Angela Roewe

Kate Ozburn knows how to heat things up and cool them down, literally.

As a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning technician for Hirth Plumbing and Heating of Belleville, she tackles jobs even stay-at-home moms don't venture to reconcile. And the dirtier, more dangerously complex job, the better, she says.

Nothing can stand in her way of getting a job done; not spiders, snakes, angry canines, the possibility of being burned or shocked, or taking a tour of an attic or crawlspace. Places and positions ordinary women, and often, men, too, shutter to be in gets Ozburn's motor running.

This Belleville woman has cracked the mold of gender expectations, paving the way for women to follow their dreams and career interests. Although, she always knew she would enjoy working a trade, she didn't originally follow her dreams.

Ozburn said she was always a Tomboy, drawn daily to the creek near her childhood home where she spent hours on end catching tadpoles, fishing, and digging in the mud.

"Growing up as a carpenter's daughter, I was exposed to the working-with-your-hands approach," she said. "I loved watching him work, helping with his jobs. Although he died when I was only 10 years old, I had learned enough from him to carry on some of his woodworking skills as a hobby. Ever since, I have loved working with tools, taking things apart, and putting things back together."

While raising her two daughters, Ozburn worked in the bookkeeping and accounting field. She admits she never enjoyed the monotony of working a desk job, sitting in one place 40 hours a week, but soon learned the trade of telephone installation through Lucent technologies getting her out of a desk chair.

While working for Lucent Technologies, the company offered to pay some of its employees' tuition for formal education courses. Although Ozburn did enjoy working as an installer, she still wasn't where she wanted to be. So one day in 2002, she took a leap of faith to change it all by enrolling in the HVAC program at Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville.

"I knew I wasn't in my 20's anymore, so getting another degree would take too much time, so an HVAC schooling program seemed like a great fit for me," she said. "It was only going to take two years, and it was offered near my home.

Although she knew she was entering "a man's world" in the HVAC industry, she persevered and was met with open arms by the faculty and the department head at SWIC. She was one of only two women who enrolled in the program that year, which is highly unusual as normally it consists of strictly men.

She's now worked as an HVAC tech for Hirth for four years, and says she still has to prove herself at times.

"Hirth management and its staff has always been very accommodating to me," she said. "They all know I can do the job as well as a man, but I still get that deer in the headlight look when I arrive at on-site service calls. They'll say 'Oh, I thought you were that girl in the office who answers the phone.' Then, the next time they call for service, they ask for me. I especially attract repeat women clientele who say they are relieved it's me coming because they can walk around in their pajamas while I am there."

In Ozburn's line of work, you can't be in a hurry - there's so much to understand in the HVAC field, and often a surprise is thrown her way that forces her to think out of the box.

"One time I opened up an AC unit for maintenance and cleaning and found a snake coiled around the fan, so it was a good thing that I am not a girly-girl," she said. "You have to fight the elements outdoors, deal with nature at times, and lift heavy objects when you do what I do.

"Don't get me wrong, I like to look nice and wear a bit of makeup, but I am elated every morning when I don't have to stand in front of the closet and debate which dress or skirt to put on. It's jeans, work boots, and a uniform shirt out here because this is a messy job. And, if I didn't come home dirty, it would mean I wasn't succeeding in my career, and what I love to do. "