FY18 Candidate Bios: Vice President of Professional Development

The FY18 nominating committee is very excited to present the following candidate bios for the elected positions listed below:

• Vice President of Professional Development (elect 1): 
• Marina Dannecker
• Sonia Hingorany

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Marina Dannecker

Marina became a SWE member while she was an engineering student at UCLA. As a sophomore, she joined several committees for UCLA's collegiate SWE section. During her junior year, she was on the executive board as Evening With Industry External Chair. As a senior, Marina served as President of the UCLA section. In this role she lead a board of 16 people to organize outreach, professional development, advocacy, and mentorship events.

After graduating college, Marina moved to Seattle and joined SWE-PNW. This past year she has been a member of the Professional Development Committee and helped to plan events like technical tours. She is excited to continue being involved in SWE-PNW by organizing more events that help empower women to succeed in STEM fields.

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Sonia Hingorany 

Sonia Hingorany currently serves on the SWE PNW Executive Committee as one of the Section Reps focused on Membership Engagement. This year, she has organized several social events including happy hours (and head shots!) and a tour of one of Amazon's Prime Now Fulfillment Centers. Sonia looks forward to continuing her involvement with SWE and leading the professional development mission this coming year.

Sonia moved to Seattle almost two 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. 

FY18 Candidate Bios: Secretary

The FY18 nominating committee is very excited to present the following candidate bios for the elected positions listed below:

• Secretary (elect 1):
• Erin Kiselica
• Marina Dannecker

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Erin Kiselica

Erin Kiselica is originally from Syracuse, NY, and graduated with her Bachelors in Computer Science from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in 2012.  She moved to Seattle in early 2016, and is currently a Software Engineer at Amazon in the International Expansion organization.  As part of her role, Erin builds and supports software for India-first initiatives focused on improving seller experience.  In her spare time, she enjoys exploring Seattle, reading as many books as possible, and learning to play new board games.

SWE has been an important part of Erin's life since her freshman year of college in 2007.  As a collegiate, she held various leadership roles including Webmaster and Outreach Coordinator, organizing RIT SWE's award-winning overnight outreach program 2 years in a row.  As a professional, Erin continues to be involved in SWE through outreach, as a society scholarship judge, and served as Section Representative for SWE Philadelphia in FY16.  She hopes to continue to grow her involvement with SWE PNW this year!

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Marina Dannecker

Marina became a SWE member while she was an engineering student at UCLA. As a sophomore, she joined several committees for UCLA's collegiate SWE section. During her junior year, she was on the executive board as Evening With Industry External Chair. As a senior, Marina served as President of the UCLA section. In this role she lead a board of 16 people to organize outreach, professional development, advocacy, and mentorship events.

After graduating college, Marina moved to Seattle and joined SWE-PNW. This past year she has been a member of the Professional Development Committee and helped to plan events like technical tours. She is excited to continue being involved in SWE-PNW by organizing more events that help empower women to succeed in STEM fields. 

FY18 Candidate Bios: Treasurer

The FY18 nominating committee is very excited to present the following candidate bios for the elected positions listed below:

• Treasurer (elect 1):
• Ann Mary Myers
• Sherrie Rippe

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Ann Mary Myers

As a participant of PACCAR Emerging Leadership Roundtable in Spring 2016, I had to go through a program to find my personal strengths were and it was determined that my top five qualities were:

1. Activator – Outstanding in bringing thoughts into action
2. Ideation - To find connections between seemingly disparate things
3. Analytical – Search for reasons and causes to factor in everything that affects a situation
4. Futuristic – Inspired by what the future could be and inspiring others with this vision
5. Significance – To stand out and get recognized

I am passionate about advocating for changes in workplace to create an inclusive environment that addresses the needs of women in a way that increases productivity. In the past, I have been an active member of Society of Automotive Engineers and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. I have served as the Vice Chairman and Treasurer for the local IEEE chapter during my undergraduate days and have been a mentor to college students at Seattle University in the recent past. This is my first year with the Society of Women Engineers and I look forward to being a leader with SWE.

