President-Elect Candidates:
- Theresa Krack
- Abstain
- Write-In
Theresa Krack
Biography
I am excited to be running for FY19 President Elect!
I have over ten years as a professional member, having held
leadership positions in the Wisconsin and Pacific Northwest professional
sections. I am an accomplished session speaker and panelist at SWE Society,
Joint Region, and WE Local conferences.
I have been an active member and leader in SWE PNW since
2013 and served as a SWE PNW Section Rep for the last three years, representing
the section in SWE business meetings and governance change discussions at both
Society and Region/WE Local conferences.
One of my accomplishments with SWE PNW has been leading the
strategic effort to integrate and upgrade the section’s virtual footprint and
communication platform. This has been an ongoing, multi-year project to
continue improve the member-to-member engagement and communication of key SWE
information.
I joined the SWE Leadership Coaching Committee (LCC) in FY18
as a coach and am thrilled to be expanding that role to include being Section
Management & Operations SME for FY19.
Having been engaged as SWE evolve as an organization this
past year, I believe I will bring key knowledge and connections to help the section align and grow under the new SWE structure.
Candidate Statement
As President Elect, one of my keys goals would be develop
the coordination between the President and President Elect roles, driving to
longer term strategic planning for the section. To accomplish this goal, it
will not only take short- and long-term planning at the section leadership
level, but also engaging connections and support from other areas of SWE.
I plan on leveraging the connections I have, as well as
support from the Leadership Coaching Committee (LCC), to bring in materials,
resources, and templates to help our section better adapt to the new governance
model and continue to achieve strategic growth and success.
In additional to engaging the SWE resources, I also want to
enable improved SWE business and topic dialog not only within our leadership team
but also with our section members. We have many section members with a variety
of SWE experiences that can help bring additional perspectives to the
discussion and help develop both the short- and long-term direction we are
heading as a section.
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Treasurer Candidates:
- Sherrie Rippe
- Abstain
- Write-In
Sherrie Rippe
Biography
Sherrie Rippe is a Tooling Stress Engineer at Boeing
Commercial Airplanes in Everett, WA. Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, she
earned her Masters and Bachelor in Civil Engineering from Washington University
in St. Louis. Her passion is helping others grow in their professional and
personal lives, she serves as a Board member for the North Seattle College
Education Fund and is a Professional Career and Life Coach. In her spare time,
she enjoys reading, spending time with her husband, and playing with her two
dogs and cats.
Candidate Statement
I am currently running for Treasurer of our section for
FY19. As the FY19 treasurer, I would
like to finalize the sections Travel Fund Policy and work more closely with the
Scholarship Chair to work to spread the word to area students about our
scholarships. I have experience developing and revising policies and
procedures, and would enjoy working with the executive board to ensure all of
our procedures and policies are up to date. As a professional member, I have
served as SWE PNW Membership Chair FY09 thru FY11, as SWE PNW Secretary FY12,
SWE PNW Section Representative FY15, and SWE PNW FY18 Treasurer. I am
eager to apply my knowledge of how SWE
operates to the role of treasurer.
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Secretary Candidates:
- Ashley White
- Marina Dannecker
- Abstain
- Write-In
Ashley White
Biography
Ashley joined SWE at Seattle University where she attended
engineering school for electrical engineering. While at SU she served as the
Treasurer her junior year and then President her senior year. As president she
collaborated with a team of nine to organize social and professional
development events and outreach opportunities. As well as coordinating
fundraisers like bake sales in which she created SWE themed cookies to sell.
After graduation she continued to help SU’s section by serving as their
professional liaison. She assisted them on numerous occasions throughout the
year and kept them informed about things happening in the professional sector.
Ashley is currently working for Honeywell Aerospace as a system engineer. She
works on communication and navigational radio equipment for airplanes. In her
free time Ashley loves to visit new places and attend various conventions.
Candidate Statement
In her life, Ashley has had the privilege of having a family
that supported her decision to pursue engineering. She attended a university
which has women as the department heads for most of the STEM majors. Ashley
also has had many great female mentors who have careers in engineering fields.
However, not all women have this kind of support, and SWE is one of the best
organizations at making sure that women and young girls have the aid they need
to succeed in careers that are still male-dominated. Ashley wants to continue
showing women that they can have jobs in engineering fields and that SWE can
provide the extra support they need. Her goal for Secretary is to have an
active role in supporting current and future women engineers. While also
mentoring recent college graduates to stay involved with the society, and to
promote the growth of women in engineering.
Marina Dannecker
Biography
I first joined SWE while studying Materials Science and
Engineering in at UCLA. I immediately got involved with the collegiate section,
joining several committies, coordinating our annual Evening With Industry
event, and eventually serving as President my senior year. I moved to Seattle
about 2 years ago to start my career as a Materials and Processes Engineer at
Blue Origin. I joined SWE PNW and helped plan events as a member of the
Professional Development committee and then served as Secretary for FY18. I
have gained so much from SWE – mentors, a network, close friends, leadership
opportunities, chances to try new things – and I want to do what I can to give
back to SWE and help create opportunities for other women engineers. When I’m
not busy with work and SWE, I enjoy reading, hiking, yoga, improv, and checking
out random coffee shops.
