How Alexandra Price Rocks the Balance between Family and Career

Although Alexandra Price grew up in the mountains, it was the awe-inspiring volcanoes of the Central America Volcanic Arc that ignited her passion for geology, later leading to her joining Viridien as a Minerals & Mining Technical Business Developer. We caught up with her 18 months into her dream job to hear her insights on finding the flexibility to excel in her career while prioritizing family life. Her advice to aspiring geologists? Don't give up, find mentors, and keep pushing forward.

After high school, Alexandra moved to Central America for three years, traveling from Costa Rica to Nicaragua every three months to renew her visa.

“I fell in love with volcanoes on those visa renewal trips,” she says. After moving back to Colorado, she started college at Colorado Mesa University. She was 21 years old, a single mom, and very, very driven.

“I had a lot of opportunities to work when I was a student – I interned with the Bureau of Land Management, taught elementary school science classes – I even worked at a dinosaur museum. Once I graduated, I landed a role in the oil and gas industry [in Texas and New Mexico],” she says. “I liked it, but I left pretty quickly. I wanted to go back to school.”

So she did. She finished her Masters in Geology at the University of Texas Permian Basin (UTPB) and started teaching college courses for a handful of universities, including her alma mater, UTPB, while writing a college science textbook and virtual lab-kit companion.

As much as she loved teaching, she was also itching to get back into industry work. 
 

“When I was teaching at college, I realized that most people have no idea how various energy sources are found, produced, extracted, processed and so forth. They only know how to use it,” she says.

So Alexandra embraced her strengths and  went back to school again. Currently, she’s pursuing her doctorate in critical minerals at the University of Houston while working full-time at Viridien as a Technical Business Developer for Viridien’s Minerals & Mining team.

“I manage large-scale regional geophysical surveys to produce mineral exploration data sets. Essentially, I put together data sets and meet with major mining companies to show them how this data will help them make more informed decisions during mineral exploration, ultimately saving them time, risks and costs,” she says.

Alexandra is 18 months into her current role. Her take?

“Viridien really is the ultimate geoscience technology company. I have the opportunity to collaborate across the company in multiphysics, remote sensing, mineral exploration geoscience and seismic imaging. It’s been a dream job for me to get to work with brilliant people, innovation, data, technology and geoscience.”

A lot of women feel like they have to choose between being a devoted mother and having a successful career. Alexandra wanted both, and although it’s been hard, she feels like she’s achieved it.

“I love my job, and I love my family, and Viridien supports that. I have the flexibility to be a present mother and have my dream job,” she says. “You don’t have to live with those regrets of ‘wow, I wish I had done that...’. You can do it piece by piece. Is it hard? Yes, but if you have the desire to do it, then go for it." 

Everyone faces their own set of trials in life, and Alexandra is no different – she wants to encourage young women not to give up, though, because “grit and tenacity will carry you through challenging seasons of work, school and motherhood.”

She became a mother at 21, before she began college and while she was still living abroad. She knows firsthand how difficult it is to balance all of the roles in life that she wanted to fill.

“Being a parent is all about compromise, yes, but sometimes I think we go too far. Young parents can be the most ambitious people – they just need a different kind of support than traditional college students. It’s intense, but having someone a few steps ahead of you who wants you to succeed and will actually help you get there – that’s priceless,” she says.

Women often face gender bias in the workplace, especially in male-dominated fields like mining. Currently, females make up around 15% of individuals in the profession (Eiter et al. 2023), but Alexandra knows this percentage can change by encouraging young women to pursue higher education while supporting them in seasons of motherhood.

She recalls a favorite bit of advice from college. “My advisor at UTPB once told me, ‘Alexandra, you can get as many degrees as you want, but if you fail your children, you’ll fail at life’. That has always resonated with me.”

And she believes that showing her children how to follow their dreams is necessary – and the best thing she can do is set an example of what life can look like when you love your family and love your job.

Her main message for young women interested in geology? Don’t give up

“There are so many career options in geology and energy, and a college degree in the sciences is always a solid choice. When you hit a speed bump, don’t give up! We all have imposter syndrome. Find a mentor through local geological or mineralogical societies. Every city has one – look it up and attend a meeting. Lastly, seek out anyone who inspires you and treats you with dignity; true leaders are often willing to lend an ear, or act as a mentor, despite their busy schedules. We all have to be the dreamers at some point in our lives!”

_{Source: Eiter, B. M., Dugdale, Z. J., Robinson, T., Nixon, C. T., Lawson, H., Halldin, C. N., & Stazick, C. (2023). Occupational safety and health of women in mining. Journal of Women's Health, 32(4), 388-395.}