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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 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.

I am currently running for Treasurer of our section for FY18.  I have learned a lot about Non-Profit accounting in my time as a board member for North Seattle College Education Fund, and I would love to continue to increase my knowledge and aid in the fiscal health of our section. 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, and SWE-PNW Section Representative FY15. I am eager to apply my knowledge of how SWE operates to the role of treasurer.

FY18 Candidate Bios: President-Elect

The FY18 nominating committee is very excited to present the following candidate bios for the elected positions listed below:

• President-Elect (elect 1):
• Ann Mary Meyers
• Elaine Reeves

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Ann Mary Myers

As a participant of PACCAR Emerging Leadership Roundtable in Spring 2016, I had to go through a program to find my personal strengths were and it was determined that my top five qualities were:

1. Activator – Outstanding in bringing thoughts into action
2. Ideation - To find connections between seemingly disparate things
3. Analytical – Search for reasons and causes to factor in everything that affects a situation
4. Futuristic – Inspired by what the future could be and inspiring others with this vision
5. Significance – To stand out and get recognized

I am passionate about advocating for changes in workplace to create an inclusive environment that addresses the needs of women in a way that increases productivity. In the past, I have been an active member of Society of Automotive Engineers and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. I have served as the Vice Chairman and Treasurer for the local IEEE chapter during my undergraduate days and have been a mentor to college students at Seattle University in the recent past. This is my first year with the Society of Women Engineers and I look forward to being a leader with SWE.

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Elaine Reeves

Elaine Reeves has been active in SWE since being a founding member of her school’s student section in 2001. She enjoys helping students and professionals throughout their professional journey.

Elaine was a SWE student member at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, MN through 2009, also serving as vice-president and president. She graduated from the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, MN in 2009 with a B.S.E.E. (Electrical Engineering), B.A. in Physics, B.A. in Vocal Music Performance, and a minor in Applied Mathematics. Elaine assisted the SWE MN section as Co-Chair of the Professional Development Committee and Professional Advisor to both St. Cloud state and the University of St. Thomas.

In 2012 she moved to Redmond, WA to work for Microsoft as an EMC Test Engineer and is currently an Environmental Compliance Engineer. She‘s also in the process of finishing her M.S. in Electrical Engineering at the UW. Currently she is a section representative and the college relations chair for SWE-PNW, where she represents our section at the both local and regional levels. As college relations chair, she has fostered the relationships between local student organizations and SWE-PNW. Being one of the section representatives these last 2 years has been a very enjoyable and enriching experience. She aims to continue to serve the section to help further the vision SWE-PNW is working towards.

Outside of work Elaine participates in RunDisney races with her husband. They are actively exploring Washington with their two dogs and looking for more adventure.

FY18 Candidate Bios: President

The FY18 nominating committee is very excited to present the following candidate bios for the elected positions listed below:

• President (elect 1):
• Grace Lefebure

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Grace Lefebure

I moved to Seattle 4 years ago from West Chester, PA to work as a Stress Analysis Engineer at Boeing on the 777X Moveable Trailing Edge Flaps. I graduated from the University of Virginia in 2012 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in biomedical engineering.

I currently serve as the President of SWE PNW. Before that, I held the roles of Vice President of Professional Development and Newsletter Editor in our section. Each of these roles has taught me a lot about engaging SWE members in both the virtual space and in-person. As newsletter editor, I communicated events, activities, and news to our members and worked with the virtual brand team to ensure consistent interaction with members. As the VP of PD, I leveraged those virtual platforms to advertise and encourage conversations about the in-person technical, social, and networking events.

As President, I identified a need for more consistent knowledge transfer between officers. As a volunteer organization, we have frequent turnover from year to year, and I’ve seen knowledge get lost as people move out of SWE PNW leadership. Our leadership team has been building infrastructure and creating guides so that knowledge is not lost from year to year. In the President role next year, I will continue this effort, enable our leadership team to host events that connect engineers both professionally and socially, and grow our relationship with the community to build the next generation of engineers.

