The FY17 nominating committee is very excited to present the following candidate bios for the elected positions listed below:
- Treasurer (elect 1):
- Sherrie Rippe
- Suzanne Hakam
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Treasurer
Sherrie Rippe
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 an Associate Board member for the North Seattle College Education Fund and works as a Professional Career and Life Coach. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, spending time with her husband, and playing with her two dogs.
I am currently running for Treasurer of our section. Honestly, while I would love to be elected as Treasurer. However, I believe that if Suzanne Hakam is elected we would be able to maintain continuity in our accounting and I could serve as an un-elected deputy treasurer and learn the ins and outs of the sections finances before running again in FY18. As a professional member, I have served as SWE-PNW Membership Chair FY09 thru FY11, as SWE-PNW Secretary FY12, and SWE-PNW Section Representative FY15. I am eager to apply my knowledge of how SWE operates.
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Suzanne Hakam
Suzanne Hakam is well suited for this position as she knows the details and history of the SWE PNW funds. Besides being Section Treasurer for the past 2 years, she was previously Section Treasurer in 2002/2003, again in 2004/2005 (as a replacement) and Region J Treasurer in 2007/2008. She has also been involved with financial audits both at section level and at the region level.
Suzanne is a long-time, active SWE member (since 1983). She has held both appointed and elected positions on the national, regional and local levels, serving two years on the Board of Directors as the Region J Director, three years as a regional student coordinator, twice as PNW Section President, and twice as Region J Representative to the Society Nominating committee. She has held other positions in the PNW Section over the years: Program Chair, Membership Chair, Professional Development Chair, Newsletter Editor, Section Representative, Certificate of Merit & Freshman COM Scholarship Chair, and the Vice President of Career Guidance.
Suzanne received her MSEE in 1984 from Wichita State University and her BSEE from the University of Washington in 1979. She has worked, primarily on military derivative programs, for The Boeing Company for over 36 years. She is currently in Wideband Communications and RF Systems in Kent, performing qualification tests and integration of phased array communications technology and electronic avionics boxes. When she is not busy with SWE and working at Boeing and getting her teenage daughter off to college this Fall, she also enjoys reading, gardening, and is active in Toastmasters.
PNW has one of the largest Section Treasuries in SWE due to 1983 Society Conference overage share, several bequests by Members who are still with us in spirit and several years of consciously staying within or under budget. This coming fiscal year, the primary challenges are to finish the FY16 joint region ABJ books (including filing the IRS tax return), complete simplification and consolidation of section finances and bank accounts, and investing our monies wisely (establishing fund with the Society) so as to provide long term support for scholarships and operations. Especially important to me is training and mentoring potential Treasurer successor(s) to allow me to move into other areas once I complete a third year as your section Treasurer.
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