Anita Doepke.

Anita Doepke

SENIOR CLIENT SERVICES MANAGER

RMT INCORPORATED

MENOMINEE, MICHIGAN, USA

Anita Doepke has never been too concerned with the "'traditional" way of doing things. In her professional life, that attitude has made it possible for her to enjoy a successful environmental (or technical) career in the paper industry. In her personal life, it has led to an avid interest in the great outdoors and deer hunting.

A long-time TAPPI member, Doepke is a senior client services manager for RMT Inc., an environmental consulting firm that specializes in the pulp and paper industry. She has been going deer hunting since she was 14. "Hunting had always been part of my family life growing up," she recounted. "My parents believed it was important that my sister and I knew we could do anything we chose to. We learned how to hunt, fish, shoot a gun, bait a hook, and clean fish, as well as those things that girls traditionally do.

"My hunting experience is not exactly traditional," said Doepke. "Actually, it's pretty much an all-women camp; since my dad passed away a few years ago, my husband is the only male adult in the whole cabin! One story that typifies the differences between my hunting experiences and the typical experience: when my daughter was born, we began bringing her to camp during hunting season," she recalled. "We needed two trucks to get to camp! One truck was for our daughter--the diapers, the swing, the crib--and the other was hunting gear."

Doepke is a native of Menominee, Michigan, USA, where she lives today. One asset of living in a rural community is immediate access to being outdoors, she said, which has always important to her. "If you like the big city, you're often excluded from working in the paper industry. For engineers graduating from school, if it's important to you to live somewhere that you can enjoy outdoors activities, the paper industry is a great place to work."

Just as deer hunting has been a traditionally a male-dominated sport, the paper industry--particularly the environmental and engineering (or technical) fields--attracts more men than women. The gender bias that Doepke had been raised to ignore was especially evident in her early industry experiences. "At the time I went to Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan, there was about a 10 to 1 ratio of men to women," she said. "Back then, there was not enough encouragement for women to go into engineering or science. I think we're still not selling our industry as a place where women will want to work. The paper industry has been a great career for me; I've enjoyed the challenges it's had to offer.

"Just think how many young women are in college right now trying to choose what career or industry path they want to take," she added. "Maybe it is time for us to show these young women that the pulp and paper industry is the adventure they have been searching for."