DESIGN WORLD NOVEMBER 2018_WOMEN IN ENGINEERING

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Women in

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WOMEN IN ENGINEERING | WOMEN IN MEDTECH | CONTENTS

Medical Design & OUTSOURCING Editorial............................................................................6 Editorial............................................................................7 Juliana Anzalone....................................................................8 April Butterfield....................................................................12 Marianne Corrao..................................................................16 Luisa Chinchilla.....................................................................20 Simone Drakes.....................................................................24 Dana Hankinson...................................................................28 Dayna Johnson.....................................................................32 Stephanie Luttrell.................................................................36 Hazel Marie...........................................................................40 Yllka Masada.........................................................................44 Erin Neiss..............................................................................48 Emma Pierson.......................................................................52 Laura Supra and Rebecca Stoner.........................................56 Sophia Velastequi.................................................................60 Kristin Wegielewski...............................................................64 Lauren West..........................................................................68 Lauren Wickert......................................................................72 Altra Industrial Motion Camilla Ølgaard Jægerholt..................................................76 Randa Mahmud Juma..........................................................77 Tricia Mellor..........................................................................78 Emerson Sophia Morneau...................................................................79 maxon precision motors Lynn Braunschweig...............................................................80 Luise Loskow........................................................................81 Angelica Perzan....................................................................82 Newark element14 Marisol Salgado....................................................................83 Renishaw Sheila M. Schermerhorn.......................................................84

inside:

in Women Medtech

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Cover art courtesy of Getty Images

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November 2018

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NOVEMBER 2018

INSIDE:in Women ing Engineer

WOMEN IN MEDTECH

ignING DesOURC Medical & OUTS

Women in

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Women in

MEDTECH PROMOTING DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN MEDTECH

Having a plan and sticking to it can help increase diversity in the workforce.

WHAT IS THE STATE OF WOMEN’S HEALTH?

In the developed world, it’s mostly about innovation. In the developing world, it’s about necessity. The two needs have and need to intersect somewhere.

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Editorial: What you can learn from medtech’s top women leaders...............................86 Every person in the world needs the medtech industry, whether it's for adhesive bandages or prosthetics. So what can we learn from the industry’s executive leaders?

Promoting diversity and inclusion in medtech...............88 Having a plan and sticking to it can help increase diversity in the workforce.

Covering medtech lawsuits and promoting women’s leadership......................................92 Nationally recognized for her trial record of 57 defense verdicts, Greenberg Traurig’s Lori Cohen is a leader in life sciences and product liability law – with nearly 25 years in the field.

What is the state of women’s health?............................95

In the developed world, it’s mostly about innovation. In the developing world, it’s about necessity. The two needs have and need to intersect somewhere.

All heart: A Google executive’s real-world experience with medtech..............................96

Heidi Dohse – a Google executive, endurance cyclist and, now, inspirational speaker – may have a stronger heart than most people on the planet.

A blood filter shows promise in treating sepsis.............98 After early work with magnetic nanoparticles, Path Ex co-founder & CEO Sinead Miller turned to a common blood collection technique for inspiration.

100 top women medtech executives...........................101 Here’s a list of 100 women leaders in the medical device and technology business.

Laura Dietch.......................................................................102 Chrissa McFarlane..............................................................104 Ruth Poliakine Baruchi........................................................106 Stacey Pugh........................................................................108 Leslie Trigg.........................................................................110 Marie Johnson....................................................................111 Jennifer Palinchik................................................................112 Kate Rumrill........................................................................113 Martha Shadan...................................................................114 B. Braun OEM Rebecca Stolarick...............................................................116 Tegra Medical Patricia Rushia....................................................................118

Ad Index.......................................................................120 11 • 2018

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E d i t o r i a l

How to turn more women on to engineering When I was in college studying engineering more than 30 years ago, I was often the lone woman in a class. The World Economic Forum reported last year that only 11% of the world’s engineers and architects are women.

I’m not surprised. In fact, I’m surprised the figure is that high. Many young women are not encouraged to pursue enginering. They hear comments like: “You can’t be here, this is for guys only.”

“Your just not good enough in math.”

Or, a woman couldn’t know some aspect of math or science ‘cause you’re a girl.’

“You only got into engineering college (or even into an engineering job) just to meet diversity requirements.”

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These are comments the women profiled in this issue have mentioned. It was prevalent 30 years ago, and it’s still going on. So the first step to turning more women on to engineering is to stop saying these comments.

Who said engineering was the exclusive territory of men?

Women continue to show it is not. You would think some men would have learned by now.

If 11% can make it, there is no reason that number can’t be 50% or higher. As you read the profiles, some women had more challenges dealing with male colleagues than others. It’s a sad statement that women must continue to overachieve just to prove they are as good as the average man. But these women do. And they are an inspiration to other women.

The question has been raised on why more women are not considering engineering as a career. One issue is the small number of women that younger women can look up to. So here are several inspirational examples of successful women engineers, in all fields of engineering. If you have a daughter, a sister, or a relative, show them this issue. This is only a small sample of women who have made successful careers in engineering. Let’s stop the nonsense that engineering belongs only to men, and show these potential women engineers the women who stuck it out, despite the attempts to stop them.

Leslie Langnau | Managing Editor llangnau@wtwhmedia.com

On Twitter @ DW_3Dprinting 6

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E d i t o r i a l

Proletariat consideration for all women in engineering

Only a third of American adults have college degrees; many who don’t consider higher education pointless or deem it unfeasible given other responsibilities such as parenting and making a living.

While in some cases these perceptions are justified, most degrees have impressive long-term returns … and nine out of the 10 most lucrative four-year degrees are in engineering. What’s more, pay disparities (between the salaries of women and men) for many engineering disciplines are relatively small or even nonexistent. But still only about 20% of graduating engineers are female.

Visit designworldonline.com and search “Women’s Bureau” for quantitative data on this and other STEM professions.

So what about the more accessible option of community college or apprenticeships for middle-skills employment in high-tech fields — especially for those uninterested or unable to attend a four-year university?

This is a significant opportunity, as the Brookings Institution estimates of the 26 million jobs in the U.S. requiring STEM expertise, 13 million of them are satisfied with less than a bachelor’s degree.

Here too, women miss out on much higher incomes garnered by relatively short training courses and certification in engineering and STEM-related trades.

It’s a shame, because while college may not be for everyone, options for gainful employment, higher education chosen by the individual, and dignity in career should be.

Two sets of misperceptions about technical certifications persist. Responding to Kelly’s study, non-college-degreed adults overestimate the cost of

community college and apprenticeships (by thousands of dollars) and underestimate how much training ultimately yields. In addition, women report perceiving industrial or STEM-related jobs as lonely, performed in loud and dirty settings, or requiring significant physical strength. Of course, that’s untrue of many modern sites for engineering research, design, fabrication, and automated manufacturing — and the high-tech jobs in them.

Programs abound to address these misconceptions, normalize participation of women in technical fields, and boost STEM enrollment of female students in particular ... though organizations to support women pursuing STEM degrees or professional advancement are perhaps more familiar to Design World readers.

All of these organizations are stellar.

Perhaps we can go further, though — occasionally bridging the gap between the professional college set and the technicaltrade set. Even regular Design World editorial considers the perspective of the degreed engineer first because after all, engineers are our readers. But big-picture discussions of STEM employment for women omitting consideration of those not privileged enough to get early support (for a straight shot through college) miss half the picture. DW

Lisa Eitel | Senior Editor leitel@wtwhmedia.com

@ DW_LISAEITEL

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Women in Engineering

Women in engineering—

the road less travelled Juliana Anzalone’s journey into engineering began when she was a child, displaying an aptitude for taking things apart and putting them back together, along with strong math skills.

But she didn’t meet an engineer until she was in college. “I heard about engineers when I was in middle school when we were asked to think about what career might fit our interests,” she said. “I watched a film that said, ‘Do you like to take your mechanical pencil apart and put it back together — if yes, you might want to be an engineer!’ and I thought, ‘oh good,’ I wasn’t just fiddling around; I was preparing myself for work!”

Juliana earned her BSME from Lehigh University in 1995 and her MSME from Johns Hopkins University in 2003. Even so, encountering other women engineers was rare.

“When I graduated in 1995, I was one of three women in a class of 80 mechanical engineers. It was so weird. It still is weird. There simply are not many women engineers. Most managers are men; most engineers are men. Most of

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Juliana Anzalone Mechanical Design Engineer America IV

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Women in Engineering these men are not going out of their way to discriminate — it’s just more normal to be a white male when you’re an engineer … so anyone who’s not a white male sticks out and is asking the community to bend a little,” Anzalone said. “It’s been 23 years since I graduated and I am still alltoo-often the only woman engineer in groups, webinars and conference rooms. A recent study cited that in 2011, 18% of engineering graduates are women but then when it comes to working in the field, only 11.7% stay as practicing engineers,” she said.

After graduation, Juliana spent 14 years in the mechanical design group at Northrop Grumman in Linthicum, MD. At NGC, she served as the lead mechanical engineer on several programs and earned numerous awards, including a President’s Leadership Award for her work on the SABR (Scalable Agile Bean Radar) program.

Currently, she works for a medical device company, “American IV” in Harmans, MD, that specializes in supporting old parts that Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) have dropped from their list of serviceable units. Thus, a large portion of her work involves reverse engineering.

At AIV, she uses 3D printing to investigate and develop design ideas.

For example, she uses a 3D scanner and SolidWorks CAD software to develop a model for a part’s

plastic cover geometry.

Then, she will 3D print the part to check the fit and see if the design is good. This 3D printing verification step is fairly new to the company’s standard design process.

Previously, the designers used molds to check fit, and often bought multiple molds with all the small and expensive tuning needed to get the plastic just right.

“When I started at this company, it had an Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printer, a Stratasys Dimension 1200 SST, which was great for making fixtures for shop floor assembly. It did not, however, produce models that mimicked details that are typical in injection molding. The layers were 10-mils each (0.010 in.), which was fine for a fixture but too messy for a fitcheck,” she said.

“Eventually, the printer failed and my boss asked me to help make the case for a polyjet printer. We now have a Stratasys Objet30Pro. This 3D printer is much more precise – it can emulate plastic injection molded pieces. The layer thickness is not even a real factor on the polyjet printer. It is 1-mil or 0.6-mils depending on the material and the impact is negligible.”

The polyjet 3D printer is the workhorse used to create demonstrations of final products and to quickly fabricate tools for the assembly floor.

“Being more precise means that it is more expensive to run (about

10x the FDM) but in the past three years, I think it’s been worth the effort,” Anzalone said. “The designs can be much closer to the OEM versions and I can use the extra time to make things fit better than if we were designing without the polyjet printer.”

At home, she runs an EinScanPro 3D scanner for fun. Using the scanner and photogrammetry, she makes digital portraits a reality with help from the full color printers at Sculpteo.com, a 3D printing service bureau.

“I joined the Baltimore MakerSpace called “OpenWorks” to get access to their digital suite of 3D printers and laser cutters — amazing stuff! It’s breathed new life in to what was a very old topic. Mechanical engineering hasn’t changed this significantly since computers were integrated,” Anzalone said.

A project Anzalone is considering is how to improve 3D printed injection-molding tools.

Normally, such molds don’t hold up for many uses, typically you can use one tool 50 to 100 times—which is low-volume production. “But with the Trump-imposed 25% import tax on steel, it is possible that this method will become more popular.

If it does, I’d like to work it into our process,” she said.

On the job lessons Women engineers must often balance niceness with being taken seriously.

