photographiste

"I've known that I wanted to be an engineer for as long I can remember. I love understanding how things work, designing things... I earned my masters in mechanical engineering and an MBA while working in the automotive industry. My specific area was quality engineering - looking at any sort of process, product, or design, and making it better. That's something you really can't do alone, you've got to talk to people, understand how it affects them. In a process or a supply chain is everything related and could impact other people. You need to consider the entire system. Most of my career has been in quality engineering, which involves considerable statistical analysis to redesign products and services and make them better. While I still work with manufacturing processes, I have started focusing on health care systems engineering to help improve access to medical care. The more I can do that to make a difference, the more enjoyable it is.

Life is too short not to do what you love! I want my students to do what makes them happy and figure that out and be able to improve and succeed with whatever they do. It’s important for them to talk to people and shadow them to find out what their passion is in life and then pursue it and let nothing stop them. Prove themselves! I think that it's really important to have mentors along the way. In most of my classes, the female students usually stand out. As they have to fight their way, they're working harder. I find females typically have better communication skills so when they're a leader of a group they get everyone working together. They also seem more think about the project holistically. They think about all aspects of the project and how everything relates together. Women can have it all – successful career and family - these need to work together to be successful in life."

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