Meet The Speaker: Jeanie Robins, Manager at Southern Company Gas

Meet Jeanie Robins, Manager at Southern Company Gas. Learn how she strives to be her best, loves to read, and sees her grandmothers and mother as her most inspiring role models.

Meet her in-person at the 4th Power Conference to Advance Women in Utilities as she shares her experience of establishing a women’s ERG chapter at her Houston office.    

Question:  Name, title, Company?

Jeanie Robins, Manager, Southern Company Gas

Question: Family, hometown, where you live?

 Wife – Married to high school sweetheart

Mother of 2 boys 17 and 20

Oldest of 3 girls

 Born in Houston, TX

 Lives in Sugar Land (suburb outside of Houston)

 

Question: Utility/Leadership experience?

Over 20 years of experience in the gas industry

Question: What do you like to do when you’re not working? Hobbies?  

Being with my family, shopping, and reading

Question: Notable achievements?

Balancing my career and being true to myself, all while being the wife of a police chief and the mother of 2 special young men, are my greatest achievements to date. Also, speaking at this conference, sharing my story, and leading the Inspire TX employee resources group.

Question: Where do you see ‘Women in Utilities’ in two-to-five years?

While I see progress being made and opportunities opening up for women, we are still behind the curve. It has taken many lifetimes to get to where we are and as we lift our voices to be heard and recognized, the mountain top and ceilings are still far from our reach or where we want them to be.

Question: Who are a couple of your role models (and why?)

My grandmothers and my mother. The women in my personal life have never put limits on me or my abilities. They believed and encouraged me long before I knew and understood. As each of them have passed this life, as I grow and mature, I hear their voices as I reach milestones or encounter obstacles. Their driving forces and sacrifices in my childhood are still burning flames in me today as I prepare myself and my children to grow and succeed in this world

Question: What is one of your biggest goals?

To be the best me I can be personally and professionally. Each day, if I can do something to brighten someone day or encourage them to believe their best self, I figure ‘job well done.’

Question: What’s the biggest misconception you run into in your role (or what people seem to think about Women in Utilities)?  

I think many people misunderstand that women put in hard work and where we may or may not be physically equal, we have just as much to give to the success of anything as anyone else. My son once made the comment “Mom, some of the most important people in shaping my life have been women and girls. In school, the girls have the best grades, get all the awards, and my female teachers were some of the toughest people to deal with and made me a better person because of it. Now you are leading a group of women and working on development and growth, why…? Does becoming a wife and mother with a job change you that much? You are smarter and stronger than me, dad, and my little brother – what makes you need to fight to be heard and seen? We hear, see, and fear you every day…” My kids are my biggest advocates and they challenge me each day. They are the wind beneath my wings.