“My family raised me to be nice

“Juliana Anzalone’s journey into engineering began when she was a child, displaying an aptitude for taking things apart and putting them back together, along with strong math skills. ” 10

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and now I find that the size of my voice can be a challenge.” Juliana discovered a design flaw early with one part and simply made a comment and documented it. But a well-timed scream would have addressed the issue early and avoided later problems. “Knowing when to ‘scream’ and when to just talk is a skill I’m still learning. I have been working in engineering for 20+ years so I should trust my judgment and yell a little more,” she said.

Accept the company learning curve As an experienced engineer, she has had her share of navigating the corporate culture. When given a chance she will advise junior engineers.

“If your corporate management was like mine at Northrop Grumman, and you’re a young engineer, then you will probably not be allowed to fail. You will be checked and verified because everyone is seeing if you are any good. My advice is to put up with it but don’t expect it forever. At some point, if you do the simple tasks well enough, you will be granted a chance to lead a group or take on a larger design,” Anzalone said.

And expect additional evaluation. “When you lead a group, do your best and ask for help as needed. Mistakes will be made and how you handle yourself when fixing them is what everyone will remember. Nobody is perfect so don’t beat yourself up. But if given a second chance to fix a mistake, DO NOT get it wrong! Pull out all the stops to absolutely make sure it’s right and, if possible, do what you can to make sure that it won’t happen again to you or someone else.

Put down your cell phone. “You make an impression when starting out if you ask for the WIFI password on the first day. It’s not necessarily

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a good impression. My advice to young people is that if you can keep your phone out of your hands for the 8 hours you are at work, you will really be appreciated — and you will stand out from the crowd of kids looking for the WIFI password.

Engineering can be a great career for women. But women continue to face age-old challenges.

“It always depresses me when I meet young people who are openly anti-woman-engineer,” she said.

“Yes, these people are out there.

I don’t worry about the old guys.

They lived for so long with women not in their workplace; I try and not let them get to me. I get annoyed when I meet someone my age or younger that suggests that women have it easy because big companies are promoting women over men now to try and catch up. I don’t see it where I work!

“If a woman is promoted beyond her skill set in an effort to even-out the playing field, then I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes. Even if everyone is on your side, it’s a set up for failure, and no company can afford that.

“It will be great when there are more women in engineering — most especially in roles of power — because using half of a population is simply inefficient. There are great minds out there ready to design and develop the next solutions to the world’s problems. It would be unfortunate for everyone if half of them don’t ever get the chance.”

Advice for upcoming engineers Juliana says that she has learned the most from the worst managers she has worked under.

“One of my first and most powerful eye-opening experiences was when one of my first managers (who had a bad habit of promising I could do something in 4 hours when it would really take anyone 2 weeks) gave a weak presentation to

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a room full of peers and they tore him up! Just thinking about it gives me a shudder! I love presenting but only when I’m doing it properly prepared,” she said.

“Also, get your graduate degree started as soon as you can after completing your undergrad and getting a job. Work for a big company — somewhere with a pool of engineers for at least the first couple years. I’m now at a place where I am 50% of the engineering staff and it is fine because I have engineered myself out of corners for 20+ years and I like the challenge. I wouldn’t recommend it for juniors though; you can get a lot from being around other engineers and subject matter experts.”

Samples of Juliana’s work can be seen on her SketchFab account: https://sketchfab.com/Juliana3D Juliana’s linkedin account: https:// www.linkedin.com/in/julianaanzalone-7357b869/

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Women in Engineering

Leadership and diversity help to make a better team

Ever since high school, April Butterfield knew she wanted to be an engineer. Math and science had always been appealing to her, because both explain how things work — while also providing problems or challenges that can be worked through and solved. Butterfield, who describes herself as naturally curious, said that coupling her curiosity with the potential to create solutions was appealing.

Her father was an engineer who worked on the Apollo space programs. Although she was young at the time, she said that even as a child, the wonder of people applying what they know to do something that had never been done was very impactful.

“As I grew, I had numerous teachers in both math and science who had a lot of influence in my leaning toward the sciences, as opposed to liberal arts,” she said. “Engineering has been a

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very satisfying field for me. My family would say they knew from an earlier age, as I was always asking questions and taking things apart, but for me this path became clear as a teenager.”

Butterfield, who holds a BE in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, is now the VP Technology for the Engineered Solutions Group at Jabil, one of the world’s largest contract manufacturers. There, she is responsible for a global group of engineers who support multiple markets

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April Butterfield

VP Technology, Engineered Solutions Group Jabil

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Women in Engineering

“Often girls are intimidated by the perception of engineering. If exposed early, they can see the skills needed to do amazing things that can change the world are within their reach.”

— including automotive, smart home and appliances, print and retail, energy and industrial and commercial buildings.

“My colleagues are situated around the world and we support our customers by developing products and solutions from concept to volume production,” she explained. “I started my career at an OEM in the mobility field — first in mobile phones, then infrastructure products. Next, I went into the Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) side of the business where I have concentrated my efforts for the past 13 years.”

Butterfield, who has three grown children, said that her kids changed how she views the balance between her career and personal life.

“This balance is different for everyone and changes for individuals as circumstances change,” she said. “I have been fortunate in that I’ve achieved a balance that has worked for me, my family and my career throughout different stages.”

Getting young women involved Butterfield said she has had the privilege of being involved in multiple STEM programs, ranging from seminars to work with schools from K-12 and colleges

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through to specific events. These events include involvement from Jabil’s engineering team, such as a weeklong STEM summer camp with the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida, and mentoring at the American Heart Association’s Girls Go Red for STEM event last year.

Butterfield feels that young girls need to have engineering presented as an opportunity — and the earlier, the better.

“We need earlier exposure to engineering and increased visibility of women already in the field to show inclusion in this area,” she said. “Often girls are intimidated by the perception of engineering.

If exposed early, they can see the skills needed to do amazing things that can change the world are within their reach.”

However, there are still barriers for females who are interested in technical fields, and they often appear early on.

“The barrier that women face in engineering starts at a young age, while still in K-12,” she said. “If a person self-selects or is directed to avoid the more advanced or challenging math, science and engineering classes, the barrier to enter engineering later in college is significant. Reports show that the percentage of female DESIGN WORLD

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undergraduates in engineering is one of the areas of greatest disparity between men and women.

“Women face additional challenges once in the engineering workforce, both self-inflicted and within the work environment.

Specifically, these include situations where women may not speak up as readily as their male counterparts.

They may perceive an exclusion attitude or approach where one may not be intended but is a result of the imbalance in the male/female ratio of a group. Women also have an approach to the group dynamic that is different and may not be well understood, so there may be more questioning of women than men when presenting information. I have seen through the years that the more diverse a group is —including other areas of diversity, such as age, race and background — the less these are areas of challenge.”

Professional growth Butterfield has faced work challenges of her own. But she has strived to learn from each barrier.

“I have had many engineering challenges throughout my career, and at the time each occurred, it was significant. I have had technical challenges with products or solutions that required collaboration from unanticipated sources to approach the problem with a different perspective to achieve resolution,” she said. “This was usually because we had exhausted all the other options the team could think of — and traveling down a different path usually resulted in schedule delays and increased cost.

“While the ultimate outcome was the resolution of the technical issue, the impact was, in some cases, very significant. With the pace of change and the reduction of time-to-market for products we see today, these types of technical challenges — big or small — leave little time for resolution. This means

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the approach in the early stages must consider the risks and start the action (for instance, parallel pathing multiple solutions) before the problem occurs.”

Earlier in her career, Butterfield was heavily involved in the adoption of a new technology in power amplifiers that required new approaches to components, product design, and manufacturing processes.

“My involvement was to drive solutions from design that were inclusive of the components and process solutions. This resulted in a new component package with significantly less complexity from a design and process perspective that drove lower cost and higher quality while improving the performance of the product,” she said.

“Through this process, I bettered the team by driving the collaboration across companies and disciplines.

During this development, there were many times when we had negative results and had to go back to the problem and find a different approach. Doing this effectively required energy, a positive attitude, and an approach that avoided finger pointing, but rather focused on the goal. It was my responsibility to develop the technical solutions and keep the team acting as a one team with one goal.”

She noted that there are many skills necessary to be an effective leader. But she said she has learned that the most important is listening.

“A person can have the best vision for the future and detailed plan to lead down the path to realize that vision,” she said. “But without hearing and understanding the concerns and needs of the people impacted before starting and continuing that journey, the leader may end up alone in taking those steps.”

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Women in Engineering

Engineering’s a team sport For Marianne Corrao, engineering is a team sport that should offer everyone — men and women — the ability to have a career they love and the flexibility to pursue that career to their fullest extent.

Corrao co-founded Nexus Engineering Group LLC with her partner Jeff Herzog in 2005, after they both realized they could better serve the oil and gas refinery industry as contractors versus employees. The company, with more than 115 professional employees, provides a full range of engineering and design services along with project and construction management expertise in the oil, chemical, and manufacturing industries. In addition to its corporate headquarters in Cleveland, Nexus Engineering has offices in Maumee, Ohio and Houston.

Around 2004, BP approached Corrao and Herzog about rejoining the company as they needed help developing several new projects. Instead of becoming employees, though, they suggested they would help BP as an engineering contractor resource. They started their company there on the spot.

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Marianne Corrao

Executive Vice President and Co-Founder Nexus Engineering Group LLC

“We think of what we do as not only just engineering, but really having an impact on their business. We have no problem saying, ‘You know what?

This is a bad project. This doesn’t look like it’s the right thing to do. It doesn’t make money; it costs too much.

It’s not achieving your business objective.

“We wind up killing projects and that’s a good thing because we’re making the right decision for our customer,” Corrao said. “And then, we’re able to continue to help them look at other things. We think of it as a positive. I think that’s a differentiator within our organization.”

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Flexibility and honesty are key It is this kind of honesty and flexibility that Corrao says is key to the culture at Nexus Engineering, and key to keeping women in engineering. For example, she does not really see barriers for women engineers from an entry-level standpoint. “Where the gap widens is a few years down the road, where a significant number of women leave the engineering ranks,” she said, pointing to statistics from The Society of Women Engineers that show that women comprise more than 20% of engineering school graduates, yet only 11% of practicing engineers are women, despite decades of academic,

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Women in Engineering

federal, and employer interventions to address this gender gap. Many women said they left because they don’t like the workplace climate or culture or wanted to start a family.

“I see lack of corporate flexibility and lack of accountability as drivers contributing to some women leaving the engineering work force relatively early in their careers. And when there are fewer women in the work force, there will be fewer women advancing to leadership roles,” Corrao said.

“What do I mean by lack of ‘corporate flexibility and accountability?’ For example, what is more important… delivering on a business objective or being at your desk every day from 8 to 5 or longer? Delivering on the business objective is obviously key for the business. How it gets done is less important.

“Don’t get me wrong — I’m not advocating a chaotic, undisciplined work environment. I do expect fulltime effort within a work schedule that allows for interface with appropriate team members. But, I don’t feel the need to micromanage. When an employee is accountable, their work always gets done.”

This means she allows her employees to have a flexible schedule, so if they need to get to a child’s baseball game, go to the doctor, or whatever it might be, she’s OK

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with that. As long as they let her know what’s happening and are accountable for the work getting done.

“There are a lot of women, in particular, who want to have a career and they want to have a family. To me, it shouldn’t be an either or proposition. There needs to be a culture that values that. I believe that we have that culture and I think you could ask anyone in our organization that. There’s no clock watching. There’s an accountability that my team has.

They own their work, they own what we’re doing as a firm, and that’s what really makes us successful.”

Flexibility leads to better teamwork When it comes to highlighting memorable projects, Corrao goes back to the camaraderie and team effort involved in engineering for designs to be successful.

