Empowering LeadHERS: A Mission to Support Women in Automotive Careers

Like many girls, Michelle Pippin didn’t consider a skilled trade as a possible career path growing up. Originally an aspiring lawyer, she was working as a restaurant manager when her car broke down in rural Alaska a decade ago and her life took a very unexpected turn. 

Today, Pippin is a valued mentor and Founder and CEO of Empowering LeadHERS, a new national leadership development initiative for women working in male-dominated industries, particularly automotive.  

Pippin’s goal is to offer a support network for women via individual and group coaching, consulting, workshops, and ultimately conferences and retreats that encourage them to lead with confidence rather than try to shrink, soften, or quietly assimilate into the status quo.  

“Women bring a relationship-centered approach to service and leadership to this industry that creates trust, loyalty, and strong outcomes,” she says. “That advantage is real, underrecognized, and worth investing in.” 

Graceful Guidance

Pippin, 46, has gathered firsthand experience as a leader in repair shops in Alaska and most recently, Indiana. She is currently finishing a Doctor of Education at Baylor University, where her research has focused on women in the independent automotive repair industry; she also is writing a guidebook with practical tips for service advisors.  

“I love helping people increase their confidence, their skillsets, and their mindsets,” she relates. “I want everyone to feel seen and heard and meet their goals. It brings me so much joy.” 

Pippin formed Empowering LeadHERS in 2025 to fill what she considers a resource gap for female managers at independent shops. Early tasks include building a website, collecting email subscribers, running online workshops, and planning a newsletter set to launch this spring.

As she ramps up the organization, Pippin is mentoring two shop managers and a service advisor in one-on-one relationships. Discussions have covered professional and personal challenges, career advancement opportunities, and ideas for improving the industry; Pippin also will do mock calls ahead of potentially tough workplace conversations.

“Women deserve to have profitable, equitable, and meaningful lives in this industry,” she says.  “We’re getting a lot of great feedback while spreading the word about Empowering LeadHERS. I want this to be my legacy.”

A healthy balance between work, family time, hobbies, and continuing education will keep more qualified women in the industry, as is true for men, she continues: “We have the highest turnover of almost any industry. That needs to change for us to keep improving.”

One recent mentee, Shannon Hochstetler, a service manager advisor in Indiana, has learned not to take disagreements personally, be unafraid to show she cares, and give employees the tools and resources to do their jobs rather than micromanage or immediately step in as a “fixer.”  

“Michelle pushed me to grow while always remaining true to myself,” Hochstetler says. “She wants us all to be the best we can, regardless of gender.” And, she adds, “I want to stay in this industry—it feels like women are changing it.”  

Driven to Learn

A Florida native, Pippin earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Western Governors University and a master’s in Leadership & Organizational Change from the University of Oklahoma.

By summer, Pippin expects to complete a 200-page doctoral dissertation on women’s experiences in the male-heavy automotive trade, such as being overlooked by customers, missing out on promotions, and absorbing negative messaging, such as “You’re just a woman,” “You’re too emotional, not logical enough,” and “You should be nicer and smile more.”

Many women eventually direct that same language internally, Pippin notes: “If they are aware of what’s happening and what they’re doing to themselves, we can reframe the wording so it’s not damaging to self-confidence.”

Another research finding is that women tend to enter the industry at a significant disadvantage, given that men often grow up working on cars and/or getting encouragement to pursue a blue-collar career. “Women have to learn fast, and on the job,” she says.

That was true of Pippin herself. In 2016, she was living in a small Alaska town with her Army husband, Charles, when she took the older of her two daughters on a 16th birthday outing to a mall in Anchorage. On the six-plus-hour drive home, the timing belt on her Subaru Outback suddenly snapped in the middle of a vast national park.

“We had no cell reception and mountains all around us,” she recalls. “We hadn’t seen a car in quite a while. I was thinking we might have to walk out.”

Luckily, a stranger drove by and called a tow truck from the next town. Pippin paid $1,900 to have her car hauled to a trusted mechanic near home but grew frustrated at the lack of repair updates because the shop owner had no staff.

One day, Pippin simply asked the owner if he needed help. To her surprise, he hired her despite her lack of knowledge about cars; she had to look up unfamiliar auto parts and vocabulary online. Ultimately, she began pitching shop improvements that drastically boosted revenue.

“It was so empowering and transformative, and it fed my desire to keep learning,” she remembers. “I just started thinking, ‘I’m not so special. Yes, I’m a driven person, but if I can do it, anyone can. Why am I the only woman on conference calls and at meetings?’”

Seeking Opportunities Elsewhere

Pippin spent about seven years running shops in Alaska, developing a reputation as a talented manager. Yet she suffered burnout from long work hours and lack of sleep and left to spend a year working in human resources for a public school system.

In 2024, Pippin missed the industry’s camaraderie and returned with a new perspective. After 18 months as a district manager at a five-location business in Indiana, she is now eager to expand her insights to more women while enjoying empty-nesting with Charles, a corporate bank trainer, and their cat, Professor Severus Snape, plus hiking, traveling, and painting.

Along with Empowering LeadHERS, Pippin is working on a book titled, “Dear Service Advisor,” which she hopes to finish by June. Written conversationally as a letter to advisors, the book will outline tips based on her shop experiences and academic studies. 

Authentic connection and communication, for example, is crucial to earning trust, she says—and those skills are often a natural strong point for women. Instead of only telling a parent what’s wrong with a college-aged child’s car, then, an advisor could ask questions about the child’s life and provide reassurance that the car will be safe to drive.

Pippin also suggests viewing customers’ time at a shop as an emotional event, when anxiety and frustration can naturally surface in the face of repair costs and decisions. Rather than become defensive if a customer gets angry, interrupts, or balks at recommendations, service advisors can think of themselves as guides through those reactions.  

“Having emotional intelligence is a real skill,” she says. “If your customers feel heard, it’s going to make a huge difference.”  

As for her overall advice to other women in the industry that she has come to love: Seek mentors and sponsors early, commit to continuous training and skill development, and don’t back down from a challenge.

“Resistance is part of the journey,” she states. “Remain visible and steady without abandoning yourself. Hold onto your identity, your purpose, and your well-being, because sustainability matters as much as success.”

For more information, visit www.EmpoweringLeadhers.com or email [email protected].