Kelley Spring is following in her father's footsteps and leading an injection molding facility, which she considers "the absolute highlight" of her career.
Spring graduated from the University of Kentucky with a bachelor's degree in animal science and a minor in plant and soil science. Following graduation, she returned to her hometown, where her family is located.
Her father had worked for local injection molder C&J Industries in Meadville, Pa., since he graduated from high school, starting on the production floor as a second shift material handler and working his way up the company to plant manager.
"Knowing what a great career he had, I took a chance on interviewing for a position there as the planning assistant, where I began my career in plastics and provided support for customer service, purchasing and production scheduling. Upon a colleague's retirement, I moved into a customer service role and later into a sales engineer role before departing the company in 2019 to start my next chapter growing QTD Plastics," she said.
As operations manager at QTD Plastics, Spring oversees "all aspects of a rapidly growing injection molding operation, including production, planning, customer service, tooling, quality and finance."
Spring said her greatest accomplishment has been learning how to become the leader that her dad was.
"He is one of the most influential employees to ever grace the halls of C&J Industries and has impacted more lives that I could ever imagine over his career. To this day, years after his retirement, his colleagues still talk about him like he hung the moon. I'm working hard to build that same rapport with our employees here," she said.
"Throughout my career, I've learned how to navigate the difficult and delicate situations that come with leadership roles. But more importantly, I've learned how to be a coach. Harvey S. Firestone said, 'The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership,' and it's 100 percent true. Leading our employees and helping them grow into the best versions of themselves while creating a culture of problem-solvers is more satisfying that I could imagine," she added.
Spring said she is "so fortunate" for the opportunities she has been given at QTD, and there is plenty left to get done. "At the end of each day, I remind myself that I've done well, regardless of what did or didn't get done," Spring added. "I have a tendency to always be looking ahead to that 'next' thing, but life is terribly short, and it's just as important to slow down and enjoy the 'now.'"