For example, in the 2000s at Praxir, she was helping to evaluate building additional hydrogen plants to supply oil refineries with hydrogen to produce cleaner gasoline and diesel products. “One option we considered (and Praxair eventually implemented) was the creation of a storage cavern in a geologic salt dome formation on the Gulf Coast. Rather than constantly

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supplying hydrogen on demand from hydrogen plants throughout the system, some hydrogen could be stored in the cavern during times of excess supply and then pulled from the cavern during a hydrogen plant outage for maintenance. This allowed the Praxair system to be a highly reliable source of hydrogen for their customers and turned out to be a nice competitive advantage.

“We had tremendous team spirit on this project. I supported the early conceptual design and business case using Monte Carlo statistical analysis, and others on the team provided the project engineering, project management, cost estimating and risk assessments,” Corrao said. “We all had our roles and we banded together to justify the project and get it approved for funding. It continues to be a tremendous asset in the Praxair system.

“What I have found interesting in my career is that the biggest engineering challenges often involve people. Engineering is a team sport.

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teams as well. If this entire team works collaboratively and openly about the technical options, costs and risks, the project will have a successful outcome. At Nexus, we foster teamwork and actually caring for each other. We hold each other accountable but have camaraderie and it shows in the way we work on our projects and with our clients.”

Shaping future engineers Corrao started her career in 1987 as a process engineer for the Standard Oil Company, Lima Refinery. In 1995, she joined a Clevelandbased engineering firm to focus on projects from the engineering firm side of project delivery. Here she was senior process engineer, project manager, and project director during her tenure.

Like many engineers, as a high school student she excelled in math and science classes, enjoying chemistry class. When she learned about chemical engineering, she was intrigued.

She enrolled in Cleveland State University’s Cooperative Education Program, a work/study program in which students work full time for a portion of the year and attend classes during the remainder of the year. She was hired as a chemical engineering co-op student by Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) in the early 1980s and it was there she found her place.

“My decision to become an engineer was primarily shaped by my cooperative education experiences and the engineers that I reported to or worked with at that time,” Corrao said. “I discovered that one of the most challenging tasks for engineers is to properly define a problem (or an opportunity). In school, written problems are given to you and you use math and science principles or equations to solve them. In the real world, figuring out and defining the problem is the main thing. After

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that, finding options to solve the problem is relatively easy.”

Because of her positive experience with the CSU co-op, she has always volunteered to be a mentor to co-op/intern students throughout her career. In fact, Nexus Engineering Group has a co-op/ intern program to hire students in each one of its engineering disciplines. Corrao is also a member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE).

“With young engineers and students, I always have an open door policy on no question’s a stupid one and if you don’t want to ask your boss you can come and ask me anytime,” she said. “It’s just kind of passing on that same attitude and culture of always learning. And making sure we’re growing the next generation. It makes me feel good.

I’m happy that we’re doing that.”

And although the oil and gas business is still more male dominated, Corrao is positive about the direction the industry is headed.

“I think there has been a lot of emphasis by major corporations in the oil and gas industry to focus in on getting more women involved in technical fields and rising up through the corporation in leadership roles,” she said. “I’ve seen that with some of our customers like BP and Marathon. Where they have women in technical fields and those women have advanced. We still have a long way to go, but I’m upbeat about how things are going.”

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Women in Engineering

Beyond math and science, engineers also need

people skills

Luisa Chinchilla studied mechanical engineering at Ohio Northern University and graduated in 2010. From there, she went to work for what was then Alcoa in the forging design department for the wheels division. This division makes aluminum truck wheels for semi trucks and buses.

She began in the design department and then became the senior designer and is now the forging launch manager. She helps designers introduce their forgings into production and handles much of the communications between the production people and the designers to ensure new products are produced smoothly.

As a teen, Chinchilla liked building things. A wood shop class in high school was a favorite.

She enjoyed using all of the machines. At one

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point, she considered architecture, but when she was a senior, someone from an auto company visited her school. They discussed designing and all the considerations that took place when designing a new car. For example, the visitor discussed how the auto engineers designed new cars to include various conveniences like the elimination of gas caps, and storage for personal affects.

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Luisa Chinchilla

Mechanical Engineer Forging Design Engineering Lead Alcoa Wheel and Transportation Products

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Women in Engineering

“Even though we all speak engineering, . . . too many technical terms or numbers and you’ve lost your audience.

That’s one of the biggest engineering challenges-communication.”

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“I thought that was really interesting to think about those issues. I related to finding solutions to different problems that are out there.”

Another influence was a high school chemistry teacher during her junior year who discussed career opportunities. She said, “Girls, if you want a job when you graduate, there will be a demand for female engineers. Really consider that.”

On top of that, engineering runs in Chinchilla’s family. Her parents are systems engineers, her brother has his undergrad in physics, and roughly half of her cousins are engineers. So her choice was not a surprise to her family.

Having grown up around scientific and engineering minds, Chinchilla is familiar with their thought processes so she feels she has not faced many barriers in her career.

“My experience has been welcoming in this male-dominated field. But I recognize that there are still very few women in it.

Even though I haven’t had a bad experience I think sometimes it’s hard to find someone that you can fully relate to and that fully understands what you’re thinking.

The emotions that go with being a woman and the decisions you make based on some of those emotions, it’s hard to find someone to share those experiences with who understands. Particularly when you’re looking for advice on how to handle a situation, I think that’s something that’s missing for many women engineers. It’s a bit of a barrier because you kind of have to figure it out on your own.

When Chinchilla started at the company, many of her co-workers were on average 25 years older than her. That has changed and now she works with fellow engineers who are her age or younger. That change alone has resulted in fewer barriers for her.

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Navigating change While engineers are good at math and science, people skills can be a challenge. Chinchilla has had her share of working with people.

One of the more recent examples involved a product launch that took a forging from one line and reduced the size to handle a smaller load.

“That was challenging,” said Chinchilla, “because you had to take into consideration all of the different parameters and if you’re producing the size or capacity of this process you have to determine how you make it work in this other size.

“My role was to interface with the customers, such as our forging group and other departments in the company. My focus was on how they were affected and how to take some of those issues they might encounter back to design and maybe design around them.

For example, if weight is an issue then maybe we can make things lighter or heavier and we can do that in design if it doesn’t affect the product. Or maybe handling the part, can we place things that will make it easier to manipulate?

“For me, the key is communicating with all of these departments and sharing all of the concerns at early stages so that we can design and account for these things as much as possible. And the ones that we can’t design around, then it gives our departments time to start to think about how will they work around these issues that we know will exist.

“Even though we all speak engineering, it’s important to understand the forging process to communicate in the way specific teams understand. Too many technical terms or numbers and you’ve lost your audience. So I often think about how to tailor the message to the audience.

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product to a line that’s smaller was really difficult and good communication was what helped us achieve our goal.”

Individuality Many engineers sense that their opinions and views are thought of as uncommon by non-engineers. It can still take some getting used to.

“I think the hardest yet simplest lesson I’ve learned is that not everybody thinks like I do,” says Chinchilla. “It becomes obvious, but it’s really hard to accept it. But it’s critical in communication. You really do have to think about how a person works and how their mind works to sell them on your message or idea. And you really do have to tailor every message you have to what will work best.

There are some people that if I just go in there with data, they’re bored to death. There are some people I work with where if I don’t have enough data, then they don’t believe me. And there are some people where if I have an hour-long meeting that could have been done in 15 minutes, they’re already kind of annoyed because they don’t have that much time. And there are others where if you only give them 15 minutes worth of information, they just feel like you didn’t do your homework.

“So it’s still a lesson I’m trying to learn, but I’ve learned that emotional intelligence is so important, and something that you have to keep working at. I guess advice that I would have for everybody is to work on building their emotional intelligence.

As for encouraging more young women to consider engineering as a career, Chinchilla focuses on ways to show younger women that there are women in the fields that they are interested in. Showing them that there are people that have walked those footsteps before. “Because I think that not everybody wants to

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be the first or the only.

“I also think it’s important to show young people that there are passionate people in engineering, whether men or women. I think people in other careers get excited.

It doesn’t have to be gender specific.

You know, just get these young kids excited in engineering. I think they’ll follow.

Chinchilla has a few other observations from her time in the corporate world.

“When you’re passionate about something, it’s easy to forget that it’s business. Sometimes I take things personally, so I would advise young engineers not to take business too personally.

Also, I think women can be both each other’s best and worst advocates. So, be kind to one another because we need to stick together and help each other if we want women to continue to excel in that corporate ladder.

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Women in Engineering

Giving wings to problem solving As a child in Barbados, Simone Drakes would watch her father — an air traffic controller — work from his wraparound desk in the ATC Tower. She’d watch planes land from the end of the runway, dreaming of the day it would be her in the cockpit of a 747.

Drakes came to the United States at the age of 14 to pursue her dreams in aviation. She attended Embry-Riddle University in Daytona Beach, Fla. and graduated with her BS in Avionics Engineering Technology (AET) as Most Outstanding AET Graduating Senior. Then, she began her career as a Technical Coordinator for EMTEQ Engineering in Miami in 2004 and was soon promoted to Junior Avionics Project Engineer.

“For four years, under the mentorship of three brilliant FAA designated engineering representative (DER), I grew my knowledge and experience in aircraft avionics installation design and FAA certification as I was focused on design for large transport aircraft,” she said. “In 2008, I joined Avionica in Miami as an Avionics Project Engineer, a company I thought had great potential.

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Simone Drakes

Vice President of Engineering, FAA DER Avionica

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Women in Engineering While here, I have been promoted to Aircraft Engineering Manager, and now Vice President of Engineering.”

Drakes said she didn’t start college knowing she wanted to be an engineer — she always thought she wanted to be a pilot.

“Ultimately, math was the reason I chose engineering,” she said. “During my first year at Embry Riddle, I was taking classes that included complex mathematical elements, and I found that logical decision making came easy for me, so I decided to go down the path of engineering instead. When I first started college, I met a gentleman through my mom named Michael Forde who was an electrical engineer in telecommunications. He helped me a great deal. In addition, there were many electrical engineers in my father’s family. Of course, my father and I did a lot of DIY projects and worked on cars together, so I probably got my knack for ingenuity from him.”

The working world As a female engineer, Drakes said that on occasion, she feels misunderstood or mistrusted

when she first meets someone.

“I feel that’s more because they don’t know me yet, rather than women versus men. The problem is magnified when dealing with some people from the Middle East where they are still overcoming male versus female cultural norms,” she said. “Once they meet me and see the skills I bring to the table, I gain their trust, we put those issues behind us, and work together to move forward.”

Drakes said that the most significant team project she headed was for the introduction of the ATS Voice and Safety FANS data Safety Services for Avionica’s satLINK MAX. The STC was performed on a Boeing 777 aircraft in Hong Kong, a very active and challenging civil aviation space.

“I had two Avionica engineers, 3 FAA delegates (1 DAR and 2 DER’s), as well as 2 Boeing engineers, plus 10 Haeco MRO’s over an 11day MOD,” she said. “In addition to coordinating my team half way around the world, the Hong Kong international Airport (Chek Lap Kok Airport) was undergoing maintenance on the runway’s ILS system. Our flight tests were cancelled three times before we were able to finally get airborne.”

Drakes feels that she brings dedication and tenacity to each project, allowing her team to forge through different obstacles to get the work done.

“Raul (Segredo, President of Avionica) always tells me that he’s amazed at how I can motivate

“West studied mechanical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she first discovered the world of product design. Since that time, she has designed products from the ordinary to the obscure — everyday kitchen appliances to medical devices.”

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people to get work done. When it comes to my team, I feel I’m personable and humble, taking all voices and opinions into account.

Problem solving is a team effort, and our results are always team oriented,” she said.

Currently, she is working on a cyber security compliance project in the aviation environment where aircraft are not constantly connected to a network.

“By creating strong relationships with all parties involved, we believe we have developed a path forward.

