As March comes to a close, Hemlock Semiconductor reflects on a month of community impact, growth and celebration. In honor of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, we highlighted the incredible contributions of women across our company, showcasing the talent, leadership and innovation that drive Hemlock forward. At the same time, we continued our 65th anniversary celebrations, honoring more than six decades of connecting and energizing the world we share. This month has been a reminder of the people, history and vision that make HSC a leader in the semiconductor industry.
Women’s History Month
Women’s History Month Feature: Elizabeth Stelzer
Elizabeth is a strategic project leader at HSC, the vice president of HSC’s Women’s Professional Network, and the treasurer of the MidMichigan chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). In her role, she drives strategic initiatives forward, bringing order, momentum and progress to the projects she leads. Elizabeth enjoys tackling complex challenges and turning them into impactful solutions. One of her favorite projects was implementing a major capital upgrade in a key area of the site. While learning to operate brand-new equipment came with challenges, watching it all come together, and seeing how the expansion reflected HSC’s continued growth, made it especially rewarding.
Outside of her day‑to‑day work, Elizabeth is deeply involved in the community. Through HSC’s Women’s Professional Network and SWE, she enjoys participating in volunteer events and supporting others in STEM. She recently received the 2025 Esteemed Professional Member Award from SWE. This award honors a SWE member with 10-20 years as a professional SWE member. Additionally, the award recognizes members who have demonstrated professional excellence in engineering, engineering management, education, technology, or science related to engineering, leadership in SWE, as well as professional organizations, and/or the community. She is also featured in the Women in Energy exhibit in the Griffin Museum of Science and Technology in Chicago for her contributions at HSC.
Women’s History Month Feature: Chenita Tellis
Chenita is a Finishing Supervisor, overseeing functional shift groups, functional specialists, product inspectors and product inspector leaders. As a leader, Chenita believes that work doesn’t have to be stressful or boring to be effective. She brings energy, humor and positivity to her team, creating an environment where people know what needs to be done and feel supported as they do it. A hands-on leader by nature, Chenita is always willing to jump in and help wherever she’s needed.
One of the things Chenita appreciates most about HSC is the culture. She values the strong teamwork mentality across the site, where everyone works together to ensure quality product is shipped to customers. She also appreciates the opportunities for growth and advancement, which have played a key role in her own career journey. That journey is one Chenita is especially passionate about sharing. One of her favorite parts of her role is connecting with high school students at career fairs and community events like MiCareerQuest. She enjoys talking with students about her own path, what HSC does and the many opportunities available in polysilicon manufacturing. Chenita is open about the fact that it’s okay not to have everything figured out right out of high school; she thought she had it all planned, and later pivoted. Finding an entry-level role at HSC allowed her to grow, explore and discover what truly sparked her interest.
Women’s History Month Feature: Raquel Pérez
Raquel is our community affairs leader, where she works on corporate citizenship and responsibility at HSC. She focuses on making sure we are a good neighbor to the communities where we live, work and play. Her work centers on building strong relationships and helping both internal and external stakeholders understand HSC’s commitment to the community.
What Raquel loves most about HSC is the people and the culture. She describes it as a family that’s growing, evolving and taking on new challenges together. That growth shows up in the way employees support one another and show up for the community. Some of Raquel’s favorite milestones include strengthening and modernizing HSC’s grant programs; supporting regional STEM and workforce initiatives like FIRST Robotics and MiCareerQuest; and helping bring employee‑focused efforts such as STARS, Tri‑Share and the PartnerShift Network to life. Much of her work has centered on removing barriers for employees and community members alike, while building partnerships that connect people to opportunity. She especially values work that brings people together through shared purpose, strong relationships and long‑term impact.
Women’s History Month Feature: Barb Metcalf
As vice president and chief human resources officer, Barb is a problem solver at heart. At HSC, she helps people and organizations navigate change, think strategically about the future and build a strong vision for the next three to five years, especially when it comes to people, culture and how we grow together.
What Barb loves most about HSC? The people. No matter who she talks to, she sees teammates who truly believe in the business, care about one another and see themselves as part of the broader community. To Barb, HSC isn’t just where we work, it’s part of the fabric of the community, because when the company succeeds, the community does too.
One of the coolest experiences in Barb’s career was being part of the Greenfield startup in Corning, NY, taking innovation from idea to pilot line, then into a product, while building an entire organization along the way. From facilities to people to processes, it’s where she learned the most. She’s also led major transformations like launching a new HR system in just nine months and supporting large‑scale growth efforts across organizations.
International Women’s Day
On March 8, we celebrated International Women’s Day at HSC! As we celebrate our 65th anniversary, we acknowledge that women have always been at the forefront of our history, shaping our workplace, our culture and our future. We were especially proud to highlight our Women’s Professional Network (WPN), which supports women as they develop their leadership abilities through encouragement, shared experiences and access to resources. Committed to being actively involved in the community, the WPN regularly volunteers and sponsors a team of HSC employees each year to help bring color and life to our community through Midland Blooms. Pictured here is last year’s HSC team.
We’re proud to recognize our Women’s Professional Network, and grateful for the women of HSC whose leadership, dedication and impact continue to move our story forward. Here’s to the women who lead, build, innovate and inspire at HSC and around the world!
HSC 65th Anniversary
This March, as we continued to celebrate our 65th anniversary, we were thrilled to host a flag raising ceremony that brought together employees across generations, neighbors of HSC and leadership to honor this meaningful milestone.
Celebrating Women’s History Month and 65 years of Hemlock’s legacy reminds us that growth and impact are fueled by our people and our communities. We’re excited for what’s next at HSC.
65th Anniversary Flashbacks
In March, we also took time to showcase some amazing, historical images since 1961. Take a look into the past:
You may have noticed that we changed our logo to celebrate our 65th anniversary. But did you know our original logo was designed in 1979 and has remained the same since? The logo is a combination of three employees’ submissions, Wally Reid, Bill Wiles, and Ed LaPorte, for a logo design contest. It’s a reminder that HSC’s story has always been shaped by its people, and by the community we’ve proudly grown alongside.
To celebrate the Detroit Tiger’s opening day, we threw it back to HSC’s own days on the diamond. In the early 1970s, HSC employees took the field as the D.C. Conductors, competing in Midland’s Slo-Pitch Softball League and building teamwork both on and off the field.