The latest episode of NATE’s ClimbCast turns its focus to Women of NATE, the association’s leadership and development focus group, with host Brian Bicknese, NATE’s director of safety and education, sitting down with two of the group’s key leaders: Bessie Garcia, president of Tower Techniques in Dallas, and chairwoman of Women of NATE, and Jessica Cobb, owner of MDTS and a third-term member of NATE’s board of directors. The episode traces the group’s growth from a handful of women at early NATE events to thousands now attending annually, and argues that the group’s leadership summit and mentorship programs benefit the industry well beyond its membership.
From a handful of women to thousands
Cobb, who serves as board oversight for both Women of NATE and Military of NATE, described the group’s early years bluntly: the total number of women at any given NATE event “could easily be counted on both hands.” That’s changed enough that Cobb called the current numbers, thousands of women attending NATE events annually, hard to reconcile with where the group started. She credited founding chairwoman Andy Lee with the group’s growth strategy — not “carving out a place at the table,” in Cobb’s words, but “building an extension to the existing table,” a self-supporting approach that Cobb said proved Women of NATE’s value to the broader association rather than asking for it.
That growth has produced concrete programming: the Women of NATE 5K fun run at NATE Unite, an annual leadership summit, and a mentorship program that started inside Women of NATE and has since expanded association-wide as the NATE Peer Learning Program.
A leadership summit built as a group experience, not a typical conference
Cobb described this year’s Women’s leadership summit to be held September 17, which places a strong emphasis on leadership development and connection, as structurally different from a standard conference: no two sessions run at the same time, and the day is built as a single shared journey rather than a menu of competing breakout options. “There’s nothing like it,” she said.
Garcia, who will be providing the welcome address at the summit, and Cobb were both direct in addressing a stigma the group’s name invites — that an event called Women of NATE is only for women. Cobb argued the opposite: better alignment across a team or network, she said, produces better outcomes regardless of title, tenure, or gender, and “the more people involved, the merrier.” Garcia’s advice to first-time attendees, regardless of who they are, was to push past discomfort: introduce yourself to people outside your existing circle, ask questions, and come prepared to bring ideas back to the company that sent you.
Leadership lessons from two decades of combined field experience
Asked what leadership lessons stood out most in their careers, Cobb pushed back on what she called an outdated idea that leaders should never admit fault. “No one respects a leader who is not humble enough to take ownership,” she said, arguing that authenticity, not a facade of perfection, is what builds team trust. Garcia’s lesson centered on a different insecurity: learning that she didn’t need to have every answer. “You don’t have to be the smartest one in the room,” she said, describing how asking questions, once a source of self-doubt early in her career, became a habit that made her more effective, not less credible.
Cobb also shared a personal story about meeting industry advocate Jordyn Ladner of MILLERCO at a NATE Unite conference around 2017 or 2018, after seeing a video of Ladner climbing at a NATE luncheon. Cobb said introducing herself, admittedly starstruck, and being welcomed warmly by Ladner made it easier to approach others in the organization afterward.
Garcia recalled wanting to speak on an industry panel but being held back by fear, until encouragement from other women in the group pushed her to follow through. “That encouragement of other women got me to do my very first panel last year,” Garcia said. POnce I got over it, then it got too exciting, and I want to do it again.”
What tomorrow’s infrastructure leaders will need
Cobb pointed to a leadership skill gap she said is more urgent now than a decade ago: shortening the learning curve for entry-level workers as automation, collaboration platforms and AI tools become standard in the field. Without enough experienced employees to sustain mentorship and apprenticeship roles, she said, technology meant to improve efficiency can backfire, lowering morale and encouraging workarounds when workers aren’t brought up to competency on the tools they’re using. In-person, hands-on training, she argued, remains something online modules can’t fully replace for field technicians.
Asked where she hopes Women of NATE will be in five years, Cobb said she hopes today’s listeners are the ones sitting in leadership seats, mentoring the next generation. Her advice for getting involved doubled as a closing metaphor: joining NATE, she said, is like joining a gym — membership alone doesn’t produce results without showing up and doing the work.
