High School STEM Outreach

Jeanne M. Perdue, Occidental Oil and Gas

Jeanne Perdue received a BS degree in Chemistry from the State University of New York at Albany. She started her career as a chemist at the Texaco Research Laboratories in Bellaire, where she did core analysis and heavy oil analysis. She later conducted research and literature searches at the Texaco Library – before Google was invented. Perdue then became an oil and gas journalist, covering drilling and information technology for Hart's E&P magazine and launching Upstream Technology magazine, which won local and international awards from the Society for Technical Communication. She is now a technical writer at Occidental Petroleum, preparing field development plans, maintenance and operations procedures, best practices, and concession proposals for the Middle East Support Team.

 A Distinguished Member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, Perdue has served as Scholarship Chair, Community Services Chair, Membership Chair, Secretary, and Chair of the Gulf Coast Section. Today she serves on the Distinguished Lecturer Committee and as Chair of the Distinguished Service Award Committee. She has also served as a technical editor and Review Chairman for the SPE Reservoir Engineering journal and was instrumental in getting SPE papers digitized for searching on CD-ROM, which has since become OnePetro.org. Perdue was elected to the Alief ISD school board in the 90’s and was president of the Alief ISD Education Foundation for 10 years. Today she serves on the board of the HCC Foundation and the UH Petroleum Engineering Advisory Board.

Nina R. McAfee is a Health Safety and Environmental (HSE) Manager with more than 30 years experience in the Oil and Gas Upstream, Midstream and Field Services Industries.

Nina brings a record of achievement and demonstrated success in managing global HSE programs. In her most current role with Kinder Morgan, she manages the Environmental Compliance Team for the Pacific Region Products Pipelines Asset providing leadership and strategic direction for developing and implementing programs to comply with specific environmental regulations as they applied to operational areas. Before joining Kinder Morgan, Nina held leadership positions at two major Upstream Exploration and Production Companies and an Oil field Service Company managing a diverse range of functions including environmental, safety, health, radiation, hazardous materials, compliance and regulatory issues. The main focus of Nina’s career has been to identify compliance points within operations and ensure business practices are align with regulatory requirements while managing risks.

Nina holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master’s of Science in Environmental Management from the University of Maryland. She is a Registered Environmental Manager (REM) and a Certified Safety Professional (CSP).

She is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, National Registry of Environmental Professionals (NREP), Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP) and the American Society of Safety Professionals

Richard J. Murphy is an in-class STEM tutor at Dulles High School in Sugar Land, Texas. In his 33-year career, Murphy worked for Phillips Petroleum Company and Marathon Oil Corporation, holding various management positions in international production, economic evaluations and worldwide exploration. In 2011, a year after his retirement from Marathon, he began volunteering at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, helping in the institute’s Patient Family Center and providing high school math tutoring services. In 2013, he created a volunteer in-class chemistry and physics tutoring program at Dulles High School. With the help of the SPE Gulf Coast Section (SPE-GCS), this program has expanded to 12 high schools and more than 30 volunteers contributing over 1800 hours in a school year in math, chemistry, and physics. In 2015, SPE-GCS awarded Murphy the Exemplary Volunteer Award. In 2016, the SPE International awarded Murphy their Public Service Award. He holds a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a Degree of Engineer in petroleum engineering from Stanford University.