Every ISA president is encouraged to write about their journey that led to them becoming ISA’s president.  I believe the biggest value in writing this is so you might see yourself in this story, and realize that you too can be ISA’s president.

This is a story of how an introvert becomes ISA’s president. 

It starts with being more of a customer than what I would consider an engaged member. I took training and bought books so I could get my Control Systems Engineering License in Maine, USA, and then I followed that with obtaining the ISA Certified Automation Professional® (CAP®) certification. Then, in 2012, I moved from Maine to Colorado, and I needed to connect with the automation community. This is when I decided to join an ISA Denver Section meeting. (You can search for sections in your geographical area here.)

The meeting was on the different types of level instruments and their different applications. I loved this because I just studied and learned about these in my exams, and now I was getting to see an expert provide context and passion behind the things I had mostly focused on memorizing. This topic also applied to my work, because I was implementing controls systems in the water and wastewater industry at the time. 

Before the meeting, the program chair greeted me at check-in and introduced me to a few people before leaving me on my own for the first meeting. I found a table alone (the introvert part of this story), and watched the presentation. At the start of the meeting, the section president kicked off the meeting, and mentioned that they are looking for someone to present on the CAP certification. I was trying to get myself out there in front of people, and if I presented, I thought that would be a lot easier than trying to start a conversation with a stranger, so I offered to try to get some retired questions from ISA and do a trivia night around CAP certification. 

I did that presentation, and I think it went pretty well. The program chair came up to me after, and mentioned that the section is looking for a secretary, and he was wondering if I would be interested.  I said yes — I am now not only a member of this community, but I am on the section’s board. 

Let’s pause for a second. I wanted to point out that a reason I am president of ISA today is because someone ASKED me to be on the section board. Being active in your geographic section is a great way to develop leadership skills and experience — and to open yourself up to opportunities like this one. Okay, back to my journey!

Then things continued to happen quickly. The section needed someone to attend ISA’s annual meeting, and I offered to go if no one else could, and so I flew off to the meeting. It was very intimidating. There were several meetings of different committees of the society, as well as leadership development training. I was taking in some information, but overall, it was a very overwhelming experience. During the district meeting (a group of sections for a specific geographic area), where I was representing the Denver Section (as secretary for two months), they mentioned they were still looking to nominate someone as the district vice president-elect. I said, I’m clearly not qualified, but if they didn’t have anyone else, I’d be happy to put my name in as a nomination. Then, as of that January, I became district vice president-elect.

One quick story while I was district vice president-elect. The first meeting I attended in this role was the spring leaders meeting. I was supposed to attend my first in-person meeting of all the district VPs and VP-elects at 8:00 a.m. I overslept and missed everything but the last 10 minutes of that meeting. This was such an embarrassing way to start my first in-person interaction in my new role as a society volunteer.

Now, while in this role as district vice president-elect, and then district vice president, I learned that ISA has a Finance Committee. I was still confused about ISA as an organization that I was volunteering for, and I thought attending the Finance Committee would be a great way to understand ISA better. I sent an email to the treasurer and to the Finance Committee chair, asking if I could join the committee, or at least attend a meeting. Eventually they had me join the committee (apparently reaching out and asking to join the Finance Committee was unusual).

I moved from Finance Committee member to — eventually, because no one else was interested — to the Finance Committee chair. From there, I ran for the Executive Board, and I won! This was the first time I actually put myself out there to run for something, as opposed to “If no one else can do it, I’ll do it.”

Then I ran for treasurer, a natural progression from being on the board and being the Finance Committee chair.  One of the best parts of being the treasurer was being on the search committee for current CEO and executive director Claire Fallon. From there, I decided to run for the society president, again a natural progression from treasurer. I ended up not winning that year — our 2024 president Prabhu Soundarrajan won instead and did a lot of amazing work for ISA. I was a little bummed not to win at the time, but in the end, it gave me a great opportunity to understand different aspects of ISA that I wasn’t familiar with yet.

I ended up joining multiple committees that year. The biggest takeaway from the experience for me is the amount of work that goes into the Honors and Awards Committee. I have a huge amount of respect for the people working throughout that process. Next, I ran for president again, and now, I am much better prepared to understand all the aspects of ISA — meaning that I can hopefully be a more informed society president than I could have before.

Well, that’s my journey. I hope you take a few things away from this:

• If your purpose is to give back to your community, you will naturally excel in any volunteer opportunity at ISA — what you might call servant leadership.
• Ask someone to join you. Join ISA; join a section board; join an ISA committee.
• If no one else is stepping up, you can step up without feeling like there is a more qualified person who you think should have the role. Related, if you are willing to put in the effort, you will be qualified to do the role.
• It never hurts to reach out and ask to join.  Worst case, you make a connection with someone you might run into later in life.
• Introverts can be society presidents!
• Have a growth mindset. Losing an election created an opportunity for me to learn more about ISA and to run again more informed. Take every setback as an opportunity to learn something.

Every day so far this year, I get to be humbled by the amazing people I am surrounded by as president of ISA. Seeing the passion and drive of ISA's mission and vision in the board, all the committees and sections, the staff and all the ISA members, is what makes this all worthwhile.  Thank you for being part of our automation community.

Now, if you are not a member of ISA, and you made it this far into my journey, it is clearly time for you to join me and the rest of your automation community at isa.org/join.