This Whiting environmental advisor says she has a “dream job”

This story is part of “The People of bp,” a first-person series that highlights dynamic talent at one of the world’s largest integrated energy companies.

By Rhonda Boyd-Knight

I'm a senior environmental advisor here at the Whiting refinery. I was born and raised in Gary, Indiana.

I did my college stint at Purdue University and returned back home about 29 years ago. My first really great job here was at the steel mill, right across the street. Once they closed down, I had a few different jobs. Then I decided, I wonder what is the greatest place that I could work? Well, now I'm here at bp.

Living here is great in this little industrial community. You can come here, and if you want to be an engineer – you can work as an engineer.

I’ve worked at the refinery for 18 years. My career here began in pipelines, and then I came over here in 2016, at our plant here at the Whiting refinery. The refinery makes petroleum products for jet fuel and right down to diesel.

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In the environmental department, I do the air monitoring and water monitoring programs. My purpose at the refinery is to make sure the air is as clean as it can be, and that the water is as pure as it can be.

In my day-to-day job in the environmental department, I put on my safety shoes, my hard hat and my glasses. And then I come out at least once a month to monitor for our fence-line monitoring program at the Whiting refinery.

For the culture, we have business resource groups, or BRGs. I'm a part of different BRGs, but very heavily in our Black Collective BRG. Every year, we have a Juneteenth celebration. The BRG has a backpack giveaway in East Chicago. It’s great to see how happy the students are to receive a backpack full of goodies.

Fast facts about Whiting refinery

2,700+ bp employees and contractors
440,000 barrels of crude oil processed each day

86,000 regional jobs supported

Here in the community, I've been able to plant trees. We're always here touching base with the community. The last couple of years we've had Refinery Day, where we invite folks to come in so they can learn about the refinery. We participate in Pierogi Fest.

This is the dream job. Just this morning, someone asked me, “Where do you work?” And I said, “Oh, I work at the Whiting refinery.” They replied, “You must be special, you got a job at bp.”

The future of the refinery, and the community, is great. We’re striving to keep the community clean, and the air clean, and to partner with the community.