Cont Ed: Negotiation Skills & Conflict Resolution Soft Skills Workshop

Susan Howes is Organizational Capability Consultant in the Reservoir Management department at Chevron, with prior assignments as Reservoir Management Consultant in the Reservoir Management Framework group and as Manager of the Horizons Program. Howes is formerly Learning and Organizational Development Manager at Anadarko.

Howesis a Petroleum Engineering graduate of the University of Texas and is a Past President of the Chevron Women’s Network. Howes currently serves as Chair of the SPE Soft Skills Committee, was the 2010 Chair of the SPE Talent Council, and is an SPE Distinguished Member.  She was previously an SPE International Board member (Gulf Coast Region North America Regional Director) and is a past-Chair of the GC Section.

Based in Houston, Texas, Maria Fitch is an Employee Development Advisor at Weatherford, specializing in negotiation, conflict resolution, communication and leadership training.  She has over 13 years of teaching, training and consultation experience.   Prior to Weatherford, Maria worked as a negotiation consultant at Cambridge International Consulting, based in Caracas, Venezuela. 

She was an advisor for the Municipality of Chacao’s Municipal Justice office, focusing on community peacebuilding and mediation programs in Venezuela.   She was also a guest lecturer in negotiation and conflict resolution at both Universidad Católica- Andrés Bello School of Law and the CAF’s (Corporación Andina de Fomento) Program for Transformational Leadership.  She pursued graduate study at American University’s School of International Service in International Peace and Conflict Resolution and obtained an interdisciplinary degree in Literature, Science and the Arts (focusing on Latin American development) from the University of Iowa. 

Andrea Hersey is Technical Sales Manager for Momentive’s Oil & Gas Group based in Houston, TX, where she is responsible for new product commercialization as well global technical support and marketing across all product lines. Hersey joined Momentive in 2008 as a Chemist in the Houston Research and Development Technology. Over the years she has held various roles in Technology, Supply Chain, and Sales.

Hersey graduated from Baylor University with a B.S. Biology and B.S. Forensic Science. She is a Six Sigma Green Belt and Lean Certified. Currently she is finishing her master’s degree in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M University.

Hersey has been highly involved in the Society of Petroleum Engineers, holding many local and international leadership roles. She was also selected to be a Next Generation Project Texas Fellow from University of Texas to discuss, debate, and influence critical policy areas relating to energy.