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Toyota Employees Win Women in Manufacturing Awards

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Photo: Toyota

Three Toyota employees were honored last night during a virtual award ceremony for their excellence and outstanding leadership: Karen Cooper, Lauren Powell, and Ericka Mendez.

They received Women in Manufacturing STEP Ahead Awards from the Manufacturing Institute, which honors female leaders in science, technology, engineering, and production career fields.


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This year, 130 women were recognized, ranging from factory floor workers to executives, including the three winners from Toyota.

Karen Cooper is group manager at Toyota’s Kentucky plant, where she leads 890 team members. Lauren Powell is a senior engineer at the automaker’s Production Engineering and Manufacturing Center, and Ericka Mendez is general manager of press and body weld operations at Toyota Motor Manufacturing de Baja California.

Toyota says women constitute one of manufacturing’s largest pools of untapped talent. Though women totaled 47 percent of the U.S. labor force in 2016, they represented only 29 percent of the manufacturing workforce.


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“Women are significantly underrepresented in manufacturing, and the industry is in the midst of a workforce crisis,” said Carolyn Lee, executive director of The Manufacturing Institute. “Closing the gender gap in the industry will go a long way toward closing the skills gap, empowering more women to join manufacturing’s ranks and lifting the industry as a whole.”

The Women in Manufacturing STEP Ahead Awards are part of a larger initiative to examine and promote the role of women in the manufacturing industry. It aims to recognize, inspire, and empower women through recognition, research, and leadership, as well as by motivating alumnae to mentor the next generation.

  • Karen Cooper, winner of a Women in Manufacturing STEP Ahead Award
  • Lauren Powell, winner of a Women in Manufacturing STEP Ahead Award
  • Ericka Mendez, winner of a Women in Manufacturing STEP Ahead Award