What I Do I am the Process Improvement manager, and leading the entire site in improvement of our processes, procedures, and day to day activities from technical to clerical. As the manager, I oversee lean projects throughout the company as well as lead the multi-department and high level projects. I consult about quality and material issues as needed.
Why Engineering? I have loved math and science since I was a child. I was meant to be an engineer. I not only enjoyed the challenge of it, but the ability to experiment and learn on my own. Failure taught me as much as success, and that is what kept me interested.
School Days Materials Science and Engineering BS, MIT Industrial Design BS, The Art Institute of California - Orange County
My Day At Work My main focus is root cause analysis (finding out why something went wrong) and corrective action (how can we prevent it from happening again) for all processes and procedures on site. I am also revising documentation for multiple departments to streamline procedures.
Best Part You never stop learning because challenges are always in front of you. I am an engineer, and will always been an engineer at work and in life. It becomes a part of who you are.
Proud Moments The first was having a material I developed flown on one of the last shuttle missions to the International Space Station for exposure testing on MISSIE. The second was getting my first patent based on an assignment in design school.
Challenges Being a female, and looking younger than I am always presents challenges when I start at a new company. People don't know my level of expertise by looking at me, but they learn eventually. I had wonderful mentors, male and female, who have taught how to seize the moments and opportunities to further my career. It takes confidence in yourself.
My Family I am a proud mom of an 8 year old girl and my husband is also an engineer. It makes for interesting conversations and activities in our household! My mother owned her own tax business for over 42 years (just retired) and my father was a Quality/Electrical Engineer in aerospace. He worked on the electronics on every space program from Mercury to the Shuttle.
Dreams and Goals Short term for my career is to transform how we work on site and continue to become an established leader. Short term in my personal life is to complete my first children's book, focused on engineering. Long term is to keep challenging myself!
Inspiration My parents and all the strong, female characters and people I have encountered along the way!
Hobbies If I am not at work, I am probably in my kitchen. I love cooking and baking. My goal this year is to challenge my baking skills and see what I can do. My friends and co-workers are enjoying this goal very much.