Inside IALR

Women at the Torch: Leading and Inspiring at ATDM

• Institute for Advanced Learning and Research

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What is it like to be a woman teaching advanced manufacturing in a field where men make up the majority?

Hear it from three members of the Accelerated Training in Defense Manufacturing (ATDM) instructional team: welding instructor Makayla Baker, metrology instructor Holly Lyle and welding technician Autumn King. As the only women on a team of nearly 40 instructors and technicians, they share their career journeys, classroom experiences and what it means to mentor the next generation of manufacturing talent.

Through their stories, you’ll hear how ATDM’s fast-paced, 600-hour program equips students for life-changing careers in welding, metrology and more—and why representation matters in the skilled trades. This conversation highlights the impact of teaching, perseverance, and opportunity.

🎙️Topics Covered:

  • How each instructor found her way into manufacturing and teaching
  • What it’s like to guide students in ATDM’s intensive four-month program
  • Challenges and opportunities for women in male-dominated fields
  • Inspiring student success stories, from “last shot” moments to certification triumphs
  • Why role models matter in shaping the next generation of manufacturing talent

The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research serves as a regional catalyst for economic transformation in Southern Virginia. Our services, programs and offerings are diverse, impactful and far reaching.

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Caleb Ayers:

Welcome to another episode of Inside IALR. Thanks for being here today and for joining us. So we've talked a lot about our accelerated training and defense manufacturing program here that prepares adult learners for manufacturing careers and, as is in the name, it's accelerated, so it's a four-month training program. Our instructional team is up to I think it's pushing 40 instructors and technicians at this point and I'm here with the three women who are part of that group. So can you guys just introduce yourself real quick, give your name and your title.

Makayla Baker:

My name is Michaela Baker. I have been a welding instructor here for about two years now.

Holly Lyle:

Hi, my name is Holly Lyle and I have been a metrology instructor for less than a year.

Autumn King:

My name is Autumn King. I've been a welding technician here for about a year and a half now.

Caleb Ayers:

Before we get into anything serious, how many pets do you have? And in your dream world, where money and logistics are not an issue, how many pets would you have, and what kind of pets would they be?

Makayla Baker:

That's a hard hitter, you're talking about easy, that's um currently have a pit bull named Maverick who is six years old, and I have a love bird who is five. I think in a world where money wasn't a problem, I'd have like a shark tank, something really cool and niche that everybody wants to come and see. I don't know, I feel like that'd be really cool.

Holly Lyle:

Okay, currently I have two cats. I used to have a dog, one's white, one's black. They're absolutely hilarious. I guess, in a world where money wasn't an option, I would probably want, I'd probably want, like a Tasmanian devil. I've always thought they were like fluffy teddy bears. I mean they're not, but I mean they look really cute.

Autumn King:

I have a pit bull named Henry. In a perfect world, I think I would have just like a bunch of senior rescue dogs and just let them run around.

Caleb Ayers:

I have one cat and I did not give any thought to what the animal I would have would be, but I like the shark tank answer.

Makayla Baker:

That's not what I was expecting, so I guess for each of you guys can you just tell us a little bit about kind of how you ended up here at ATDM, kind of what was your educational and career journey for, how you got here. So I was actually an ATDM welding student and from there I graduated, I went out into the manufacturing world and did work for John Deere and Mickey's Truck Bodies and you know it filled my pockets but it didn't really fill my cup. And thinking back on my experience at ATDM, where I got so much experience within a four-month span and my instructors truly helped me get to that point, I was like, wow, that would be a dream job. You know where I can truly lead other people to that same position. And so that's what led me back here was just wanting to do the same thing for other people.

Holly Lyle:

I actually I didn't start in metrology, I actually started at in C&C. So I went to school for C&C for three years and I was determined that that's what I was going to do. And as I was in, I was actually at DCC and while I was there in the IMT program that's where ATDM was at the time was in the same building and Jared Hankins, who was the metrology or is the metrology instructor, he saw that I really liked the metrology aspect of it and he was like well, if I train you more on it, I think you'd be a really good technician in metrology. So I applied for the job. He trained me while I was still at IMT and then I became the metrology technician for a year and a half.

Autumn King:

Kind of like Holly. While I was at DCC for welding, I found out about the ATVM program and I was out working in the welding field and a job became available to become a welding technician here and I was really interested in it and so I applied and I wound up getting the job. And here I am.