To be successful, it will require strategic partnerships with the FAA, industry experts, and people who have experience working within the aircraft environment. It will draw heavily on our technical expertise, as well as the trust we’ve built with our team. I’m optimistic that we will be able to make this a reality in the very near future,” she said.

Moving forward According to Drakes, with young kids, the “Engineering Mentality” is either going to be there or it’s not, regardless of whether its male

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or female. So, it’s wrong to try and force STEM careers on girls who aren’t personally drawn to them.

“You shouldn’t have to do anything to motivate that mentality other than giving them the understanding that they can be successful in the field” she said. “There were many women in engineering and technology throughout history who should have won Nobel Prizes who are not well known. Perhaps highlighting them and their accomplishments might motivate those with the ‘engineering mentality’ to see that they, too, could be successful.

Laughing, Drakes would have told her younger self to get a Masters degree before leaving school!

“When I first began working as an engineer, a person in a leadership position told me to always ‘Be yourself and speak your mind.’ That advice has stayed with me to this day,” she said.

“If I’m ever upset, feeling challenged or overwhelmed, I remember to be myself and speak my mind, and that advice has never failed me. It has allowed me to remain true to myself, and to be confident in my skills and abilities.” www.designworldonline.com

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Women in Engineering

Turning an idea into reality

leads to an engineering career For Dana Hankinson, a passion for math proved the pathway to engineering. When Hankinson was in 7th grade, her algebra teacher noted her math skills and suggested she think about engineering as a career.

“At the time, no one in my family had ever attended college and my grandfather had worked on the railroad, so I immediately thought my teacher was suggesting a career as a train engineer. However, I began to research the various types of engineering careers and from that point forward, I crafted my classes and high school path towards becoming an engineer.”

Hankinson attended the University of Pittsburgh where she served as president and held various other offices within the Society of Women Engineers and was a sister within the engineering sorority, Phi Sigma Rho. She

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graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Bioengineering and a minor in Mechanical Engineering.

Upon graduating, she was hired as an Associate Mechanical Design Engineer at McKesson Automation, Inc. (which later became Aesynt, Inc. and now operates under Omnicell, Inc.). She worked there in a Support and Services capacity for nine years, with a special focus on engineering changes and cost reductions.

She recently accepted a job as a Mechanical Engineer at Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare in the R&D department.

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continued on page xxx

Dana Hankinson Mechanical Engineer Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare Berlin, PA

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Women in Engineering

“I truly believe that introducing the idea of engineering careers at a young age and incorporating more STEAM/STEM programs within schools, particularly during middle school is a great place to start to promote greater participation of young women in engineering.”

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From a thought to actuality After her teacher’s comment, Hankinson explored engineering more through her high school senior project. She shadowed a mechanical engineer, Eric Brown, at her father’s workplace and learned a great deal from him.

“I was definitely intrigued by seeing a concept/design go from a thought to an actual part that was used in production. After finding out that I already knew 3D CAD modeling, I was allowed to design a frontal strobe light housing for a tanker truck. They called me back when the tanker truck was ready to be sent to the customer so I could see my portion of the design in its full glory. I knew from that summer that I was choosing the correct career path for me!”

During her years at Omnicell, Inc., Hankinson worked heavily with the internal Engineering Change Notice (ECN) database and eventually took over as the ECN Manager for all legacy Aesynt, Inc. products. The database was outdated and difficult to navigate, and forced users to rely on Excel spreadsheets and other documents to keep content organized.

“I helped organize a team to determine the exact process that would be appropriate for all departments to follow from creation to completion of an Engineering Change Notice. We outlined screens, inputs, and outputs that we wanted to use to streamline the process and came up with a new and improved version of the ECN database. I assisted with or led various trainings for all of the different departments that would have to interact with the database. This was a long and sometimes tedious process and other departments had to be eased into this change, but in the end, the process improvements that were made were very successful.”

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Lessons in leadership During her experience leading individual projects, Engineering Change Management teams, and leading the Engineering Ambassadors team, Hankinson learned many lessons and continues to develop her leadership capabilities.

“I have found that organization and preparation are key when leading an effort or leading a team.

Also, the more open and honest you are with the people on your team, the more respect and cooperation you will receive in return. The main reason that conflict and issues arise during projects or process changes is a lack of communication. When candor and open communication are present within a team, especially in regards to project goals, timelines, and expectations, the more successful and collaborative your team will be. No matter if you are the leader or a minor contributor to a team, communication is extremely important.”

Programs involving STEM or STEAM are opportunities to practice and expand leadership skills.

Hankinson has strongly participated in these efforts.

“I truly believe that introducing the idea of engineering careers at a young age and incorporating more STEAM/STEM programs within schools, particularly during middle school age is a great place to start to promote greater participation of young women in engineering.

It was during my middle school years that I first heard about and considered the idea of engineering as a career choice and it stuck with me. Every choice I made from then on was geared towards having the appropriate classes in both high school and college to allow me to work within industry as a design engineer.

“I have worked in numerous capacities, both internal and external to my work, to promote

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STEM and support young or future engineers in their career endeavors.”

These efforts include: • Guest speaking at the Bioengineering Seminar (sophomores through seniors) at the University of Pittsburgh to discuss what it is like to work within industry and provide recommendations for how to find a job. Provided resume critiques for engineering students preparing to apply for internships or jobs.

• Served as the SWE Counselor for Grove City College for a number of years.

• During her nine years at Omnicell, Inc., Hankinson served as a mentor for both interns and new hires to get them acclimated to the company’s policies and procedures and to provide introductory guidance into their respective engineering role.

• Hankinson created, organized, and led the Engineering Ambassadors group at Omnicell, Inc. (while we were operating as Aesynt, Inc.). A group of 10-20 engineers paired off and spoke to local middle school-aged students about engineering during National Engineers Week.

She promoted STEM careers through a fun and interactive presentation and then had the students split up to do a team- building activity (making the highest free-standing tower from gum drops and spaghetti). One year, she spoke to approximately 1500 students.

Diversions along the typical engineering path Women who pursue engineering often encounter situations that can affect their careers, typically more so than men. These situations rarely involve a woman engineer’s skills.

More often the situations involve

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perceptual biases or individual choices.

When Hankinson first graduated and joined the workforce as an Associate Mechanical Engineer, she did not feel many of these potential barriers. But as her personal life changed with marriage, children, and moves to be closer to family, she had to make some decisions that deterred her from her original career path.

“My choices were to prioritize my family. I wanted to be there for my toddler and my little one on the way and I wanted them to grow up around family and cousins. I feel like women, and not just women in engineering, are more often making sacrifices in their careers for their families. There are, of course, exceptions to this, but I have seen many female friends giving up career aspirations to be there for their family. I feel very blessed that I have a supportive husband and family who allow me to continue my engineering career as a full-time working mom.”

Presently, Hankinson and her husband, Shane, await the birth of their second baby boy in January, who will join their handsome 2-yearold son, Owen.

If she were to offer advice to younger engineers, Hankinson says this:

“Remember that having a passion for engineering is important, but it is also important to have good working relationships with your colleagues. You spend more waking hours with your coworkers than you often do with your own family.

Therefore, if you are surrounded by a great group of colleagues and bosses, you will look forward to going to work every day and enjoy your job even more.

“In addition, stay humble and never be afraid to ask questions.

Remember that when you graduate from college, you don’t know anything. You have been taught

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how to think like an engineer, but every company that you may work for operates differently. They have different processes, procedures, software packages, and tools that they use to get the job done, and it is better to ask questions first than to waste the company’s time and money doing something incorrectly.”

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Women in Engineering

Approaches to leadership vary —

and that’s a good thing

With two sons and a husband at home and a leadership position at GE Power, Chicagoland engineer Dayna Johnson is outnumbered by men on both fronts. It’s something she embraces … partly for the value that her unique perspective brings in both arenas.

Johnson joined GE in 2012 as a commercial manager — leading large teams through the bidding process to develop winning proposals for high-voltage electrical substation projects. Prior to joining GE, she worked as an engineer designing water and wastewater projects for rapidly growing communities in the Chicago area. Her background includes a B.S. in engineering and a Master of Engineering Management.

When we asked Johnson what first drew her to engineering, she shared that she spent a long time in high school undecided on her career path. As someone who was good at math and science, she had plenty of teachers tell her she should be an engineer … but she found no subspecialties exciting. However, she remained open-minded about the possibility of engineering as a career.

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Dayna Johnson, P.E., LEED AP Business development manager for AC Solutions GE Power

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Women in Engineering

“Then my junior year of high school, I went on a field trip to a local chemical plant. I knew that this was a great opportunity to learn about the different types of engineers in a facility like that, but it took until the very end of the field trip to realize what type of engineer I wanted to be. I talked with the wastewater-treatment plant operator, and his job was fascinating to me — as was the idea that we could treat wastewater with microbiology instead of chemistry.

That sparked my interest in civil and environmental engineering and confirmed the thought that I wanted to be an engineer.”

Another inspiration for Johnson is one that many in STEM share — the life and work of Marie Curie. “I was tasked with doing a biographical report on her in 8th grade, and I was amazed with her scientific contributions to society.

A martyr to her profession, she left her mark on science … and made it known that it was not only a male’s space in which to work.”

Johnson also credits her physics teacher in high school for encouraging her to pursue engineering — and providing her with tools to learn about what engineers do … and information on where to go to school for it.

“He also made himself available to answer any questions I had. After all, it’s one thing to tell someone that they should be an engineer; it’s another to help them envision what that looks like in their life.”

On the topic of challenges that women face in engineering, Johnson is keenly aware of how the engineering workforce is still only

approximately 13% women — even though women are awarded about 20% of the engineering degrees in the US.

“As a woman, it can be challenging if you don’t have any female role models in your office … and it can sometimes feel like a good ol’ boys club. This has been my biggest struggle in engineering … feeling that I can achieve and advance when my peers lack a diverse viewpoint. Consequently, I have made it a higher priority to ensure my employer values diversity. One of the tactics for me to personally deal with this problem has been making sure I have an outlet that does value diversity in the workplace and gives me the opportunity to talk to other women.

That is how my involvement in the Society of Women Engineers grew out of college; I needed an outlet with people going through struggles similar to mine, where we could brainstorm and sympathize together.”

Since Johnson’s college days when she joined SWE, she’s served as Chicago Regional Section President and as Region H Lieutenant Governor and Treasurer.

She was previously the Awards and Recognition Committee Chair — and is currently serving on SWE’s Board of Directors.

Part of Johnson’s SWE work over the years has included outreach (from Girl Scout patch events to engineering expos) with activities across all disciplines of engineering. Johnson said that often she’ll see innovation and creativity of girls at these events and finds it sad that they’ll lose that interest

as they get older. When it comes to mentoring, Johnson tries to engage women who are newly out of college: “While not in a formal mentoring program, I encourage and enjoy one-on-one situational mentoring, where I can help recent graduates talk through some of the issues they have — whether those challenges relate to office politics, engineering problems, or just how to survive outside of college.

While helping students learn about engineering is crucial to the pipeline of future engineers, it’s also critical to try to retain new engineers by helping them through their problems and questions as they navigate their entrance to the real world.”

On design projects and sales work, Johnson recounted a past victory that informs her work even today.

“In one of my roles, I was leading an effort to try and win a sale, but the caveat was that I needed to include a new product line in our project offering. This included an international team that was not used to doing business with North America … and my North America team that was not used to the small amount of information that the international team was providing.”

This project in particular was constantly evolving — so the inputs needed were regularly changing.

It would’ve been easy to sit and complain about the situation, but Johnson and her team determined the easiest way to have everyone perform their best was to make communication open. “So we setup regular meetings to discuss design changes and product specifications,

“I think it’s important to understand that everyone has a different approach to leadership, and not all styles of leadership work for every situation. ” 34

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and then completed our tasks faster and with much less uncertainty. This set the standard on how to work with this new product group moving forward.”

