From Lego Blocks to Real-Life Construction
Debra McLellan (Class of '99 & '08)

At 5'4", Debra McLellan may not take the longest strides as others before her, perhaps, when she treks across the top of Nuttby Mountain. But arguably, no one has filled bigger shoes while doing so.

The 36-year-old Bible Hill native and environmental engineer is project manager of Nova Scotia Power's (NSP) $120 million, 22-turbine wind farm currently under construction atop Nova Scotia's highest mainland peak.

"So this is kind of a unique opportunity," she says during a recent tour of the project. "This one is obviously very interesting."

It is also a project void of the presence of other women – at least on site.

"I haven't seen any females," she says with a laugh, of the constantly growing workforce that currently numbers about 80.

NSP does employ other female engineers but it is still most commonly a male pursuit and McLellan so far remains the only one of her gender on this project.

And while "most of the time," she is also the only female in the room during staff meetings, McLellan says there are no issues with fitting in among construction workers in her midst.

"I'm fairly short ... so I'm not really intimidating looking, especially in construction," she says with chuckle. "The perception might be rough and tough, even though it's not like that," she said. "Initially, you might have an eyebrow raised ... but once you are involved in meetings or whatever and they see you involved and qualified, no problem."

Growing up in Bible Hill, McLellan recalls playing with Lego blocks, Tonka toys and the such with her sister Caralee. But at that point, a career in engineering was not on her radar.

"Actually my sister was more into it than I was," she says of the stereotypical boy toys, "but we certainly had a lot of that around ... I was always into science a lot. I guess the engineering came into it a little bit."

McLellan completed a science degree at Dalhousie University before settling on environmental engineering at Nova Scotia Agricultural College. The field of environmental engineering was still relatively new when she enrolled, and although it wasn't the direction she started out on, the versatility the course offered allowed her to "morph" into the environmental side of things after she got going.

"It's kind of neat because it's a cross of a lot of the different types," she said in reference to such other fields as mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering.

MacLellan was hired by NSP following graduation and after starting out with the engineering services group, has worked on a variety of challenging and interesting projects ever since.

"So I was lucky to get into that because I just don't like to land on one thing," she says. "I want to have lots of choice and opportunities so that was the perfect group because there was all kinds of disciplines of engineers."

From demolition and site cleanup projects in Glace Bay to her previous assignment involving mercury abatement at three NSP plants in Trenton, Lingan and Point Tupper, her assignments keep "ramping up" in terms of scope and responsibility. Her current role, for instance, involves overseeing the largest wind farm project NSP has undertaken to date.

Much of her job involves communication and co-ordination to ensure everyone is doing what they are supposed to and that the necessary supplies and equipment are arriving on schedule. She must also ensure contingency plans are in place to protect against those things that can invariably go wrong.

"It's very important. There's always risk, the weather could go south or whatever and you could be into delays," she says of things that are totally beyond her control, such as the possibility of shipping woes for an overseas freighter bringing supplies from Germany.

"You need to be able to plan for and minimize as many risks as possible," she said. "There's always risk but you try to identify them and have contingency plans in place ...

"What a lot of people probably won't appreciate is all of the up-front planning that has to come into place," she says. "So it didn't happen smoothly by accident, it's because 75 per cent of your effort might be spent in the planning phase getting ready for the actual event to take place."

Beyond the experience of heading up such a large project, a special advantage for McLellan is that for the first time since joining NSP, she is working in her own backyard.

"It's really exciting. And, also, it's nice that it's in Colchester," she said. "It's nice to be back and it's nice that we're getting something cool like this in our county."

As printed in the Truro Daily News, June 17, 2010.