Caleb Ayers:

What's kind of been y'all's experience as far as when did you? Because it's one. I mean, it's one thing, obviously, for you to go learn how to do manufacturing. Obviously, when you're starting your programs whether it be DCC or DCC or ATDM, you know you're thinking I'm going to go out and I'm going to do this stuff. When did you realize, oh, I can actually teach this too. And when did that kind of when did you? When did that idea come into your head that you might want to? And when did you realize, oh, I actually can teach this stuff?

Makayla Baker:

I think for me personally, I was once a YMCA camp counselor and so I led campers in that way and kind of helped them tie shoes, I mean bait, a hook when we were going fishing, and so I think that's kind of where I realized this is something I want to do, but with something that I'm passionate about. So once I got into welding and found that I was really passionate about that, I mixed my passion with that, with my love for people and teaching them, and that's kind of where I realized this is something I would love to do for the rest of my life.

Holly Lyle:

So If you had asked me that question like two years ago, I would have said no, teaching is not for me, but I actually had been teaching for a little while at my church. So we do this something. We do something called Awana and I had actually been teaching the preschoolers to second graders for probably six years and, um, I really enjoyed it because I loved seeing them learn, seeing the light bulb, um, that light bulb moment go, and um, I really enjoyed it, but I was able to help them. It was actually really rewarding, not not in the sense of oh, I did it. It was more along the sense of I actually explained it in a way that it made sense and that was actually really cool.

Autumn King:

For me, teaching was always kind of a career that I thought about, but I didn't really want to go into it in the like children aspect. I kind of always thought about it in the adult learner aspect. When I realized that I could do it was when I was working a customer service job and I somehow wound up training all of the new employees. So that was kind of when I realized, oh, maybe I can like make people learn things, but being here and like teaching people how to weld has been something that I found really enriching and enjoyable.

Caleb Ayers:

And for those who don't know, atdm is 600 hours over four months. It is fast paced, basically, I mean they've explained it it's like a year of community college packed into four months. So you guys are I mean you're rocking and rolling from the moment the students get here. So what is kind of the in y'all's classroom? I mean I say classroom, classroom, lab, whatever we want to call it I mean, what is it like in there? Kind of, how are you working with students? What does the day-to-day look like? As far as you know what you guys are doing, what you're teaching, things like that.

Makayla Baker:

For me specifically, we go through each of the four main four processes in welding and starting out a new process. We're going to start in the classroom going over book work, powerpoints, anything that can help set them up before they even get out in the shop. So if I say, hey, you know, grab your stick rod, they know what it looks like because we've already went over that in the classroom. So we'll probably do that for about a day or two and then the majority of the time that they're here they're in the shop actually hands on doing this welding, getting one on one with me and a technician and kind of going through the motions of that process until they test out on it.

Holly Lyle:

And then we start it all over again with a little different. So for the first probably month we're actually in the lab or in the classroom and it's really just to get the foundations, because you have to know how to read a blueprint before you can actually inspect a part. So we go through print reading for about a month to a month and a half and we spend a majority of that. Now in that month and a half we're also pounding the basics of basic tools. So we do go down in the lab and work on how to read a tape measure, how to read a ruler, what's a caliper, what's a micrometer, and we start building those basic hand tools. And then from there we go into GD&T. And once we get into GD&T we're basically in the lab the entire time learning how to inspect the GD&T call-outs on the granite station. And then we go into your CMM and your ferroarm and that's also in the lab.

Autumn King:

So my answer is going to be very similar to Michaela's. We have a very structured curriculum. So once they start out in that first process, it's kind of them getting used to being in the shop and getting used to how we do things here. But once they make it to the second one, they understand okay, we're going to be in the classroom for this first maybe day, day and a half and then we're going to be in the shop. This is how we're going to do it and then from there it's pretty steady rolling.

Caleb Ayers:

The amount of hands-on learning by just doing things in this program is very, very impressive and I know that's a very important part of it is, if you're trying to cram it all in there, you can't. Cramming book knowledge in isn't really going to help these people who are immediately going on into real jobs and real manufacturing plants. I think it's worth pointing out so that just for our listeners to know. I mean, I think generally there are not many women in manufacturing. That's. I think that's pretty, pretty common knowledge.

Caleb Ayers:

We I checked this morning so we've had just over a thousand graduates so far from ATDM and 14% of those are women. So that's, I honestly don't know how that compares to what you would see in a traditional plant, but that seems like that is higher than you would, than you would think. But for you all I mean being the woman on the instructional team I mean, what is that? What does having that role mean to you all? I mean, what are you trying to, I guess, show the next generation of women behind you about what manufacturing is? I mean, what are your thoughts on that?