Not to say that there aren’t other challenges that Johnson faces dayto-day.

“I feel we engineers are generally good at the engineering portion of our jobs. It’s the random non-engineering challenges that complicate our projects. I was working on an energy-efficiency grant application for one of my last company’s clients. This was an application that no one was too excited about doing, unfortunately, which meant it got pushed off to the last minute and to one of the younger engineers — me. I still remember vividly that this grant application was due by email at 4 PM on a Friday. I started working on it on Thursday morning, and by about midday Friday, I was on pace to finish … if I could just keep the distractions at bay.” However, right at 2:15 pm that day, the power went out. Getting this application submitted turned into an engineering project of its own.

“Because of our office set up, losing power meant losing both internet and phone. I had some pages that needed to be scanned, but no way to scan them. So I sent a colleague to an office-supply store to scan those pages to a flash drive while I continued working on the application. I had a laptop, so I could keep working for a few hours … but still with no internet. As soon as my colleague returned with the scans on a flash drive, I took off for the nearest Starbucks and connected to their outlets and Wi-Fi to compile the final documents and email them off. Not only did I complete the application, I had 20 minutes to spare!”

Of course, it took ingenuity, delegation skills, and adrenaline to make the application happen.

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“Fortunately engineers are problem solvers, and we generally are pretty good at whatever challenges get thrown our way,” mused Johnson.

For leadership skills and lessons, Johnson emphasizes how diversity is a strength. “I think it’s important to understand that everyone has a different approach to leadership, and not all styles of leadership work for every situation. Scenarios where I feel most effective are those where I’m driving a team towards agreement — getting parties with differing goals to agree.

It’s important to understand that in these situations everyone has something they need from the end result, and everyone has something they want.” Leaders must be able to understand what everyone needs and try to make things happen to satisfy those needs, Johnson continued. “One caveat is that sometimes those parties don’t actually admit what it is they need — they only focus on the want. One very important aspect of team leadership is to distinguish between the two and help the team understand what each person’s needs are and how they’re being met.”

On the topic of how to boost participation of young women in engineering today, Johnson quoted Marian Wright Edelman: “You can’t be what you can’t see.”

Girls and young women need to see role models in engineering and engineering leadership that look like them. “Given that only 13% of the US engineering workforce is women, this can be a challenge — but we need to be able to highlight the careers of successful women in our companies and in our culture,” said Johnson. “This is at all levels of the company — and yes, it’s important to see women in company C-suites — but it’s also important to see women in middle management, as team leaders, as project managers, and as successful engineers.” These www.designworldonline.com

women need to be visible both internally and externally.

“When schools are looking for career day speakers, we need to send the diverse engineers.

When companies are giving tours or participating in events outside of work, we need to be sure their women are participating, so that young girls know that these women have meaningful, viable careers that they can strive to attain. There have been some great commercials lately geared towards this, including some

by GE,” said Johnson. “Let’s make sure our young girls see these ads and the role models around them,” she added.

Johnson has some final advice for women getting started in the industry: “Be yourself. In a maledominated industry, it can feel like you need to try to act like the men around you. Be different. Be confident … and be proud to be yourself.” You weren’t hired to be a clone of the other people you work with, Johnson underscored. “You bring a unique perspective to the team — embrace it.”

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Women in Engineering

Doing what she loves The path to engineering doesn’t often begin with a sport like golfing. But for Stephanie Luttrell, that’s exactly how she found her dream career.

“My father taught my brother and I the game of golf,” she said. “He also gave us very good advice as teens to find something you love and, if possible, make a career out of it. I had started playing golf as a teenager, so despite having developed my skill quickly and being able to play at the collegiate level, I did not believe it to be realistic to play the game professionally.”

However, she knew she wanted to be around the game of golf. Luttrell said she’d always enjoyed science and math, so she began to explore if there were careers in golf that would combine both of her passions.

“I’ve always enjoyed science and always excelled at it, and I approach golf scientifically as a player. I enjoy that with thoughtful care you can work your way through the game and really improve. I’ve always been a focused, problem solving type of person, so I think that’s what guided me towards engineering.

When I discovered that engineers designed golf clubs, that directed my path to study mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan,” she said.

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Stephanie Luttrell

Director, Metalwood Development Titleist Golf Clubs

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Women in Engineering

Luttrell graduated from college in 2002, with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan, where she also competed as a member of the women’s golf team. Her first full-time engineering position was with Callaway Golf.

“I worked in Blue Sky research — conceptual technologies that weren’t tied to a product but were five to ten years down the road,” she said. “After two years, I was presented with an opportunity to join Cleveland Golf in a design and development engineering role for tour player specific products. I led that effort and worked directly with the players — and developed an expertise at being able to communicate the technical details to them at an understandable level, as well as fit them using Trackman.

“I covered the breadth of product categories from

drivers to fairways, hybrids, irons, wedges and putters. My current role is with Titleist, and I’ve been a member of the R&D team for the past 11 years. As the Director of Metalwood Development, I lead the team responsible for the design and engineering for all of the global driver, fairway and hybrid products.”

Luttrell said that her company has a strong team of development engineers and designers. She works with each of them to support and direct their efforts on things such as setting specifications and design guidelines, testing their products and key competitive products to assess performance, researching new materials, developing new processes and methods of manufacturing to advance design capability, and determining how they can improve the overall product performance.

“I also work very closely with our vendors over in Asia as well as locally to execute and manage the projects, and I work as a liaison to our leadership and tour department,” she said. “I provide technical presentations for their knowledge base, so that they can

“One of the biggest challenges in golf club engineering is that the equipment is regulated for performance — that makes our job challenging yet incredibly rewarding when we have success. ” 38

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adequately explain the product performance to our players and our leadership team. And I support our sales and marketing with the same type of information.”

She explained that every new product development presents significant challenges, as her company is always seeking to improve upon the prior generation of products.

“One of the biggest challenges in golf club engineering is that the equipment is regulated for performance — that makes our job challenging yet incredibly rewarding when we have success,” she said. “We push to incorporate new materials, constructions and manufacturing processes to reach performance thresholds that remain conforming to the rules of golf, but offer significant performance benefit to the player.”

Luttrell has occasionally faced questions from men, interestingly not because of engineering, but because golf is thought of as a man’s sport in some circles.

“I can speak most directly from my own experience as a woman in a predominantly male dominated industry, in a career/role that is generally fulfilled by men, designing products for a ‘gentleman’s game,’” she said. “Tour players and others outside of our company first wonder, ‘Does she know the game of golf?’ The moment I reply, ‘My handicap is a 0,’ that answers that question for them and paves the way.

“But my technical competency is equally important to my competency as a golfer, and in my opinion far outweighs that.

I’ve never felt at a disadvantage at any organization I’ve been with, and I think that’s due to the passion I have for the game of golf and for the products that we create. It comes across when you speak — and it imparts enthusiasm and excitement throughout an

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organization. You can look at it as, ‘I’m one of the only women in this field and people are watching or evaluating me more closely than my male peers,’ but I choose not to focus on that. Women have every opportunity to prove ourselves and go to places that are unexpected.”

“I believe that teachers and parents are the greatest advocates to encourage young women to understand and reach for their potential in scientific fields like engineering. The encouragement I received from my teachers and parents motivated me to participate in events like Science Olympiad as a youth and seek out the challenge of AP classes in science and math.”

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Women in Engineering

To engage more women,

engineering should focus on how it helps others For many of today’s engineers, the moon landing of 1969 was the inspiration to study the sciences. Dr. Hazel Marie remembers Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon and it ignited her ambition to become an astronaut. When she realized astronauts were all men, she decided to become the first woman astronaut. Living in San Antonio near the Air Force Base, it seemed a natural choice.

But as she grew older, she realized that even though she was good in math and science, her path would be a bit different. “When I was a senior in high school, I was the top in math and science. My advisor said, “You should be an engineer.” I’m like, “Okay.” Dr. Marie was the first person in her family to go to college so she really didn’t know any engineers.

Professor Irene Busch-Vishniac changed that.

She was the only female mechanical engineering

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professor Marie had at UT Austin. “She shaped, not just my decision to become an engineer, but how to be a woman engineer. She was strong. Many of the men in my classes would say to me, ‘You shouldn’t be here,’ which made me want to show them. But BuschVishniac inspired me to excel in her class. I think back about that a lot. She didn’t even teach the area of mechanical engineering that I ended up in, but I look back and her inspiration was key to my junior year, of saying, “I want to be excellent like her.”

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Hazel Marie, Ph.D., P.E. Distinguished Professor & Chair Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Youngstown State University

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Women in Engineering

Marie received her Bachelor’s of Science in Engineering, Mechanical, from the University of Texas in Austin in 1984.

From there, she moved to Northeast Ohio with a scholarship from General Motors to work for one of their divisions. She never expected to stay in Ohio, having been born and raised in Texas.

She worked at GM for five years before she decided to get her advanced degrees. So after the birth of her first child, she left GM, and started working part-time on her Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering, which she received in 1998 from Youngstown State University.

When her youngest of three children was four, she decided to pursue her PhD, which she received in 2005 from the University of Akron, which isn’t far from Youngstown. “I did my PhD research at NASA Glenn in Cleveland.”

While finishing, she started teaching at YSU in 2002, moved to the tenure track in 2005 and has held assistant professor, associate professor, and full professor positions. She is now the chair of the department and has been so for seven years.

Barriers women in engineering face As a professor, Dr. Marie has seen first-hand the barriers that women in engineering faced and continue to face.

“The barriers women encounter are huge,” she notes. “As a professor, I see that today’s students came into this field differently than their parents. Many did not grow up working with their dads on cars, for example, which used to be a major pathway to engineering for men.

“Today, the girls are still ridiculed for not knowing something a guy typically

knows and they will bully the women with, “Oh, it’s ‘cause you’re a girl.”

“Well, no, it’s ‘cause she wasn’t exposed to it like you were.

“The perception seems to be that when a woman doesn’t know something, it’s because she’s female. When a guy doesn’t know something it’s just because he hasn’t learned it yet. I see this all the time.

There’s definitely a bias there.”

Marie tells the story of a visit to a middle school for career days.

“There were only two girls in the class and I was speaking about engineering in general. After my talk, the teacher came up to me and said, ‘You would not believe what happened before you showed up.

All the boys were saying to those two girls, ‘Why are you in here?

This is engineering. You shouldn’t be here.’ Then you walked in.’

The teacher watched the boys’ faces and some of them were very surprised. They found out they were wrong, that women can be engineers.”

Marie thinks women still combat this prejudice. Of the 11% working in engineering, she notes that YSU graduates about 18 to 20% of that 11% in mechanical engineering.

“That doesn’t mean they haven’t moved on to management positions or this or that. For example, I’m not considered in the workforce because I’m in academia. Women in engineering are not necessarily leaving the field, but with only 11%, there are still not enough role models to get even the young males thinking differently.”

Engineering challenges in the workforce Like other engineers, Marie faced a few engineering challenges when she worked in the traditional workforce.

“My biggest challenge as a young engineer was to accept that you aren’t going to always make the right decisions. I’m a perfectionist and the first time I made a really bad decision that affected a large chunk of money, I was devastated. This was when I was in the Packard Electric Division of GM. They’re called Delphi now. They did all the wiring harnesses for under the cars and I was a materials engineer, which meant I knew copper alloys.

“That division made the little connectors that connect wire to a part of the harness train. This copper connector has to be bent over in different configurations and it was cracking on tight bends. We did some analysis and I suggested to my boss that we do half hard instead of full hard. He agreed, of course, it wasn’t just me making the decision.

