Women In HVACR Convenes Second Meeting

Nashville, Tenn., was the location for the second Women In HVACR conference, Sept. 13-14. The conference kicked off with a cocktail reception, then launched into a full day of educational seminars and speakers, including customer service (Sharon McGee, RM Mechanical), leadership (Kelly Bryson, Berg Inc.), mentoring (Jacki Bradbury-Guerrero, Coastal Comfort), residential service agreements (Ron Smith, Ron Smith Consulting and Coaching), and LEED (Gregory R. Jeffers, P.E., LEED AP, of McKenney's Inc., and Dave Retherford, Tom Barrow).

The day culminated in a panel discussion on recruiting women into the industry. Pictured are panelists (left to right) Karen M. Riffice, chief financial office of Soderlund Brothers; Lori Czachor-Kagan, manager of environmental, health and safety, at Certainteed Corp. Insulation Group; Megan Mayle, Ferris HVACR graduate and project manager at Trane West Michigan; and Michelle Shearer-Rodriguez, vice president of operations at Aces A/C Supply North.

Women in HVACR will have booths at the AHR Expo, Jan. 23-25, 2006, and ISH North America, Sept. 26-30, 2006, both located in Chicago.

The group recently surpassed its 2005 goal of 200 members. For membership information, contact Adrienne Breedlove, vice president, at 301/990-2206.

Kelly Faloon was a former editor of Plumbing & Mechanical as well as the BNP Media Plumbing Group’s Integrated Content Development Specialist. She also was a former editor of the Radiant Comfort Guide the Radiant & Hydronics Report — both official publications of the Radiant Professionals Alliance — and twice-monthly Radiant & Hydronics eNews, an enewsletter for anyone interested in the world of heating with hot water.

Her editorial specialties included women in plumbing, recruiting for the trades, green construction techniques, water conservation, water treatment, hydronic heating, radiant heating and cooling, snow melt, solar thermal and geothermal.

After a 3½-year stint at sister publication Supply House Times, Faloon joined the PM staff in December 2001 as senior editor. She was named PM’s managing editor in 2006 and editor in 2013.

Previously, she spent nearly 10 years at CCH, a publishing firm specializing in business and tax law, where she wore many hats — proofreader, writer/editor for a daily tax publication, and Internal Revenue Code editor.

A native of Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula, Faloon is a 1986 journalism graduate of Michigan State University.