nuclear services at California’s Diablo
Canyon Power Plant.
Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corp. is located near Burlington, Kan., a quiet little town whose country cachet suited Donna Jacobs ’86 just fine. Having earned a degree in mechanical engineering, Jacobs was hired at Wolf Creek as a test engineer right out of college, the same year that facility came online.
She worked her way up through the ranks, ultimately becoming Wolf Creek’s first female vice president of operations and plant manager in 2001 — the first woman to hold such a position among this country’s 103 nuclear power plants.
A working wife and mother, she had taken the MBA degree from Emporia State in 1992, completed the Senior Nuclear Plant Management Course and obtained Senior Reactor Operator certification to position herself for management opportunities.
After the birth of their daughter in 2000, her husband, Ron Donnelly, made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. He volunteered to be a stay-at-home dad to Taylor and brother Zach so Jacobs could concentrate on her career.
Then, in 2004, the executive recruiter called. “I’d been contacted by headhunters pretty much all along,” Jacobs recalls, “but I was happy in Burlington, so my answer was always ‘No, thanks.’”
But this guy was persuasively armed; hoping to entice her to take a look at the position of vice president of nuclear services at California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant, he threw out the name of a well-respected professional: Dave Oatley, vice president and general manager of that facility. Disarmed, Jacobs agreed to look. She remembers, “I had visited Diablo Canyon in 2002 and was impressed by the people I met. They were friendly and hard-working, and reminded me so much of the folks in Kansas.”
The second visit confirmed her first impression, and the feeling was mutual. “We went out looking for the best in leadership, intelligence and integrity, and Donna floated to the top,” Oatley says. So on Dec. 27, 2004, after 18 years at Wolf Creek, Jacobs took a deep breath and made a quantum leap in her career, one that carried her whole family — including her parents and Jessie, the family dog — some 1,800 miles away from Burlington to Avila Beach.
It was a journey west and a move up. “Wolf Creek is a single-unit setup, whereas Diablo Canyon has two reactors and two containment structures,” Jacobs explains, “and thus twice the electricity-producing capacity.” Each reactor at Diablo Canyon supplies power for 2 million homes; Wolf Creek serves 800,000. “Most importantly,” she says, “Diablo Canyon’s larger capacity provides a much greater base to learn from as regards electric utility field. It’s an unbelievable opportunity.”
With opportunity comes responsibility. When Jacobs was named Wolf Creek’s first female plant manager, she alone held that distinction nationwide. In 2002, another woman in a nuclear power plant outside Chicago attained a comparable position, but there have been no others since. “It’s a pretty exclusive club,” Jacobs says, “so I feel an obligation to offer support to other women interested in nuclear careers.”
Sheila O’Connor ’86/93/00, former Society of Women Engineers adviser now in software development for Wichita-based Engenio Inc., understands the importance of mentoring to women in nontraditional fields. “Donna and I go way back,” she says. “I remember when we took our first physics test. It was a night class; we were convinced we’d flunked, and we ended up at that perennial WSU hangout, The Cedar, contemplating other careers. Music and basket-weaving were mentioned. Beer was involved. But we did just fine.” The two are charter members of the Wichita section SWE.
Jacobs is settling into her new position. Her responsibilities include engineering, strategic projects, nuclear fuel, information technology, geosciences and procurement. She is light years and a life-changing leap beyond Physics 101 and Burlington. Although she’s traded cedars for palms and gravel roads for the sandy beach, she says, “This already feels like home.”