“We brought in all this strip metal of a half hard copper alloy and tested them. There was no crack on the tight bend. We sent it to Mexico where they were assembling the wire harnesses. But the travel conditions affected those connectors. By the time the Mexico plant received the box, these half hard copper alloys had deformed and held their deformed shape. They weren’t bouncing back. We had a bunch of copper alloys that were messed up.

“I love STEAM because it brings the arts into it. What I find grabs students interest is the art part of STEAM because they want to be creative. Whether it’s art, whether it’s building a milk carton car or a Rube Goldberg, there’s art in that.”

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“What I learned is that whether you’re male or female, you are going to make mistakes and that you’re not doing your job probably if you never make a mistake. The challenge is to know how to back up, fix it, not walk away from it, not cower from it. You have to conquer it and resolve it. You have to resolve it by knowing that this is going to happen, but that you can fix this. I think that is the hardest thing, especially for high achieving students. They’re in school. They’re making the highest grades or whatever and then they go out in the work force and it’s not quite the same. It’s a bit messy. It’s very hard for our young twenty-something males to learn this lesson. It’s hard for anybody, though, to admit they made a mistake.

Advancing engineering Despite the prejudices and challenges, Marie is a big advocate of programs that encourage women (and men) to enter engineering; programs like STEM and STEAM.

“I love STEAM because it brings the arts into it. What I find grabs students interest is the art part of STEAM, because they want to be creative. Whether it’s art, whether it’s building a milk carton car or a Rube Goldberg, there’s art in that.

The big thing in my department now is 3D printing. We did a project working with a veterinarian to create a brace for an animal, a dog that had a deformity on one of his legs. We 3D printed the brace in different types of material so that it was pliable where needed and firm in other areas. We work with all the different engineering disciplines. As the chair, I try for their education to not just be mechanical engineering.

I’m trying to get all of the STEM disciplines involved.

Part of STEM and STEAM involves mentoring. “While I’m mentoring older students, I encourage them to mentor younger

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students. It’s good to bring in a junior female engineer who had similar issues with a freshman or sophomore student and show them the other end. I try to do the full circle that way.

As part of the STEAM opportunity, Marie has done something different. “We have an industrial engineering course in my department. I invited junior and senior mechanical engineering students to take the course even though it’s not in the mechanical curriculum right now. It’s called Additive and Digital Manufacturing and is a junior level class. Three students replied immediately, all female. I think that was because of the artistic aspect of 3D printing.

I think that might be a way to encourage more women into engineering fields.

Engineering has always attracted problem solvers. And problem solving nearly always involves helping others. But the helping aspect has not been addressed in a way that appeals to women. This is where new technologies, like 3D printing, can show how engineering helps others.

And Marie thinks this angle will help bring more women into engineering.

“I’m seeing a path showing how mechanical engineering can be used to help society. I think that is why engineering and particular mechanical engineering has low participation with women. It’s because there’s not an obvious connection as to how it can help others.

“I think the connection with the additive helps bring in a connection to helping. Whether it’s a custom brace or custom implant, or dental implants. 3D printing is already associated with the medical field, which is a helping field. I am seeing young women just fascinated with it, even more so than the males.

Engineering is absolutely a helping field, but it hasn’t been seen that www.designworldonline.com

way. If the helping aspect of engineering is promoted more, then I think we will see more women becoming engineers.

Career advice With experience in corporate America and academia, Dr. Marie can offer much wisdom to young engineers.

“Having a competitive nature, I would tell my younger self that it doesn’t have to be about, “Well, I’ll show them.” There is so much more that you don’t have to show the guys that you can do it, or show anybody that says you can’t.

There’s so much more to this career that I’ve had that has nothing to do with me proving myself. If I could give myself career advice, I would say to make my decisions not based on showing others that I can do it, but to look at my decisions from the value that they have in and of themselves.

“The other career advice involves life choices. I freaked out when I decided to quit work.

I thought that the whole world of females was on my shoulders. A woman has a baby and she quits working and so this is a reason not to hire them. I felt really apologetic about that. But what I would tell my younger self is, there are so many paths in engineering. It will never do you wrong. You can go back to it. I could have gone back to working in industry if I wanted but I wanted my advanced degrees. You can strike your own path and with a degree in engineering you will never have to worry about getting a job back if you decide to take time off. Or not.

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Women in Engineering

Engineering as a key to

knowledge and independence From a young age, Yllka Masada was driven and focused to learn as much as possible — and as fast as possible. However, she didn’t simply want to learn the simple things.

“I wanted to learn the toughest things first, the things that would seem impossible and the simple things would follow,” she said. “I loved knowledge and independence. Engineering was what I thought would be the perfect fit for me.

Nothing is more powerful and beautiful then knowledge.”

Her strong drive to invent and create new products and systems that wasn’t only to solve a problem, but was rooted in the desire to make a difference in human lives and make the world a better place for all.

“I dreamed of being an Engineer at very young edge, as a child, and decided that I would be an engineer before I even turned 5 years old,” she said.

Masada said that early on, she told her family, “I am a future engineer,” and she studied hard and worked hard to make those dreams come true. Today, Masada, a computer engineer, has degrees in computer engineering (electric and electronics engineering, hardware, software, network and multimedia engineering) as well as a minor in math. She’s certified by the IEEE Center of Leadership Excellence Council and serves as President of the Silicon Valley

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Yllka Masada

President Silicon Valley Engineering Council (SVEC)

Engineering Council (SVEC).

She worked for 13 years as a Hardware Design Engineer for Cisco Systems, designing and delivering extremely complex, high end network gears (routers, switches, supervisor engines, line cards etc.), for the Catalyst6000 product line.

Her constant focus had to be five years into the future—what was on the horizon, how would technology

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change and adapt? Masada was the only female Hardware Design Engineer in her business unit, as well as the only women engineer on her team, but she said nothing bothered her.

“I never focused on the gender, but on getting things done,” she said.

“I was the only one on my team with degrees in computer engineering; all the others were electrical engineers, so no one knew how to write software,

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configure things, etc. Therefore, I had to work with my team to help them to learn what they did not know.”

Masada, who naturally comes across as an extremely friendly person, has been described as a great team player who gets along with everyone. She feels that she treats others with great honesty and respect and shared these

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Women in Engineering

“I loved knowledge and independence.

Engineering was what I thought would be the perfect fit for me. Nothing is more powerful and beautiful then knowledge.”

important life and career lessons that have guided her: • Be honest and respect yourself and others.

• A bad attitude has no place any- where. A great attitude goes a long way.

• Be you, the best you can be. Don’t pretend to be someone you are not.

• Study hard and get help from others when you need it, but only after you have tried all options on your own.

• Help everyone that needs your help.

• Listen to others — your friends, family, co-workers, customers, vendors etc., and learn from everyone regardless of their age, experience, where they come from, their gender. You’ll be surprised how much you can learn.

• Never lose focus of the big picture … but take great notes and keep learning. Don’t overlook the details and small steps that can take you there.

• Your entire life is school — and knowledge has no end. Keep learning.

• Dream big, but don’t sleep. Get up and chase your dreams.

• Always think positive.

• When life throws bad thinks at you, don’t cry and think that’s the end of the world. Life is beautiful if you make it such. So, get yourself together and do your best to change that pain to strength, wisdom, and power — and turn it into a positive.

Passing it down Through her role at SVEC, Masada is involved in a program called Discover-E (Discover Engineering), which promotes engineering to high schools and colleges, especially focusing on female engineering students. The group asks high school and college teachers to sign up on its website and list any engineering subjects that their students are interested in learning about. SVEC sends volunteers to go and teach the students that subject for free.

The group also connects with different universities and invites the

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engineering students to attend all of their technical events for free, so that they can learn and connect with the companies and individual engineers.

There’s also an annual SVEC Engineers Week Banquet, where all interested students attend for free and scholarships are handed out to deserving high school students who want to study engineering.

Masada also serves as a judge at Science Fair and Robotics, Synopsys Championship Science and Technology Fair and FIRST California Robotics (FIRST) competitions for different age groups. Each year, she volunteers at MakerFare in nearby Menlo Park, where she helps to staff the SVEC booth, the IEEE booth and the Learn to Solder booth, where they teach children of all edges how to solder.

She feels that there is a lot that we can do to promote young women in engineering.

“First, we have to promote engineering to women, and by that I mean not only starting from high school or colleges, but from very young age and all along,” she said.

“We should always tell them the truth — that engineering is a great profession, a great career, and is not gender specific. Everyone, regardless of gender, can be an engineer. Teach them to not let anyone dictate their future or tell them that engineering is not for them, is hard, or is not for women.”

“Let’s teach girls that they are as smart and as strong and even smarter and stronger than boys and men. Get them involved in engineering projects. Teach girls to not be afraid to study engineering even if it happens that she is the only girl in the engineering class. Think of everyone in the class as equal friends regardless of the gender, because in fact they all are your friends. You are there for one thing only — to study and become an engineer and the best you can be.”

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Women in Engineering

Pursue something that both scares and

excites you

Erin Neiss is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a BS in Aerospace Engineering.

She started her career at Lockheed Martin Corporation in Virginia as a Systems Engineer in satellite command and control. While working for Lockheed Martin, Neiss obtained her MS in Engineering Management from The George Washington University and completed a two-year advanced technical leadership development program including rotations in business development and project engineering.

After completing the development program, she obtained a position as a Deputy Manager for a Tier III Information Technology engineering organization responsible for supporting 8,000 users. She then transferred to Akron, Ohio with Lockheed Martin — working on mission simulators for the F-35 aircraft prior to gaining her current role at Meggitt.

Not surprisingly, her entry into engineering began with airplanes.

“As a child, I was always fascinated how, against my logic at the time, these big, heavy structures were able to stay in the air. To this day, I can spend hours watching planes fly over my house as they approach the nearby airport. The notion of these ‘flying marvels’ started my curiosity in understanding how things work and shaped my future. Academically, I loved solving math problems and learning about the world around me in science class. The combination of my desire to understand how the world works and academic strength led me to engineering.”

But another big influence on Neiss came from family.

When Neiss was nine years old, her sister went to college to study Nuclear Engineering.

“At the time, I thought she was the smartest person I knew, and I was intrigued with her chosen field of study.

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I had not heard much about engineering before then. From my perspective, she had no fear and no doubts about her choice and her abilities. Because of her confidence, I chose to carry out my own goal to become an engineer. Even when I realized in college that women were underrepresented in engineering, it did not sway me from being what I wanted to be.”

As of 2014, Neiss has been working for Meggitt Aircraft Braking Systems.

Working with people While engineers are taught to tackle tough science and math projects, not much emphasis is placed on how to introduce change to people. For Neiss, an early experience pointed out the importance of dealing with people.

Ten to fifteen years ago, Neiss was put in charge of improving a process heavily dependent on paper documents that required physically walking those documents around for signatures from up to twenty people. The plan was to transfer that process to a shared database on the network with a front-end user interface to allow for electronic signatures, storage, and search capability.

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Erin Neiss

Systems Engineering Manager Meggitt PLC in the Aircraft Braking Systems division in Akron,Ohio

“This was a big change for the 2,000 users who depended on this process to document temporary procedures for critical assets,” she said.

“As a young engineer, I was given an opportunity to lead a cross-section of users to perform a trade study of three tools to determine the best tool to meet

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the needs of the entire group.

After tool selection, I worked with the software team to develop the tool. I also generated user guides and instructions, performed beta testing of the tool with functional representatives of the user base, trained users, and executed the transition plan into operations.

“As it often happens with change, there were many users who were www.designworldonline.com

resistant to adopt the new tool and process. After the transition to the new tool, I spent many hours on the phone with leaders of users re-explaining the need for the change and providing additional training. It was a great project to learn about leading teams, building project plans, tracking schedules and managing risk. It also taught me that any time you implement a new process or introduce a new product, November 2018

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Women in Engineering you will need to invest additional time to work with those that are hesitant to change.”

