(Shannon Ostendorff)
The Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals (SMRP) is recognizing one of Bend’s own — Shannon Ostendorff — for her work as a leading woman in the maintenance and reliability (M&R) sector. With more than 20 years of experience in M&R, Ostendorff is currently senior manager of maintenance at Lonza Group, a multinational chemicals and biotechnology company with a research headquarters in Bend, where she leads a team of 23 technicians and engineers.
SMRP is a global society of more than 6,500 members that works to promote excellence in maintenance, reliability and physical asset management. This month, SMRP is highlighting outstanding female professionals across these disciplines in honor of International Women’s Day on Friday, March 8.
“SMRP and its members recognize the increased need for maintenance and reliability professionals within nearly every industry, and encourage the next generation of women entering the workforce to follow in the footsteps of professionals like Ostendorff,” said Erin Erickson, executive director of SMRP.
Ostendorff is not only an outstanding professional in Bend but also an advocate for women in maintenance and reliability, having drawn one parallel in her two-decade career — a lack of female peers and co-workers.
She emphasizes the importance of getting women involved in math and science at an early age and credits her career in M&R to a sixth grade school trip to the Colorado School of Mines. Ostendorff went on to receive her bachelor of science degree in Chemical Engineering from that very same school, where her graduating class was just 20 percent women.
Shannon fell into maintenance and reliability after college, joining a chemical engineering team in central Oregon with a particularly optimized maintenance plan.
“My first job was on a team of 40 people where I was the only woman,” she described. Though a tough transition as a young female in the field, she offers this advice to young women facing the same: “You have to embrace the situation and lead within your position.”
In her next career move, Ostendorff worked on semi-conductors, but as the job began to pull her away from central Oregon, she moved to Redmond to manage the city’s wastewater facilities before serving as Redmond’s Assistant Public Works Director.
“When I started working for Redmond, I lead a team of 26, and there was only one woman on the team — here I am… managing a group of men that were significantly older than me — but it’s just the nature of the industry,” she explained.
She later worked as the Utility Operations and Maintenance Manager for the city of Bend before assuming her current role as senior maintenance manager at Lonza.
“I love to encourage girls and women to go into Science, Technology, Engineering and Math [STEM] fields — but I do let them know that being the only woman on a jobsite or in a company is part of the reality, and they need to be prepared for that,” she said.
She also recommends that young women seek out mentors and female peers. She credits the support of her circle of mentors and strong women for many of her successes. At one point in her career she even created a support group of women at a larger company, to connect with female peers in other disciplines for support.
As for her current role at Lonza, Ostendorff loves that the company engages with the community and promotes STEM programs across central Oregon. Ostendorff helps judge Lonza’s science competition for K-12 students, where winners enjoy a science night at the Bend headquarters.
“If young people see someone who looks likes them — a women or someone of a different ethnicity — doing something in STEM, it opens them up to the idea that they can do something in STEM,” she explained. “The more young people see women working and leading in STEM fields, the more young women will see it as something they can do too.”
Ostendorff also highlights that she currently has a female reliability engineer and a talented female technician on her team at Lonza and looks forward to seeing more women following in that same path.
