Sloane Braden Whiteley
August 11, 1980 – December 20, 2021
Sloane died at home in The Woodlands, TX with her parents by her side. It was sunrise, she faced east towards first light with her energy passing through the Torii and on to the Shinto Kami. She battled gout destroying her body, but not her mind. Sloane was a Marin County native and a fifth generation Californian. Her parents, Dr.
William Daniel Whiteley and Judith-Varina Smith Whiteley of The Woodlands, TX; her godmother, Helen Chavez of Mill Valley; and cousins from Utah survive her. She is predeceased by her godfather, William Chandler of San Francisco.
Sloane went to St. Mark’s School in Marin County and the American School Foundation in Mexico City, graduating with honors. She attended Texas A&M majoring in Biomedical Science and Biochemistry, and graduated Cum Laude in 2001, and she completed an internship at U.C.B. Pharma in Belgium. Returning to Texas A&M, she completed an M.S. in Biotechnology. At Baylor College of Medicine and at Texas A&M she worked in research and volunteered for AIDS assistance projects, began and completed a second M.S. in Management Information Systems emphasizing
engineering and software development. She was a member of Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, won a Biotechnology Regent’s Scholarship and received the Mary Owen Greenwood Scholar Award for Scholastic Achievement and Community Service from Baylor College of Medicine.
Sloane worked for Science Applications International in both the U.S. and the U.K., then with Aveva, a British Firm, in India and Asia in energy and oil projects. She became a Certified Project Manager and a Certified Scrum Master. Moving to Malaysia, she worked on oil and gas sites in Indonesia, Thailand, and Myanmar for three years and transferred to Dubai. She was also sent to work energy transition and preparative projects in Norway and in the U.K. She was in Dubai for three years and returned to Texas. In Houston she was hired by Infosys, an Indian company, looking for her skillset and international experience. It was an opportunity to reach the apex of her career, but it was not to be. During the COVID outbreak, her gout worsened causing kidney failure.
Sloane loved fast cars, Mustangs and Porsches; played the flute and the didgeridoo; she also mentored young women interested in S.T.E.M. subjects. Sloane published papers anent safety in the energy industry and accident prevention on oil rigs and detection of subsea pipeline and valve leakage. In 2012, in Ireland, she was honored
to present a paper at the World Congress on Water, Climate and Energy. Transitioning oil rigs to wind energy production was her final project. Sloane lived an amazing, interesting and contributory life. She made great memories, worked hard and will missed by friends in many countries.
Donations in Sloane’s memory can be made to Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres), 888-392-0392 or email donations@newyork.msf.org.