gender benders I feature story
Sounding a roar in the male dominated automotive industry,
Teresa Semmler
has raced to the top of her career.
T
eresa Semmler, a former Marine, refused to put up with making less than the men at the former automotive group where
she was once employed. She fought for equal pay, and left the company until they agreed to pay her what she deserved. Today,
Teresa is a renowned Sales Manager for Five Star Automotive Group. She gives new meaning to the phrase, “I am woman, hear me
roar!”— and now, she is being heard load and clear over the roar of the car engines at the dealership.
Teresa comes from a military family; her father is retired from the Marine Corps, three of her brothers were also in the Marines, and
one brother was in the Navy. Her first job was a US Marine tractor-trailer driver. She stayed in the Marines until she had her first child,
Lauren. After her second child was born, David, Teresa returned to the workforce and took a job at the Navy Federal Credit Union.
“I stayed with that organization for a total of ten years, at three different locations including Okinawa, Japan,” she explains. “There I
lived with my second husband and had my third child, Rob.”
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June 2014
As Told To Lauren Miller Photographed by Ashley Rogers
In 2004, after going through a divorce from her second husband, Teresa was ready for a change and moved to Florence,
where her brother, Mik RƗfVB