances they’re going through.
I got to meet a lot of people at the hackathon and we still interact through the group chat.
My ambition: To become Cool Auntie Tita
I’m looking forward to continuing to have a balanced life. I am very career-focused but when I went to school in Philadelphia and was away from home, I missed being close to my family. When I had the opportunity to be closer to my family, I took it. Now, I am constantly looking forward to the next time my family gets together to have quality time.
I have a 3-year-old nephew and I’m on a mission to convince him that I’m his cool auntie. He calls me Tita, so my hope is that one day he turns to me and says, “Tita, you’re so cool!”
