FY17 Candidate Bios: Secretary

The FY17 nominating committee is very excited to present the following candidate bios for the elected positions listed below:

• Secretary (elect 1):
• Abiola Gaines
• Connie Starr

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Secretary

Abiola Gaines

Please note that this candidate has withdrawn from the FY17 slate.

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Connie Starr

I’m passionate about outreach to inspire young women to pursue engineering careers. This has led me to join SWE. I want to take a more active leadership role as Chapter Secretary. I’ve held the SWE Colleague Scholarship Chair in the 2015/16 scholastic year and was a Certificate of Merit committee member where I networked with academic advisors in the local area high schools and colleges to recognize women in engineering. I organized the judging of the scholarships and communication back to the schools. In recognition for this work, I received the PNW Chapter Outreach Volunteer Award. Additionally, I volunteered weekly for KISE, a SWE sponsored after-school science club, at Kimball Elementary School in south Seattle.

Academically, I hold a B.S. Material Science from the University of Washington. I also I helped found the UW chapter of Phi Sigma Rho engineering sorority with eleven other members. Today, our chapter has grown to over one hundred members.

Currently, I’m the acting manager of the Everett Quality Laboratories at Boeing. In my spare time I enjoy reading, jogging, and organizing everything.

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