Beltrami County History Center to Host ‘Women in Engineering’ Event

To celebrate Women’s History Month, the Beltrami County Historical Society will be hosting a special event to highlight women in the engineering field on Saturday, March 15th.

“Designing the Future: Women in Engineering” will feature three speakers, all women who are currently engineers in the Beltrami County area:

• Brit Rohloff, Automation Engineer, TEAM Industries
• Jenna Roberts, Assistant City Engineer, City of Bemidji
• Laura Carlson, Design Team Lead, Minnesota Department of Transportation

They will speak about their education and other hardships they have gone through during their careers, and how their work has flourished in a male-dominated field.

“Young women who are interested in STEM will come and listen and learn and ask questions,” said Beltrami County Historical Society Executive Director Emily Thabes. “Great opportunity for them to learn from folks who are already in the field, so that’s what I’m hoping that folks get. They get this inspiration from the women who are leading the way in these careers.”

On top of learning about the current state of engineering, visitors will hear about local women in history as well. One example is how in 1931, a single woman became a Beltrami County surveyor, a role completely dominated by men at the time.

“We’ve got this early history of a woman who was a trailblazer, and now we have three women who are in incredible, you know, STEM engineering jobs right here in our county, right here in the area,” Thabes added. “And we want to highlight and celebrate that.”

“Designing the Future: Women in Engineering” will be held at the Beltrami County History Center in Bemidji this Saturday at 10 a.m. Admission is free. It will be only the first of many women-focused workshops that will be held over the next several months.