Life at Eaton | Blog
The Inspiring Story of Dante, SHPE STAR Award Winner: A Role Model for Diversity and Inclusion in STEM
Dante Barragan
Can you share a brief overview of your career journey and how you achieved the Role Model Award?
I have been part of several industries in Mexico, Canada, and the US throughout my career, including power generation, transmission, and distribution, steel manufacturing, satellite television, fixed wireless Internet, and power management, and I have held several positions in all of them, including electrical engineering supervisor, management information systems engineer, wireless/OEM engineer, RF design engineer, product development engineer, and now solutions architect with Eaton.
In 2016, I was one of five professionals that helped revive the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) Colorado professional chapter as the VP Communications. I have dedicated countless hours of volunteering to this non-profit organization for the past eight years because I am passionate about empowering the community through STEM. I have also served as VP Corporate Relations, VP Marketing, and currently as President of the chapter for the past couple of years.
I am also very active in the IEEE Industry Applications Society where I regularly present white papers, and I am part of the Eaton industrial digital sales team.
In what ways do you feel Eaton and SHPE's values align with your own values and beliefs?
Eaton has important Inclusion & Diversity goals by 2030, one of them being to increase representation of professional U.S. minorities to 34%. SHPE is all about empowering the Hispanic community through STEM awareness, access, support, and development.
When I was a kid growing up in Mexico, I was curious, but I did not know any engineers I could ask questions to about the STEM fields. I want to be that engineer and role model I did not have, for the students I talk to while representing Eaton and SHPE.
I believe anyone should be able to pursue a STEM degree and make an impact in society, independently of their race, ethnicity, age, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or economic status. I have had a successful career, and I feel it is my responsibility to give back to the community.
What advice would you give to the younger generation joining the professional world for the first time?
Self-awareness: Identify your strengths and weaknesses as early as possible in your career. Self-awareness will allow you to leverage your strengths and to continually work on addressing your weaknesses. Find mentors who can help you identify them and give you advice on how you can grow both personally and professionally.
Networking: Do not wait for networking opportunities to present themselves, initiate them yourself. Volunteering for professional organizations and iERGs such as SHPE, your company’s Employee Resource Groups (like #VAMOS! at Eaton) or IEEE, is a great vehicle for creating networking opportunities. You will be thrilled by the available wealth of knowledge that you can acquire through volunteering and how rewarding a volunteering experience can be.
Be open: Be receptive to new ideas and never shy away from listening to anyone who wants to share their thoughts. You never know what may come out of a conversation. One of the best career moves that I have ever made was the result of a conversation I had with an individual who approached me to share about a job opportunity I was not looking for.