Not all engineering challenges involve design In 2014, civil aircraft certification authorities were enforcing a new system development process in the industry. At the time, there were processes in place for software development, complex hardware development, and environmental testing of systems. Neiss found herself tasked, as part of a small group of engineers, to create and implement a set of system development processes to meet the certification authorities’ requirements.

“Just as systems engineering is a fairly new engineering discipline, the system development process standard is a newer requirement for certification of civil aircraft systems,” she said. “Trying to implement system-level processes highlighting the importance of validating requirements across the entire system proved a difficult task, as it required changes to other development processes already in place in the organization. Trying to implement the new process late in the development lifecycle caused higher costs on the programs making it challenging to prove the benefit of the new system development process.

“To start implementing the development process earlier in the lifecycle, we met with engineers across the various functions to highlight the importance of proper requirement flow down and understanding the impact of design

changes on other parts of the system. It was very rewarding to see engineers grasp and take ownership of the concepts of proper system development and requirements management. We are still working on how to best incorporate these new processes with some of the existing development processes.

However, many of the requirements decomposition changes have been implemented earlier in the development lifecycle resulting in less rework in the system during the design phase.

“My philosophy about leadership is people first. I believe in empowering people to solve problems encouraging them to grow within a position and to prepare them for the next position in their career path. Along with that belief, it’s important that when people know about each other personally, they work better together — it adds a human element to work. We spend most of our waking hours at our jobs with our co-workers, and, many days, we spend more time with them than we do our own families.

“When I was a site lead on a virtual team in the mid-2000s, the team was split across multiple time zones. It was a rough and unproductive start with a lot of finger pointing and muting the phone during conference calls to express disagreement with whoever was talking on the other end. We implemented face-to-face meetings every two months for the team alternating sites for the meetings. It only took one face-to-face meeting to get to know the team members from the other site — learning about their hobbies and about their

families — to break down the barriers in the team. From then on, the team worked very well together.”

Conference calls went from muting the phone constantly to open, productive discussions and ending the calls asking about families and plans for the weekend.

“Because of the virtual team experience, I make it a point to get to know and understand the people I work with to better support them.

When you build trust in teams, team members are more willing to work the extra hours when there is a tight customer deadline. They are also more willing to admit when they make mistakes and work through them versus trying to cover them up,” Neiss said.

Challenges for women in engineering Whether you call it inherent bias, sexism, or other terms, women in engineering must still be smarter, better, and more emotionally together than men engineers.

Some think a part of the problem is society’s definitions of femininity and masculinity.

Neiss has experienced the bias that because she’s a woman she is seen as not as technologically savvy as men and is thus steered towards more managerial roles rather than technical.

“How many future Grace Hoppers and Stephanie Kwoleks are we preventing by inadvertently redirecting women towards less technical roles? The biases and barriers are not as explicit as they were in the past. However, because the biases are typically subtle, often people are unaware of the biases

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they hold, making it more difficult to point them out and resolve them,” she said.

When it comes to career advancement, Neiss sees some lessoning of bias.

“Advancement occurs at the individual contributor and lower management levels, but women are still underrepresented in boardrooms and in the executive levels of engineering,” she said. “Also, even with the moderate improvements in career advancement, there still exist the subtle prejudices and perceptions from co-workers.

For instance, as a mid-career professional I was told by a previous co-worker that I should be home baking pies for my husband instead of being in the office. I also fought through prejudices that I am not strong enough to deal with the personalities of those I have led through my career. While the comments and implicit biases towards women are not always barriers to advancement, along with the lack of female role models in upper management, they are factors that contribute to the trend of many talented women choosing other career paths.”

To help alleviate some of these issues, Neiss participates in a number of STEM events.

“While working in Virginia, my favorite event consisted of a full day dedicated to introducing young women in the eighth grade to engineering. Female leaders from the organization talked to the group about what engineering is in addition to tips on how to be a leader. My group and I designed an engineering project for the participants and assisted the teams during the design and build phases of the project.

I enjoyed watching the creativity of the teams and the confidence building within the young women participating in the day’s events,” she said.

“In my current role, I have the privilege to work with many young

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engineers including students from the University of Akron participating in our Co-op program. The co-op students gain an understanding of our system through three to four rotations in different engineering functions within the company. Each session, I see a different co-op student rotate through the Systems Engineering department. I meet with the student weekly to discuss goals for the rotation, career plans, and any questions he or she may have about the organization. It is amazing to see a co-op’s confidence and technical abilities grow in the short time he or she is with the group.

In this last rotation, I was honored to watch a female co-op student go from being unsure of her own capabilities in her first rotation to running her own project, learning new skills, and presenting the results in front of a group of experienced engineers. You could see the improvement in her demeanor around the office. Witnessing and being a part of that development is the one of the main reasons I became an engineering manager.”

As far as encouraging young women to consider engineering, Neiss offers three tips:

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The key is getting young women engaged in the excitement, adventure, impact, and challenge of engineering as early as possible.

Ask a young girl what an engineer does. I bet she will have an idea of what a doctor, veterinarian, or teacher does. These are all well represented professions in television shows, movies, games, and toys aimed at young girls. You don’t see many female engineers developing new ground-breaking technology on the latest kids’ shows. The more examples we provide of women succeeding in the profession of engineering, the more young women will believe that they can do the same.

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There is also more excitement in the tangible, something we can see or touch. As I wait at a gate at the airport on an airplane, I have a sense of pride knowing we provide the braking system that supports taxi, takeoff, and landing phases of flight. I smile to myself thinking about seeing that braking system back in our lab for testing and the sheer amount of testing and paperwork we are responsible for that is needed to ensure this critical aircraft system is safe for everyone who flies. When a young woman gains hands-on experience to understand the inner workings of a system including its impact on the world, she becomes more invested to making a better product.

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All relatives, instructors, and mentors need to foster practical applications for young women to introduce them to engineering. Show them how engineers have helped to solve some of the problems facing our world. Challenge them to think about how they would solve some of the current issues today with technology.

Many young women don’t even know that engineering is an option until it is too late. I was lucky to have my sister in my life who made “engineering” real for me, and I hope other young women have someone in their lives who will make “engineering” real for them too.

And a last piece of advice: “Don’t be afraid to think of yourself as smart, a trait I think women struggle with. Strive to be confident in your own abilities and realize that being inquisitive is not a weakness,” she said. “Asking questions is the only way to learn about a new job or new technology. Have patience with yourself when starting a new position. Even if you have a natural tendency towards math and science, it takes practice, research, and plenty of hands-on experience to understand the system you are working on. And when something scares you and excites you at the same time, those are the opportunities to go after. Those are the risks worth taking where you will achieve the most personal growth.”

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Women in Engineering

Emma Pierson

Graduate assistant, Mechanical Engineering Dept., University of Akron

Society needs all types of engineers Emma Pierson began her journey into engineering through

nursing. She spent two years in the nursing program at Akron, but felt unchallenged by the classes.

“I felt like the classes weren’t necessarily making me work like I thought that college should. I didn’t want to go through college without thinking that I really, really truly earned something. So I started exploring other majors, and since I had already taken all the anatomy and physiology courses, I went into biomedical engineering. When you’re on this track, you’re taking a lot of sophomore mechanical engineering courses. And I enjoyed them.

I knew there were more career options available to me with a mechanical engineering degree because it’s a broad subject. So that’s when I switched to mechanical engineering.

Currently, Pierson is a Pathways intern with NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, working with the human factors

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lab. She is in a graduate program for statistics and looks to focus on dynamics and vibrations.

Pierson was fortunate to have a mother engineer—Dr. Hazel Marie, also profiled in this issue.

“I think I was 12 years old when mom actually finished her PhD,” Pierson says, “so all during my adolescence, mom was in school. Had I not known how fulfilled she felt in her career, even though it’s a challenging field, and knew that it was and always has been a very sought after field, I wouldn’t have thought to go into engineering.”

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my vibrations professor, really made me want to pursue the vibrations field,” she says. “It was so nice to see somebody who knows the subject material so well. And I was really drawn to that. He really drew me into the system dynamics portion of mechanical engineering.”

Putting statistics, dynamics, and vibration to use While studying for her degrees, Pierson has been a co-op intern with Goodyear for four different rotations involving tire engineering.

In these co-op programs, she has worked on several projects, including one funded by NSF called Zipping Towards STEM. In this three-year project, the University of Akron’s engineering department and the department of education created an eighth grade curriculum that was going to be implemented into Akron public school science classes. In this curriculum, teachers would educate students on the basics of aerodynamics. The students would then design a miniature soapbox derby car using basic 3D modeling techniques. Once the students finished their design, they would upload it into a virtual wind tunnel.

“And that’s where we became involved,” says Pierson, “because my senior design team was tasked with creating that virtual wind tunnel capable of uploading any 3D model of a certain size, running a computational fluid dynamic analysis on it, and outputting a simple drag value for those students to learn from. We used Matlab to create the virtual wind tunnel because this program has functions that we used to code the graphical user interface and create the CFD functions for the final output.”

The students were allowed several iterations to improve their design and then they could 3D print it and test it in a small wind

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tunnel provided for all of the Akron public schools. The final step was to actually race their design on a miniature track.

The U of A project gives public school students a chance to see the whole engineering process in terms of design, analysis, redesign, prototype, and test.

Currently, Pierson is working on a challenging project. “I’m using a lot of the skills that I learned in my senior design project on the virtual wind tunnel. This new project is my Masters work, and I’m funded through the Federal Aviation Administration. They are developing weather related training. They want to see how it would change air traffic controllers’ weather dissemination to pilots if they were to implement probabilistic weather information into their displays instead of just deterministic information.”

Pierson is making another standalone program that will show either deterministic or deterministic and probabilistic information on weather patterns.

“The challenging part of this,” she says, “is that I came into this project six months after somebody else had already started doing the background research. So I had to get up to speed. It’s an odd thing for a mechanical engineer to know how to code software interfaces that will do the type of things we’re able to do.”

The issue was that the previous programmers didn’t know how to test probabilistic versus deterministic situations. “There were a lot of different minds on this project,” she says, “and it was a challenge influencing them to cooperate in how I knew it could be done.

We just presented it to the FAA this summer, and they are going to continue funding us. But the challenge is, when you’re working with other engineers, trying not to “step on any toes” in terms of what they’ve already done. When there www.designworldonline.com

are multiple people involved, you have to be able to fight for what you think should be done if you know the way to do it. It would be nice if engineering schools included classes on how to deal with human behavior. I definitely think it’s important to choose your own attitude,” she says. “You decide in every situation how you will respond.”

Encouraging others Pierson sees a common but rarely mentioned aspect of education that can dissuade women from pursuing science degrees.

“I’ve always been in advanced math classes since the fifth grade.

But pre-calculus was a struggle for me. The math teacher told me outright, ‘Maybe you’re just not good at math.’ Unfortunately, I think a lot of women see that type of attitude. Just because you struggle with one aspect of a subject, the teacher assumes you’re just not good at it and doesn’t stop to wonder if their method of teaching is a problem. When you take a similar class from a different teacher and it’s easy, well now you wonder why you couldn’t get it from the other teacher, but you can get from this one?

Then you realize one was able to reach you, whereas the other teacher couldn’t.”

Pierson has seen that everyone learns differently. But many educators think that because they are successful teaching many students, it’s not their teaching methods, it’s just that a student “isn’t good at it.”

“I think that happens way too often,” Pierson continues. In my grad program, I come into contact November 2018

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Women in Engineering with people from many different countries, and I’ve had discussions with them about it, and they say that in their country, when someone is struggling with math, it is never, “Oh, you’re not good at it.” It’s, “Try again.”

