Each day at work, Verlene Fierro uses heavy equipment and her technical knowledge and managerial skills to ensure the safety and smooth operation of water treatment plants for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
Fierro is an instrument mechanic supervisor—a job her younger self hadn’t known even existed.
“These are fields that you don’t hear about every day and that women often don’t realize are a possibility,” Fierro said. “But you should keep your mind open. These are great careers that have allowed me to work with my hands and provide for my family in a way that I never thought possible.”
Fierro is one of only 81 women who work for DWP in skilled trade positions such as welders, electricians and steel workers.
DWP’s total workforce includes a massive 12,000 employees, and about 25% are women. But men make up more than 98% of the roughly 4,500 people in the high-paid skilled trades at DWP, with Fierro a part of that small fraction of women.
“I don’t think being a female has limited me at all in my job, and I’ve been very fortunate in the mentorship I’ve received,” Fierro said. “It’s just that there haven’t been many to come before me.”
On Saturday, May 4, the DWP is hosting its second annual Women’s Career & Wellness Expo at the DWP Truesdale Training Center in Sun Valley, with more than 1,800 people registered to attend. The event aims to spotlight DWP job openings and training programs, and it provides women a chance to network.
Alicia Dickerson, who works in carpentry for DWP, is on the utility’s Women’s Council, which helped organize the event.
“The department has a lot of ways for me to talk to other women, and it means a lot to me to do that,” Dickerson said. “I want to encourage other women to test the waters.”
Department of Water and Power employee, Alicia Dickerson is a “building repairer” at the DWP facility in Downtown Los Angeles on Thursday, May 2, 2024. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Jobs in the skilled trades typically don’t require bachelor’s degrees but they pay well, with many of those positions at DWP bringing in annual salaries above $80,000.
Recruiting women has posed both a challenge and an opportunity to improve gender equity, according to Gregory Reed, DWP’s senior assistant general manager of diversity, equity and inclusion. Reed said raising awareness about these careers in Los Angeles is key.
“We certainly have had growth in terms of female representation at LADWP in the past decades, but we have so much more room to grow,” Reed said.
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In March, DWP hosted a women’s leadership summit for current employees. The efforts produced positive results, with DWP’s employment showing an 8% increase of women in skilled trades in 2024, compared to 2023.
Both Fierro and Dickerson came to the DWP with little technical experience and without a college degree, but they got involved in the training programs and worked their way up.
Dickerson said her message to women pursuing skilled trades is “you can learn anything.”
“You can go into the electrical field, or water, or construction, or anything else,” Dickerson said. “And at the same time you can have kids and maintain a home. We sometimes get put into boxes, but there are so many opportunities out there.”
If you go:
Saturday, May 4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at DWP Truesdale Training Center; 11760 Truesdale Street, Sun Valley, 91352
