In this week’s Coffee and Compliance, we had the chance to sit down with Erin Loza, the Director of Environmental for the West Region at CEMEX. Erin shared her impressive career path, starting as an administrative assistant and working her way into her current role as a director. Erin currently oversees more than 226 plant facilities and manages many employees throughout California and Nevada.
Her evolution from an Environmental Specialist into Director of Environmental happened in just 4 years – an accomplishment she believes is due to her involvement within the business, enthusiasm for new opportunities, and connecting with her colleagues.
To Erin, employees are a company’s #1 stakeholder – and this shows in her commitment to leadership and teamwork. She views her employees as peers as they work together to tackle challenges, something that was tested in the last year during the pandemic. Despite the obstacles, Cemex was able to embrace COVID as a unique opportunity to reset.
Through the use of technology, teams were able to connect and focus on refining regulatory procedures; however, this would not have been possible without strong leaders like Erin. While digital tools were essential for communication, Erin also stressed the importance of implementing tools to easily track data and share information across teams. Erin left us with some final wisdom for EHS professionals, including the importance of finding a mentor and pursuing opportunities that interest you.
Through her passion for the business and being involved, Erin has been able to pave her own path; she balances her role as a director with fearlessly embracing new opportunities and creating connections with her coworkers.
As a champion for diversity and inclusion, Erin sees a lot of benefit in finding something that is important to you. The more opportunities for involvement, the more we can learn; this leads to a more diverse role within the company, and increases your ability to expand into more opportunities.
Check out our library of previous Coffee & Compliance webinars with EHS experts