Name:
Cheryl Robertson, P.Eng.
About Me:
I am married with two kids and live in Regina. I am passionate about my family, my profession and my community. If I find something in any of those areas that has a deficiency I typically end up volunteering to organize or participate in such a way to fill the gap or generate change.
Job Responsibilities:
I am currently the director of automated metering infrastructure at SaskPower. My team is responsible for the planning and implementation of SaskPower’s AMI Meters.
How has CPD helped me in my job:
Every category for professional development has one item woven through: networking! I have met people within and outside of the profession that have provided mentorship and/or provide introductions to folks they know in their industry that relates to my needs. My participation directly related to my career has led to a network that I can rely on for information and support in helping make decisions.
What I do for Continuing Professional Development:
It is easy to achieve all the credits for Professional Practice as part of my role at SaskPower. I try very hard to get points in all the rest of the categories and max out a category if possible.
For formal activity, each year I have a goal to take at least one technical or leadership course to ensure I am keeping up with technology and advancing my career.
In every position I have had at SaskPower I have ensured that I participate on committees related to my field of work. This has been at the local (SaskPower) level, the national level and international level. This has made the Informal Activity credits easy to attain as the conferences and published materials that are relevant and interesting are at my fingertips. It also has become a source for capturing credits in the Presentation category.
Contribution to Knowledge has been the hardest category to obtain credits (and most rewarding!) and these same committees have enabled me to capture points in this area. I participated on an international committee that funded projects and required members to peer review publications. I have represented SaskPower on several Standards in both Canada and the United States. I take pride in knowing I am making a difference in public safety in addition to my industry. I recently had the opportunity to chair a subcommittee for a new Meter Safety Standard that is under development.
Finally—I mentioned my passions above—this makes participation easy and I also am proud to tell others about APEGS’ commitment to ensuring the membership gives back!
I have spent almost 20 years volunteering in the engineering community. Sports are an easy credit as I have participated on boards and managed and coached different teams. In the community, I have been involved with programs and events to promote women, especially those in STEM fields. This includes mentoring other engineers, both internal and external to SaskPower.