by Simmy Willemann ’10

At fifteen years out from Webb, I am no longer in the maritime industry, but I look back fondly on Webb. I now work at Apple decarbonizing consumer electronics, and I’m a mom of a very active and happy 16-month-old, Sahni, who I love playing with. My job is all about problem solving and understanding how things are built, so we can manufacture them differently. Motherhood takes hard work, including all nighters, a sense of humor, and creativity. These themes very much remind me of my time at Webb.

Simmy with her family

In October 2024, I had the pleasure of attending the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Conference in Chicago. The real highlight of being at SWE was meeting the Webb Junior Women – Annabel, Rebecca, Zoe, Millay, and Ally! I was expecting to feel out of touch with the school as I haven’t visited in a while but was happily surprised to connect with these lovely Webbies as if they were in my Webb class. When I meet students from other colleges, I feel a generational divide but that wasn’t so with Webbies. Most fun was sharing all the stories about Webb traditions and crosscorrelating what I had heard changed and what they had heard things were like before. How cool that women live in Stevenson Taylor Mansion now! It’s life-affirming to meet younger Webbies and see their drive and spirit.

At SWE, I was on an Apple panel featuring Women in Operations. I shared my career path from Webb to MIT to Consulting to Apple Mac to Apple Environment and the type of support I received along the way. I now manage three teams at Apple. The Environmental Product Managers lead environmental initiatives including carbon and recycled content on each Apple product line. The Environmental Technology team proves what’s possible, from proof-of-concept manufacturing scrap recycling to iPhone end-of-life disassembly automation. The Safety Subject Matter Experts keep workers in our supply chain safe.

I also shared what it’s like to be a mom and work full time in a leadership position. I didn’t know how I’d feel about going back to work after maternity leave but I’m happy to share that I feel fulfilled both working at Apple and being a mom. My husband and I share parenting responsibilities equally. When there are tradeoffs to be made between my daughter and my work, my daughter is now my priority. I know I provide great value at work already and that I don’t need to be on every call or work trip.

At the SWE Conference, I shared three pieces of advice I have for students at the start of their journey:

• Perspective and what we choose to think about and spend our time on is everything. Focus on what you love doing (and financial security). If you’re spending time on anything else, ask yourself if you’ll care about dropping it when you’re 80? If not, drop. Seneca’s “On the Brevity of Life” gave me perspective on how short life is if you’re not living it for yourself. Once I started making time for violin gigs, my sense of self was strengthened. I could have a bad day at work but a great violin performance, and I was happy. I might have messed up at a violin gig, but I had a great work presentation, and I could still be happy. I’ve found that multiple identities tend to strengthen me and make life more fulfilling.
• People make work more fulfilling than the work itself. Choose teams with people who will encourage you to grow and give you a sense of belonging. If you don’t feel you have community now, look for it. Avoid being so focused on the results that you don’t get to know the people and build relationships.
• It’s never too early in your career to support others. As a woman working in multiple maledominated industries for 15 years, I can share that support goes a long way. Much of the support I’ve received has come from men and rather unexpectedly — asking for my opinion in a meeting, assigning me a visible project that let me prove my skills, or giving me encouragement or specific feedback on how I can improve. The opportunity to support others is there if you keep an eye out for it.  If you don’t know what to do, ask others what their biggest challenge is and how you can support them. Those are two of the kindest questions especially from managers to employees – and then listen and follow up

Simmy with the Class of 2026.