Makayla Baker:

For me that's a really key aspect of why I do what I do. When I was actually in the welding field, working in manufacturing, that was such a pressure that I had. I was always the first woman in the shop. When I worked at Mickey's, I was the first woman they hired. When I worked at John Deere, I was the first woman on that line and so it's cool to kind of have that right.

Makayla Baker:

But it was also so much pressure on me to perform because I knew that if I didn't perform to a high standard, any woman that came in after me was going to be judged based on my performance right, because that was their first experience in hiring a woman and so it was always really difficult in that field and and just getting I feel like a lot more judgment based on just being a woman in this, this male oriented field of welding.

Makayla Baker:

But being here is is is such an intentional spot for me because I had of the women that have come through the welding shop, you know they look at me and they're like I've. You know I'm surprised there's a woman instructor here and you know it's it's kind of crazy to hear those words, but we're changing that and to and to see the different women that do come through our shop and are so excited to be under the instruction of me, or Autumn, like it truly to me lights, lights my day up, lights my week, my year, um, and and gives me my why and a lot of reasons to keep pushing and to keep inspiring women out there to go into these male oriented fields and just do it. Yeah.

Holly Lyle:

For me. I don't think it was ever like, uh oh, this is why, or this is a reason why I want to do it, or anything like that. For the most part, it wasn't really in my mind. I was just kind of like this is what I like, so this is what.

Autumn King:

I'm going to do, but I.

Holly Lyle:

it kind of clicked for me when I had first become a technician and one of our students. One of the students came up to me and she was just like I didn't think I was going to do it. She's like I thought I was just going to get here and then immediately drop out. And like I didn't think I was going to do it.

Holly Lyle:

She's like I thought I was just going to get here and then immediately drop out and she was just like but I could stay because I saw that there was actually a girl who pulled it off and I was like, oh, I didn't realize that was actually a thing that people looked out for.

Holly Lyle:

It didn't click into my brain until she said it and it was just like, oh, okay, so I actually just my presence here actually does have a role to play, and so I don't think it's ever really changed a whole lot of what I've done. I've always had this mentality that whatever I do, do it to the best of my ability, and I think that's, whether you're a boy, a girl, a man, a woman if whatever you do, you need to do it to your best. And I think that women can do it, and if women really want to, they can pull it off and they just need to have this mentality that it's not well, that's just a man's job, or that's only a girl's job, so men can't do it, that's only a boy's job, so a woman can't do it.

Autumn King:

It's like no, you can do it so long as you put your mind and your heart to it. I agree with both of what they what both of them said. I think that a lot of it too is a lot of times you'll go on to a job, like Michaela said, and somebody else will have been there first, and if they did a good job, then they expect you to do a good job, which obviously you're going to do. Or if they did a bad job and it's like, oh well, you're going to do. Or if they did a bad job and it's like, oh well, you're going to do just as bad. But I think if you go into the job and you just do what you want to do, you don't necessarily act any different. But you just can't let being a woman, you know affect how you're going to present yourself and do your job.

Caleb Ayers:

I mean and Michaela, you touched on this a little bit that you were the first in several situations, so that might be part of the answer to this. But kind of based on what you guys have seen in your experiences, why aren't there more women in manufacturing and what are some? What are, what are, I guess, some of those barriers and obstacles that prevent more women from entering this field, whether it be welding or machining or metrology?

Makayla Baker:

I mean, yeah, I think you're right. I did kind of partially answer that, you know, and I think there is a pushback in some regard to women, at least in welding. I've seen a lot. I actually just went to an AWS welding summit and when I was there, the ratio right of men to women at this welding summit I could probably, out of the 80 people that were there, there's probably five females and I'm included in that five and I really just think it's the lack of and kind of like what Holly was saying.

Makayla Baker:

You know that student, seeing her and being like I saw a girl do it so that I stayed. You know that showed me that I could do it. We need more of that, more representation of women in these jobs to let other women know like this is something you can do. If this is something you're interested in or something that you want to end up doing, then do it. You know, and I really think that us being here today like definitely shows other women that that is something. If I don't want to go to nursing school, I don't want to do what, I guess the typical woman, I guess path is that they can do that yeah.

Holly Lyle:

I guess this it's the whole mentality of just, oh well, it's not even like I don't want to. It's more along the lines of well, is that really what I want to do? What is that really? What does it actually look like? Because I mean, I feel like a lot of the traits have just kind of I don't know gone out of favor, I guess.