Candidate Statement
I am running for Secretary because I am passionate about
making the SWE PNW section operate smoothly. I want to help the other SWE PNW
officer’s roles be as easy as possible by providing organized and detailed
documentation of meeting minutes, voting records, contacts, event information,
and all other information we need to track. I have really enjoyed serving as
secretary in FY18. Over the past year, I implemented many new things for
secretary, basing little on what was done previously. In FY19, I want to get
all of these tools, documents, and systems running efficiently and to a timely
schedule. I plan to establish regular monthly dates that communications are
sent out to officers/members, to better track action items and ensure that
tasks are followed up on, and to create templates that are stored in a single
location that make it easy for officers to document lessons learned after
events. I hope that by establishing a schedule and routine, it will empower
future SWE PNW leaders to develop long-term strategic plans. I also intend to
create templates and standard operating procedures so that new leaders do not
have to start from scratch.
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Vice President of Professional Development Candidates:
- Sonia Hingorany
- Abstain
- Write-In
Sonia Hingorany
Biography
Sonia Hingorany currently serves on the SWE PNW Executive
Committee as one the VP of Professional Development. This year, she has
organized several social events including the Escape Room Event, Blue
Origin Tour, Annual Holiday Part at the Living Computer Museum, Reinvent
Speaker Panel Event, Pie-Making Class, Amazon Prime Now Tour, Self-Defense
Seminar, Annual Spring Banquet Brunch, Boeing P-8 Tour, and the Professional
Development Committee Monthly Meetings. Sonia looks forward to continuing
her involvement with SWE and leading the professional development mission again
this coming year.
Sonia moved to Seattle almost three years ago for her
full-time job. She currently works at Amazon in the North America Transportation
and Logistics organization. Sonia earned her MBA from Carnegie Mellon
University where she focused on concentrations in Information Systems and
Operations Management. Before earning her MBA at CMU, Sonia previously worked
at Accenture for five years in a technology consulting capacity. She
earned her BS in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Cognitive Science from
UCLA where she initially got involved with SWE. Sonia held a position on the
SWE board for three years. She played several key roles in SWE at UCLA as the
Internal VP, responsible for handling funding for the organization, as well as
the Evening With Industry chair.
Sonia likes to play soccer and tennis and enjoy the outdoors
including running, hiking, and skiing. She loves to travel; Sonia has been to
more than 30 countries and visited 40 states in the US.
Candidate Statement
This year as I enter into the VP of Professional Development
position, I would like to expand more on the mentorship aspect of Professional
Development through resume and cover letter building workshops coupled with
conducting mock interviews. I feel there is a large gap in SWE providing the
resources and support for folks looking to make a career move and that require
assistance in that process, and I would like to bridge that gap. I would also
like to host workshops that include having open conversations about various
issues, such as diversity, this year. I think we experienced a good start to
this through the Reinvent Speaker Panel and I’d like to do more types of these
events that will hopefully surface topics we can then have more intimate
dialogues on with smaller groups.
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Vice President of Career Guidance (Outreach) Candidates:
- Heather Alvarez
- Abstain
- Write-In
Heather Alvarez
Biography
Heather Alvarez first joined SWE events while pursuing her
engineering degree and discovered her love for outreach. She joined SWE
professionally in 2012. She began as the Outreach Chair, and worked her way
through various positions including treasurer, Section Rep, and ultimately to
President of the SWE Antelope Valley Section. However, her first passion was
always in outreach. She wants to make a difference in her community by teaching
others about STEM and real world engineering applications.
Heather earned her bachelor’s degree in mechanical
engineering from California State University, Chico. She then joined the USAF
as a civilian and has worked as a test engineer on various aircraft platforms
such as the B-1 Bomber and C-17 Cargo in California, and more recently the
KC-46 tanker here in Seattle. She is currently enrolled in the Masters of
Science for Engineering Management at George Washington University.
Candidate Statement
Hello! My name is Heather and I am excited to be running for
the VP of Outreach position. I am truly passionate about STEM and believe that
many of the STEM fields are misjudged and underrepresented by women and people
of color. In my previous positions in SWE, Antelope Valley Section, I designed
annual events with the Girl Scouts, spoke at middle schools, and went to career
nights at community colleges. I helped out at high school science fairs and
worked booths to demonstrate Bernoulli’s principle. In the Seattle area, I have
volunteered with Techbridge, I have helped teach young girls how to solder
circuit boards, and learn software coding through on-line games. I love getting
involved in the community and believe that by joining the PNW SWE board, I will
have the opportunity to make a difference. I hope to build on the ground work
that has been laid out and continue to make great connections in the local
area. Thank you for considering me for VP of Outreach!
Elaine Reeves has over nine years of experience in EMC and Environmental Hardware Compliance in both commercial and medical equipment. She graduated with a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle in 2017. She is an active in SWE PNW as is the current FY19 President.
