JOSEY NIETO, 2016 Chicago Filipino American Hall of Fame Young Achiever in Engineering

Josey Nieto, inductee to the 2016 Chicago Filipino American Hall of Fame as a Young Achiever in Engineering and current front cover feature, was raised in Japan by Petronilo and Menchie Nieto. Petronilo, the oldest of six, and Menchie, the second youngest of six, knew that moving away from the Philippines in search of better prospects was the best thing they could do for their families. Like other Filipino families, enlisting in the US Navy was their ticket to a better future. Raised in Japan, so close to the Philippines and surrounded by so many other Filipino families, Josey grew up with many Filipino traditions and customs.

After many years in Japan, Josey and her family moved to Florida where her father finished his career with the Navy. Even away from all of the Aunties and Uncles of her youth, Josey’s parents made sure to maintain their Filipino ethos. They taught her to work hard, to always take care of your family and friends, and to never let your guests leave hungry.

Retired and unable to sit idle, Josey’s father joined Florida Power and Light as an operator at a natural gas plant. Having learned about the benefits of working for a utility first hand, he encouraged Josey to become an engineer. Before long, Josey graduated from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) and was offered a job with ComEd in Illinois.

As a member of the Society of Women Engineers, ComEd first recruited Josey at a national conference to intern with Transmission Operations Support. After graduating from college in 2010, Josey officially began her career at ComEd in the New Hire Rotation Program where she spent six months touring various engineering departments within the company. Upon completion of the program, she was placed in Capacity Planning as the Chicago Low-Voltage Network Planner. In addition to maintaining the Low-Voltage Network, Josey developed and issued numerous projects to ensure regular operations of the distribution system. This included distribution automation (smart switch) projects that were critical to the implementation of the Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act. Josey was then promoted to Area Planner for the Central Business District area, north of the river, in downtown Chicago. As a Capacity Planner, one of Josey’s most notable projects was developing the plan to provide energy to Kennedy Enterprises’ Wolf Point Complex, located at one of the most prominent sites on the Chicago River. Josey then joined Reliability Analysis, where she learned to analyze outage and customer impacts and to develop reliability trends to assess the effects and benefits of ComEd’s various infrastructure improvement programs. Josey developed a Risk Score model, still utilized today, for Vegetation Management which helps prioritize routine maintenance on the mainline and fuse taps of circuits.

Josey currently serves as the Principal Business Project Manager for the Office of the President and CEO of ComEd, Anne Pramaggiore. With a background in engineering, Josey brings her logic and problem solving to the Office of the President and CEO and helps ensure that ComEd expertly and seamlessly powers lives.

Still in the infancy of her career, Josey was identified as having the potential and desire to lead and was selected to participate in ComEd’s 2015 Emerging Leaders program, a one year program designed to prepare participants for advancement into leadership positions. During that time, Josey began her Master of Business Administration (MBA) through DePaul’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business where she is focusing her studies on Leadership and Change Management.

Josey firmly believes that in order to succeed as a leader, you must lift up the next generation of leaders. She does so as an avid supporter of ComEd’s Icebox Derby where she has been a mentor to teen girls for the past two years. The Icebox Derby is a creative, hands-on educational experience designed to inspire young women to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) by working on teams to turn recycled refrigerators into race cars. An atypical engineer in a male dominated field, Josey hopes to be an example for young women aspiring to break the mold.

As a representative of Asian Americans at ComEd, Josey was featured in the company’s annual diversity report and serves as a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Council. She is also a host for ComEd Voices 2017, a video series that takes an in-depth look at employees’ personal experiences with Diversity and Inclusion. Josey understands that without knowing where you’ve been, it’s hard to arrive at where you want to end. Sharing her journey and the journeys of others is one way she hopes to inspire others to strive for more.

To this day, Josey’s mother constantly stresses the importance of saving. Her parents always planned to build a home large enough for all of the family to visit for when they finally retire to the Philippines. After years of saving, her parents were able to purchase a farm in Sitio Bayog, Mindoro. The house on the farm needed a little love, but came complete with red and black tilapia, chicken, geese, a piggery, rice fields, and various fruit and mahogany trees. The farm produces enough to feed the family with enough to sell at the market, too. More than just somewhere to retire, the farm is a way to provide for her family’s future in the Philippines.

In February of 2017, Josey spent three weeks with her family and friends at her parents’ recently acquired farm. Seeing the fruits of her parents’ hard labor was inspiring. Their newly refurbished home could fit all of her mother’s sisters and countless cousins under one roof. Four square meals a day, surrounded by family and friends, while getting a glimpse of her parents’ future left her in awe. Upon her return to the states, all she could say of her trip was that she was “busog”, which translates to “full” in English. Full of food, full of pride, and full of love, Josey was, simply put, “busog”.