Holly Lyle:

So it's not even just the simple fact of, oh, I don't necessarily want to do it. It's more along the lines of I don't even know what it is and since it's a male dominated field, it's kind of like, well, if a man is doing it, then it it probably is not going to like it. You know, it's just, I'm good to move to the side, but I think it's more along the lines of if they could see what it actually is, if they could see what it actually would mean for your job or your career, then, and just the joy and actually seeing a part come together or actually being a part of something bigger than yourself, I think is something that would put a lot more people into those fields, whether it be man or woman.

Autumn King:

I think people are a little bit afraid of like the bias that's still out there towards women being in the fields. But you really just have to like not necessarily accept that, but be like this is something I'm going to face and just move past it, because you're going to face bias in any field that you go into. You can work an office job and people aren't always going to be nice to you. You just kind of have to like roll with the punches and do your work and go home.

Caleb Ayers:

It's a good motto Do your work and go home. Holly, you just gave an excellent pitch for Go Tech, which is, for those who don't know, is one of our programs here that is in. It's about to be in 72 Virginia middle schools. That's all about educating middle schoolers so they know those career opportunities do exist and what they're like. So, yeah, if they don't know about it, how can they? How can they go do it?

Caleb Ayers:

So for for you guys, teaching and instructing and coaching students, what are some moments that stick out to you? And Holly, I mean, you already mentioned one, but what are some moments that stick out to you? And Holly, I mean you already mentioned one, but what are some moments that stick out to you as far as, like, that's a really cool moment that you're going to remember, as far as it might you know, might have been a light bulb moment where a student couldn't get something and then all of a sudden, they got it, or or something along those lines. You know some of those rewarding moments or stories, even of students who have gone on from here.

Makayla Baker:

Actually, in a cohort that just recently graduated, I had a student who was living out of their car before coming to this program. You know, just didn't really have anything going for them, and this was kind of their last shot at finding something good for them, an avenue for them to go, and they ended up leaving with almost all of the certifications that we offer, and that, to me, was just like a moment where I'm again reminded of why I do this, you know, to allow people to find those avenues and those career paths that can put them in a place in life that they've always wanted to be.

Holly Lyle:

I actually can think of one student in particular. I actually can think of one student in particular. She struggled a lot in the beginning. Math was not her forte and she was just like, ok, I'm done, I'm dropping out. And we were like, no, you can do it. Once we get through the trig, you'll be able to make it through the class. And once we got through math and we got through profile of a surface and all of the trig that went along with that, we got on to the CMM and the Pharaoh arm and I mean she took off.

Holly Lyle:

Just the joy that she got to work on the Pharaoh arm and the CMM. I mean she loved every minute that she possibly could be on it. And we got an email back from her not too long ago and she was just like I'm moving up, I've gotten my certification's like normally it takes about a month to get it. She's like I got it in two weeks. She was like I just went ahead, passed all the the classes or courses that you're supposed to take. She's like and I knew everything she's like and I couldn't have done it without you and Jared and Andy. She was like it was. It's just this freeing moment that I actually knew I could do it, and so that was actually really cool to be like, okay, you were struggling it, struggling through all of the classes, but you pulled it off, so it was really cool.

Autumn King:

Mine shares a common theme with both of those. I had a student and he uh, he started out and he struggled like pretty much halfway through the whole cohort and he stayed for tutoring pretty much every single day that it was offered. And something just clicked like halfway through and he started picking up every single cert that he could get and by the end of the cohort he had every cert, got a great job offer. But it was somebody that, like, had never had anything their whole life. They came from having nothing and this program was pretty much like their last shot, that they felt that they had to make something of themselves in their life. And that's just one of those times where you're like, man, I'm really just happy for this person. It's a powerful moment.

Caleb Ayers:

The whole idea of ATDM is to, you know, put more people in the maritime industrial base so that you know those ships and submarines can get produced and maintained.

Caleb Ayers:

But obviously the secondary part of that is that those life-changing career opportunities that come out of four months of training and then you're set up for a great career that you were not set up for at all four months before that.

Caleb Ayers:

So yeah, that's. I love hearing those stories of students going from yeah, as you said, living out of their car to walking away with a bunch of certifications and great job offers. Yeah, just the the ability of this program to open doors to for people who might not have the time or the resources to go to community college for two years or to go find a program that they pay for, or to travel for a program where they have to pay for housing. You know, like, housing and tuition are covered and everything is covered to open those doors to anyone who's willing to put the work in. Thank you guys for being here today. I enjoyed hearing the stories and just the mission that you all clearly work with, that you understand the bigger mission of ATDM to help put more people in these positions but also the role that you all play in these individuals' lives who are going on to. I mean you're helping prepare people for life-changing careers.

Holly Lyle:

Thank you. Thank you so much, caleb, I appreciate it.