Carol Moen: Champion of women and diversity in trades

Published on June 13, 2025

2025 Honorary Bachelor of Technology in Management

Carol Moen was wrong about being ready to retire. It was 2017, and her husband was wrapping up his career as an engineer. “I think I was slightly jealous,” says Moen, an engineer as well, “and thought, ‘I'll try it, too.’”

With that, she said goodbye to her role as the first female Registrar of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta, a position that followed nearly three decades with Dow Canada, most of that in leadership. Then she and her husband rolled up their sleeves and started renovating the family cabin Carol grew up at, just outside of Red Deer.

“We refer to it as ‘our money pit of love,’” says Moen with a laugh.

But as the project neared its end after almost two years, Moen wasn’t quite ready to just put up her feet and enjoy the place. “I found myself missing a bit of purpose, and certainly missing leadership,” she says. Then she got a message from a friend about a local non-profit that needed a new leader.

“The opportunity at Women Building Futures literally just landed in my inbox one day,” says Moen. “It ticked both the boxes for purpose and leadership.”

Now, nearly six years later and with a recently arrived first grandchild, she’s preparing herself to give retirement another go. This summer, Moen will step down as president and CEO of Women Building Futures (WBF), an organization dedicated to furnishing women and gender-diverse people with the skills they need for meaningful careers and better lives.

It’s a role that has ticked more boxes than Moen may have expected. WBF, she says, has shown her the power of using her privilege to the advantage of those with less. By mobilizing an underrepresented workforce, the organization has proven that Alberta has in its midst a solution to its labour challenges. And it has shown Moen that she was capable of being “a better human.”

If she’s serious about retirement this time, the 2025 NAIT honorary degree recipient has accomplished and learned more than enough to have earned it.

Elevating others

There was a time when Moen would have been offended by being called privileged. When she entered her field as a female mechanical engineer in the late-1980s, she did so as a minority, taking on the extra work of trailblazing whether she wanted it or not.

Working with WBF, Moen recognized her relative advantages. She was educated, had a supportive partner and family, enjoyed an aptitude for leadership, and felt confident in asserting herself. Also, “I was glad I’m tall,” says Moen, not joking. “It helped.”

All of it led her to the realization that she could help elevate others. And she did.

Over her time with WBF, the organization graduated more than 1,000 women from programming that prepares them for apprenticeships in the skilled trades. In 2023-24 alone, 284 completed, the highest number ever. Overall, says Moen, 95% of women who enter programming ultimately finish. Many continue their training at NAIT.

Ultimately, the goal is meaningful, rewarding employment and a living wage. WBF often serves women who are leaving difficult personal situations, says Moen. Once they’re on the job, the organization provides services to help them deal with challenges and find solutions, even by just providing someone to talk to after a tough day.

The organization knows there’s a lot at stake. Achieving economic security is essential not only to WBF graduates but to the well-being and futures of their children.

Moen has seen that achievement happen. “When they leave [WBF], they're ready,” she says of grads. “They have confidence in themselves and they have the technical capability.”

Seeing those experiences, and participants realizing their own potential, “continues to change me,” she adds.

A pathway for women into apprenticeship

That may also have the potential to change Alberta. The imminent en masse retirement of baby boomers is putting progress at risk. According to the Business Council of Alberta, trades- oriented job postings in the province rose 85% between 2018 and 2023.

“Identifying resources in the province that are already here, that have the capability to support industry, is what we do. We are a pathway for women into apprenticeship.”

Laurel Tokuda (Electrician ’08) appreciates the value of that work. The associate dean of the School of Construction and Building Sciences knows that, in the past, women have not typically been encouraged to enter the trades. And she knows changing that isn’t something the polytechnic can do alone.

“WBF has consistently been a vital partner in NAIT’s recruitment initiatives,” says Tokuda. The organization's students have often visited the polytechnic to tour labs and explore programs, and NAIT initiatives to promote diversity in the skilled trades, such as Jill of all Trades and Next in Trades, “have been enriched by WBF’s contributions.”

Tokuda singles out the value of Moen’s leadership as well. “Her contributions to breaking barriers, inspiring women and building futures in non-traditional sectors are significant,” she says.
 

As Moen steps away from leading WBF, those contributions will likely only grow in impact. Under her watch, the organization expanded its presence throughout Alberta, and extended into Saskatchewan and Ontario, opening opportunities to an ever-growing group of people who previously might have felt excluded.

“Trades are a beautiful career,” says Moen. Every day, “there's that physical satisfaction of truly creating something.”

And in many cases, Moen knows, that includes a better life.