FROM CURIOSITY TO CAREER!
Submitted on June 23, 2026
SHAE HENRY KIMBALL ‘18
By Mindy Hamlin ‘91, Hamlin Communications
In elementary school, Shae (Henry) Kimbell ’18 knew she wanted to pursue a career out of making things.
“I always wanted to know how things, like machines, worked the way they do,” Kimbell explained. “When I was 10, I made drawings of how I was going to build my own gumball machine. I always had that curiosity about how to make things.”
After graduating from Georgetown with a B.S. in both computational science and engineering arts, she earned an electrical engineering degree from the University of Kentucky. She is married to Lee Kimbell ‘18 who studied biology at GC. Kimbell turned her curiosity into a career in robotics, automation, and packaging engineering with Procter & Gamble (P&G), headquartered in Cincinnati.
“P&G is unique,” Kimbell pointed out. “Its products are in 85-90% of U.S. households, and most of these products are made in the U.S. My job is to innovate, refine, and improve the automation process, so product quality remains high and affordable.”
According to P&G’s website, the company manufactures 90% of its products in the U.S., including popular brands like Bounty, Cascade, Dawn, Old Spice, Secret, and Tide.
In Kimbell’s early roles at the company, she was part of the team that designed and implemented advanced automation, robotics, and control systems to streamline production and improve warehousing and display making processes. Her work included designing a custom robotic end-of-arm tool to automate a repetitive part of the display-making process and overseeing its implementation.
“I designed a custom robotic end-of-arm tool,” Kimbell said. “I took this idea from a paper drawing to a prototype to a full design. That project has been a career highlight for me because I saw the project from beginning to end and was able to create efficiencies in the warehouse by adding automation to a previously fully manual process.”
Recently, Kimbell took on a new role at the company as Senior Manager and Packing Engineer. Her first project was developing automation improvements for one of the company’s newest inventions. The new product, Tide Evo, is part of P&G’s line of detergents and demonstrates the company’s commitment to manufacturing and packaging environmentally friendly products.
“What is exciting about the Tide Evo project is that the product is early in its life cycle,” Kimbell explained. “As engineers look at the product from manufacturing to packaging design, we can ask questions such as ‘How do we manufacture it faster and with better quality?’” At P&G, Kimbell has found a company where she can indulge her creator instincts.
“I like what I do,” Kimbell said. “I like that I am given the opportunity not only to identify a problem, but I am also given the tools and authority to solve it.”
ENGINEERING AND THE LIBERAL ARTS
Kimbell credits the liberal arts education she earned at Georgetown and the opportunity to play on the College’s tennis team for giving her a well-rounded education that prepared her for the engineering courses at UK and her professional career.
“I don’t see many people in my field who come from a liberal arts background,” Kimbell explained. “This background is important in my job because it allows me to step back and analyze a problem from different perspectives. At GC, you are not just in the physics lab; you are also required to take writing, language, and arts courses.”
As a high school senior, Kimbell knew what she wanted from her college experience.
“I went to a high school that was overcrowded and knew I wanted a smaller school where the professors would know me,” she said. “I also wanted to play tennis in college, so that narrowed it down a bit.”
Her decision was made when tennis coaches Michael and Jessica Cunningham recruited her to Georgetown. The school’s computational science program, which includes an engineering pathway, also helped Kimbell make her decision.
TENNIS LESSONS
Kimbell credits the tennis team and coaches for teaching her the importance of perseverance and teamwork.
“Being a student athlete taught me how to approach the world and show up even when things are hard,” Kimbell added. “Resiliency is something I built on the tennis court.”
The coaches also taught Kimbell and the team what it meant to be a good teammate.
“We celebrated each other’s achievements,” she remembered. “Tennis can be an isolating, solo sport; it was encouraging to have your teammates cheering you on. Many of my teammates are still encouraging one another.”
Reflecting on her time at Georgetown and its impact on her career, Kimbell underscores the importance of skills only a liberal arts education can provide.
“As an engineer, the technical skills are really important, but we need more engineers who can communicate well and see the big picture,” Kimbell emphasized. “Those are tools you get from a liberal arts education. A technical education is very important and very hard, but the other benefits you receive at a school like Georgetown make you a standout.”
For more great stories like Kimbell's, read the Spring 2026 Issue of GC Moments: The Georgetown College Alumni Magazine.