FY18 Section Election: Candidate Slate & Petition Period Announcement

Greetings SWE PNW!

The FY18 Nomination Committee presents the following slate of candidates for SWE PNW officers for the FY18 fiscal year to the consideration of the section membership.

• President (elect 1):
  • Grace Lefebure
• President-Elect (elect 1):
  • Ann Mary Myers
  • Elaine Reeves
• Treasurer (elect 1):
  • Ann Mary Myers
  • Sherrie Rippe
• Secretary (elect 1):
  • Erin Kiselica
  • Marina Dannecker
• Vice President of Professional Development (elect 1):
  • Marina Dannecker
  • Sonia Hingorany
• Vice President of Career Guidance/Outreach (elect 1):
  • Dana Day
  • Lynette Lopez
  • Sarah McDowell
• Section Representative (elect 1):
  • Theresa Krack
  • Wendy Jenkins

We would like to offer our congratulations to the slated candidates running for FY18 officer positions!

Candidate biographies are available on the SWE PNW blog for your perusal. We highly encourage all section members to read the bios of these highly talented candidates! The FY18 election posts on the SWE PNW blog can be found here.

The petition period is now open for feedback and changes to the slate. The petition period is 15 days per the section bylaws, and will close on Tuesday, May 30, 2017. The details are provided below for the process (from our bylaws) to nominate additional candidates.

“Additional candidates may be nominated by petition, provided that:

1. The member is eligible for the position;
2. The member was given written consent to being placed on the ballot;
3. A minimum of two percent or five of the voting members of the section, whichever is greater, have signed a petition or endorsed an email to place the candidate’s name on the ballot; and
4. The petition, together with the written consent, is submitted to the chair of the nominating committee by May 30th, 2017 or fifteen days after the slate is announced to the members of the section, whichever is later.”

After the petition period closes, voting will open to the section for the FY18 election.

If you have any questions, please contact us at swe.pnw.nomination@gmail.com.

Respectfully submitted,
Cary, Kimber, Maria, and Tamaira
SWE PNW FY18 Nomination Committee

PechaKucha Presentation Style

In April 2017, we introduced the section to the PechaKucha presentation style through an online skills workshop.

PechaKucha is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds, for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. The images advance automatically and you talk along to the images.

In Session 1, we introduced the style, discussed several TEDx talks, did a quick on-the-fly demo/practice run, and finally brainstormed topics that could be done in this style. You can watch the replay of the full session here or just the SWE PNW PechaKucha demo deck here.

And here is the list of References & Resources that we discussed:

• PechaKucha homepage: http://www.pechakucha.org/
• PechaKucha FAQ: http://www.pechakucha.org/faq
• TEDx Talk: How PechaKucha Changed My Life: Eddie Selover at TEDxOrlando
• TEDx Talk: PechaKucha: Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein at TEDxTokyo
• TEDx Talk: Pecha Kucha "designing space" | Nicole Hollway | TEDxGatewayArchSalon
• PechaKucha Playlist: Popular Videos - PechaKucha & TED Talks (video)

Looking for some ideas to help get you started on you first PechaKucha presentations? Here's the topic brainstorming from Session 1:

• executive summary of technical topic
• use the style to present a technical challenge to colleagues to start brainstorming
• Event recap or report
• ​Focus on an area of SWE PNW and give more info
• Tell us your SWE Story
• Conference recap (Society, Regional, WE Local, recent, flash back, non-swe)
• ​my summer/holiday vacation
• Family traditions
• Hobby/interest
• Where I Grew Up (Hometown)
• Why I Like ______ (TV/Book/Movie/hobby/etc)
• A day in the life _____ (of my pet, on the job, my kids, etc)

While we were able to have the second sessions (timing didn't work for some of our presenters), we hope to have an online session for PechaKucha presentations in the future. We encourage you to keep an eye out for these events and the replays!

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Article By: Theresa Krack, FY17 Section Representative & Virtual Brand Coordinator