Key Takeaways:
- SPL’s Measurement division spotlight: Stephanie Owens, Production Allocations Lead, Air Force veteran, and two-time breast cancer survivor
- SPL’s Energy Labs spotlight: Presenta Cabascango, a scientist from Ecuador whose career spans two continents and nearly three decades — and Lalena Showater, Elena Trifiniuc, Lilia Plesca, and Mirela Chiriac, the all-female team running SPL’s Williston, ND energy lab
- SPL’s Environmental Labs: every single location is managed by a woman — Karyn Lane, Lauren Hevert, Sarah Purtell, Samantha Simmons, and Misty Owens
- Chief Administrative Officer: Dana Wobser, on how she’s building a culture where talent can thrive.
March is a good time to stop and look around at the people who make the work happen every day. At SPL, that means acknowledging something that isn’t coincidence: across our Measurement, Energy Labs, and Environmental divisions, women are at the center of some of our most important work. They lead teams, manage complex data, run demanding analyses, and show up every day with the kind of quiet, consistent excellence that clients depend on. This Women’s History Month, we want to introduce a few of them.
Measurement: Stephanie Owens, Production Allocations Lead — Houston, TX
Before Stephanie Owens ever touched an allocation report, she was deployed overseas three times in service to her country. She spent six years in the United States Air Force, working in Security Forces as a Combat Medic. She came home, rebuilt, and then rebuilt again — twice — as a two-time breast cancer survivor. That’s the context behind the warm, steady professionalism she brings to her desk every morning.
Stephanie joined what was then Deerborne (now SPL) in 2011. Today, she leads Production Allocations out of Houston. The work is technical and exacting, monthly allocations, SOP updates, resolving complex data discrepancies, keeping clients informed and confident when the numbers get tricky. But when you ask Stephanie what she loves most about the job, she doesn’t lead with any of that.
“It’s all the little things that aren’t in the job description,” she says, “like cheering up the team with a good laugh on tough days. You know, those months when data throws curveballs, deadlines sneak up, or clients need a bit extra. We get through it together, stronger and smiling.”
Energy Labs: Presenta Cabascango, — Houston, TX
Presenta Cabascango’s story doesn’t fit neatly into a resume. It starts in Ecuador, where she was born and raised, and continues in the United States, where she arrived at 26 with a plan and the willingness to work for it. She spent two years in ESL studies before pursuing her Chemistry degree at the University of Houston, with coursework at Sam Houston State — a rigorous academic path that she built from scratch in a new country and a new language.
Her connection to SPL actually goes back to the mid-1990s, when she joined the company’s environmental laboratory. She worked her way through extractions and GC analysis before finding her true calling in GC/MS VOA work. “If you enjoy doing what you do,” she says, “you will never work a day in your life.”
At our Energy Lab in Houston, she began working in our ASTM lab where she performs titrations, sulfur gas analysis, density testing, mole weight determinations, and a range of other technical analyses that support energy clients.
What keeps her going, she says, is the people around her. “When I have a question or anything that I cannot get to work, they are quick to assist. It makes me feel right at home.”
At home, she cares for her father, who recently turned 100 years old. Every single evening when she walks through the door, he asks her the same question: “How was your day at SPL?” Some routines are worth keeping.
Energy Labs: The Williston Team — Williston, ND
Nearly 1,500 miles from Houston, in Williston, North Dakota, SPL operates an energy lab where the all-female team is driven by four women who bring experience, perspective, and a clear sense of purpose to every shift.
The four women running SPL’s Williston energy lab each describe the work a little differently, but the throughline is the same.
Elena Trifiniuc values the learning: “Working for SPL, I have great experience, and I love the team and the management. My part is to make sure I deliver good quality analyses.”
For Lalena Showater, it’s about belonging to something larger: “It gives me a sense of pride to be a woman contributing to what is standardly a male-driven industry. Working in the lab with other strong women in STEM has given me a sense of purpose and fulfillment.”
Lilia Plesca puts it in terms of team: “Our local team became like a family over time, and we all stand for each other — that makes us succeed in what we do.”
And Mirela Chiriac captures the stakes of the work itself: “Working at SPL means being on the front line of science, where my critical data directly supports decision-making and operational excellence.”
Together, these four women are proof that strong teams aren’t built from the top down alone — they’re built by people who show up for each other, every day.
Environmental Labs: An All-Female Management Team
Across every SPL environmental laboratory, one fact stands out: every location is led by a woman. That isn’t a marketing point. It’s the result of years of expertise, performance, and trust earned by five leaders who know their work deeply.
Karyn Lane, Lauren Hevert, Sarah Purtell, Samantha Simmons, and Misty Owens lead our environmental lab network with the kind of steady, practiced authority that clients feel from the first sample submission to the final report. These aren’t figureheads — they are working leaders who understand what accurate, defensible analytical data requires, and who have built teams capable of delivering it, consistently, across diverse project types and regulatory frameworks.
Environmental laboratory leadership is demanding work. It sits at the intersection of scientific rigor, regulatory compliance, client communication, and operational logistics. Our managers navigate all of it. And the fact that every single SPL environmental lab is under female leadership reflects something real about this company: we promote people who get results, full stop.
To Karyn, Lauren, Sarah, Samantha, and Misty — thank you for the standard you set and for the teams you’ve built around you.
Leadership: Dana Wobser, Chief Administrative Officer
The women shaping SPL aren’t only found in the lab. Dana Wobser serves as SPL’s Chief Administrative Officer, leading the company’s people operations, safety, training, compliance, and risk functions. It’s a role that touches every corner of the organization.
Before joining SPL, Dana served as CAO at SEAM Group and held HR leadership roles at Oatey Company and Myers Industries, where she drove talent management and organizational design initiatives. She holds both SPHR and SHRM-SCP certifications, among the most rigorous credentials in the human resources profession.
At SPL, her fingerprints are on the culture that the women in this article describe: the welcoming environment Elena Trifiniuc mentions, the sense of being heard and supported that Mirela Chiriac values, the feeling Stephanie Owens captures when she talks about getting through hard months together. That doesn’t happen by accident. It’s built, deliberately, by people like Dana.
“The women at SPL inspire me every day,” shares Dana. “From the lab bench to the leadership table, they show up with expertise, grit, and a genuine care for each other. Building a culture where that kind of talent can thrive is the most meaningful work I do.”
The people you just read about are not exceptions. They are a cross-section of who SPL is. Across measurement, energy and environmental labs, across allocations and ASTM analysis, across Houston and Williston, women at this company are doing serious technical work, leading their peers, and building careers they’re genuinely proud of.
We’re proud of them too. Happy Women’s History Month!