FY17 Candidate Bios: Vice Presidents

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

• Vice President of Career Guidance/Outreach (elect 1):
• Rosie Pham
• Vice President of Professional Development (elect 1): 
• Betty Smith
• Katie Elliott

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VP Outreach

Rosie Pham

No candidate statement or picture provided.

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VP Professional Development

Betty L. Smith

Betty Smith has been President, Chair, Director and Trustee of over 9 professional organizations so she brings commitment, trust, dedication, value, experience and a true ongoing passion for growing women in engineering. As an Engineering Manager, Mentor, Coach, and Advisor, various young engineers have advanced in their careers and have been promoted.

As Adviser and twice nominated Trainer Extraordinaire, Betty has led numerous classes and training exercises on Leadership, Management and engineering fields of interest, including, but not limited to aerodynamics, aviation and safety.

I am applying for the position of Vice President of Professional Development as I am certain I will make a lasting impact in the lives and professions of many women engineers.   Beginning my professional career as one of the very few degreed women engineering managers in aerospace, I possess the passion for other women in engineering to succeed, to explore their talents, to promote their skills, and to encourage them along their technical journey in embracing engineering as an endearing and lasting profession.

Thank you for this great opportunity to serve SWE and all its members.
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Katie Elliott

Katie Elliott graduated from the University of Washington with a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering, specializing in signal processing. Her early career was spent working in wireless technologies like the Palm VII wireless PDA, RFID readers and cellular base stations.  Soon, she moved towards more general software engineering roles. She is currently a Lead Software Engineer at Stratos Product Development in Seattle, which specializes in creative cross-disciplinary solutions to client problems and has many projects in the medical device field with unique challenges. Outside of work she tries to be, well, outside, whether backcountry skiing, playing Ultimate Frisbee, kayaking, or cycling.

I believe passionately in working to encourage and retain women in engineering and take seriously the role of mentoring women in my group at work. Having found SWE relatively late in my career, I've been delighted to find an organization which feels the same way as I do about looking for ways to help women succeed in engineering.

During the past year, I volunteered in the Professional Development Committee where I helped find technical speakers, hosted the holiday party, and co-organized the new SWE book club. The Professional Development Committee plays an important role in providing a forum for women to broaden their technical and professional skills. It also offers encouragement, support, and friendship. As VP of Professional Development I will bring my experience within SWE and the leadership skills from my career to offer a great series of events to our section.
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