“In our middle and high school educational system, I’ve seen and heard this same type of story way too often where assumptions are made that maybe you’re not good at this. I think if we could change that type of attitude, it would be a world of a difference. At Akron they have a crash course in software where they do SolidWorks, Matlab, and AutoCad in one semester. You see it then. There are obviously students who have strength in 3D modeling but are not so good at coding. And then you have the students who are great at coding, but their strength isn’t 3D modeling. We need all types of engineers, and I don’t know why we’re so focused on turning out only one type of engineer.”

Dealing with people Throughout Pierson’s co-ops she has learned that if someone is not interested in working with you and talks down to you, it’s not you, it’s them. She has learned the value of not taking things personally. “A lot of the time, it is someone else’s issue.

Find the people that genuinely want to work with you, and really do want to make sure that you understand before you get too far down the pipeline of wrong thinking.

“If the world of engineering is going to make room for women, I think there needs to be a change in the attitude of men. I really don’t think this is solely a woman issue. I think there needs to be a better job done in terms of education for men that there is room for women in this world. Everything that’s been done so far is great, but I think we need to do a better job in terms of getting men on board with it.

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“Many of my fellow male students in grad school think that women are less capable, that they receive more opportunity advantages than the guys do. And they hold a lot of animosity towards that, when it’s not true. When a woman gets a scholarship, job interviews and so on, they think the women received them just because she was the diversity pick. Not because she earned it.

“I think this viewpoint is in a lot of the world of engineering where woman have to prove themselves before being respected in any position. But when a man comes in and takes that same position, it’s assumed that they’ve already 100% earned it. You see this in school and in industry.”

Pierson sites an example of a young woman director at Goodyear.

“I’m friends with a lot of men there, and they feel free to debate these issues with me. One time there was plenty of commentary about this female director being promoted at a young age, even though there was a man in the same position two years younger than her. The conversation was, “Oh, what did she do to get there so fast? But they don’t question the younger man and how come he advanced so fast. When a woman moves ahead, it’s “diversity pick.” That’s the first thing that always comes out of their mouth.”

As young as Pierson is, she’s not alone among women grad students noticing such attitudes.

Which goes to show that engineering is not just about math, science, numbers and problem solving. It’s also about people, a subject that should be covered more in today’s engineering classes.

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Women in Engineering

Engineering

in their genes

For sisters Rebecca Stoner and Laura Supra, engineering was a natural choice. Both women credit their family’s influence with their decision to study engineering and even their younger brother, Brad Dittmer, said he chose to follow in their footsteps.

Their father was an electrical engineer who gave them plenty of opportunities to fall in love with the field — from visits to his family’s farm in North Dakota to see how the agricultural machinery worked to watching the space shuttle launches — Stoner’s and Supra’s father inspired their professional calling.

“My dad made a point to wake my siblings and me up to watch the space shuttle launches, as well as take us to endless railroad museums where we learned about steam locomotives and the railroad industry,” Stoner said. She added that her sister’s choice also inspired her.

“My older sister, Laura, decided to become an aerospace engineer, following her dream to become an astronaut,” Stoner said. “Laura’s confidence in herself to follow her dreams gave me confidence that I would be able to make it through the tough engineering coursework.”

Supra added that her mother was integral in her love for space exploration. “My mother told me she held me in front of the television so I could watch the first man walk on the moon and my dad made sure we watched all the early space shuttle launches that were broadcast,” Supra said. “Based on that, it is not surprising that I selected aerospace for my undergraduate degree at the University of Colorado at Boulder and I stayed to get my master’s degree.”

Dittmer cited his older sisters as his inspiration to obtain an engineering degree. All three graduated from the University of Colorado. “I’ve always looked up to both of my sisters and their ability to succeed,” he said. “Knowing both of them decided to pursue an engineering degree made it a very easy decision for me as their younger brother.”

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Laura Supra

Although a stellar English student, Supra realized that a STEM career was the way to go for her. “One thing that I liked about math and science was that there was one right answer,” Supra said. “So being an engineer aligned with my interest in solving hard problems. Studying aerospace fit with my passion to push boundaries and explore as well and I eventually applied to become an astronaut.”

For her part, Stoner said her engineering aptitude became clear when she was young. She always liked to make things and know how and why things work. “My mom would tell you I mastered the art of the ‘5 Whys’ at an early age,” Stoner said. “I probably should have recognized that I was an engineer in training when for a seventh grade history project, I decided to make a miniature rolltop desk from balsa wood as a vehicle for my paper. Thankfully, my dad was willing to help me realize my vision.”

(right)

Global Product Management and Applications Leader, GE Power

Rebecca Stoner

(left)

Senior Director of Engineering Interiors, UTC Aerospace Systems

Making big impacts Supra is a global product management and applications leader at GE Power focused on the technical sale strategy of next generation gas turbines, specifically focusing on the China growth region. She has a M.S. and B.S. degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder and more than 24 years of experience in the Aerospace and Power Generation fields.

Early in her career, Supra played an active role in Lunar/Mars exploration technology development. At the time she worked at AlliedSignal and focused on

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Women in Engineering

developing air and water recycling systems for space applications and she was selected to be one of four human test subjects at NASA Johnson Space Center for a 91-day isolated self-sustained test representative of a Lunar/Mars mission.

The test consisted of a series of life support equipment tests with humans in the loop as the metabolic load. The crew was comprised of two women and two men, with two being engineers and two scientists. “I partnered with the other engineer to maintain the life support equipment inside the isolation chamber while a support team on the outside monitored us,” Supra noted.

“This experience was like being an astronaut, except on the ground with gravity, and required using equipment as would be required for a lunar or Mars human habitat to recycle all the air and water we used. It was a very successful test overall and we were presented the Rotary International Stellar Team Award ‘in recognition of contributions to significant advances in science, medicine, and technology that will lead the way for human exploration of the Moon, Mars and beyond.’”

As the Sr. Director of Engineering for UTC Aerospace Systems’ (UTAS) Interiors business, Stoner is responsible for new

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product development as well as supporting fielded products. She began her engineering career in the automotive industry and joined UTAS in 1995. She held various technical leadership positions of increasing responsibility in the Interiors Seating division from 19952015.

Stoner holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado, where she served as a Resident Advisor, an Engineering Student Ambassador, and spoke at her engineering convocation ceremony.

She will receive her MBA from the University of Colorado this December.

Helping to bring back ‘the magic of flight’ was one of her most significant design projects. “When I worked within our seating business, I was responsible for all technical aspects of the Boeing 787 Cabin Attendant Seating contract, which I am pleased to say we won. The vision for the Dreamliner was to bring back the magic of flight. And it was our goal to support that,” Stoner said.

“We were able to accomplish this by balancing the structural aspects with human factors and industrial design. Every time I board a 787 and see our Cabin Attendant Seat at the entry door, I am proud of the work accomplished by our design and operations team in helping keep the Cabin Crew safe and able to do their jobs in the event of an emergency.”

Breaking down the barriers While both agree that the barriers continue to fall for women engineers, there is still much work to be done to engage more young women in the field.

“I believe that barriers still exist in today’s engineering companies for women and this is evident by the lack of female role models in high-level leadership positions. In many of my engineering college classes 30 years ago, I was often

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the only female in the class and still to this day it is quite common that I am the only woman in a meeting with numerous male attendees,” Supra said. “Although many engineering companies are focused on balancing the equation by hiring more women as GE is with their Edison Engineering program, there continues to be a gap of more experienced women in engineering.”

She adds that women need to support each other as they become engineering leaders. “I believe that in order to retain female engineers, women need to champion other women as well as continue to educate others that good leaders have different styles and employees should be measured by their achievements,” Supra said.

Stoner agreed, adding that women also need to believe in themselves. “First, we need to overcome our self-made barriers.

We can’t limit ourselves by only considering ‘traditional’ women’s careers,” Stoner said. “Second, women need to overcome selfdoubt and perfectionism. No one is perfect and we are capable of anything we set our minds to.”

Stoner advises that more women engineers need to trust that they are as capable as their male colleagues and take the tough assignments. “Don’t shy away from the troubled programs,” she said.

“That is where you will learn the most and have the most impact.”

Finally, Stoner suggests that men need to be open to assisting women. “They need to recognize that women will bring different perspectives and may communicate and lead differently than men,” she said. “Different is not less effective.

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authentic to your own style.”

The sisters are proud to work for companies that have developed programs to close the gender gap.

For example, Supra points to the GE Women’s Network (GEWN), what they call an “affinity network” that tries to connect, develop and inspire women in engineering around the world.

“I am a member of the GEWN Greenville Steering Committee where I lead the Professional Development committee and plan activities for women to learn about their strengths and how to build upon them,” she said. “I am also very passionate about changing the way leadership skills are viewed as diversity needs to be valued in our ever-changing global business world. GEWN also is active in inspiring young women to become engineers through STEM outreach efforts such as the GE Girls program.”

Stoner added that UTAS’ parent company, United Technologies, has committed to achieving gender parity in senior roles by 2030 as a member of Paradigm for Parity, a coalition dedicated to addressing the corporate leadership gender gap.

“We have seen that diverse and inclusive teams are significantly better at solving business problems,” said Stoner. “By nature, diverse teams bring new ideas, experiences and skills to the table, which can be real game-changers in our industry. Women bring unique leadership competencies to the workplace such as empathy, collaboration and humility which support UTC’s performance-based culture, and are complementary to those of their male counterparts.”

Working towards the future Mentoring is extremely important to these sisters, who are working to help shape future engineers both personally and professionally.

For example, Stoner insists that we need to reach young women in

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middle and high school and ensure that they don’t shy away from math and science curriculum.

“I have mentored younger female engineers and I found it very rewarding. They look up to me as someone who has balanced a career and a family and they appreciate my candidness and advice,” Supra said. “I also strive to introduce them to other people in my network and especially to brag about them openly to my male peers. I believe that women in general strive to be perfect and are very selfcritical, so they need champions to help promote their skills and accomplishments.”

Supra’s favorite young highpotential female engineers she loves to mentor are her two daughters, who both excel at math and science in high school. “In elementary school, one of them competed multiple years in the science fair and ultimately was the overall winner for the county in fifth grade,” she said with pride. “I also hope that their aunt and I inspire them as female engineering role models in their life.”

Stoner is a member of the 2015 cohort of the UTC Aerospace Systems’ Executive Development for Global Excellence (EDGE). She has also represented her company at the 2014 Women in Aviation (WIA), National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), and Society of Women Engineering (SWE) conferences.

She also tries to support STEM events when she can, and actively mentors colleagues while being a strong advocate for recruiting and developing women. And as an avid distance runner, she supports Girls on the Run as a running buddy.

While working for the Interiors Seating division in Colorado Springs, Stoner mentored female engineers in the University of Colorado’s Chancellor’s Leadership Program and is currently mentoring six women engineers at UTC. She is also a founding member of the UTC Aerospace Systems Women in Engineering Leadership Coalition www.designworldonline.com

(WELC). The WELC is a team of senior engineering leaders, both women and men, focused on recognizing, recruiting, retaining, and sponsoring female engineering team members. It links directly to UTC’s support of Paradigm for Parity.

Supra adds that she believes we need to think differently about how to encourage young women in selecting careers, including educating them in advance on the application of engineering, career and salary growth potential and how higher leadership levels are typically held by people with advanced degrees such as master’s degrees or PhDs.

“I also think we need to combat the gender bias as girls are being raised and teach them that they can do anything they aspire to,” Supra said. “Multiple times when the man sitting next to me strikes up a conversation on the airplane, he is shocked to find out I am an engineer. I personally loved the #ILookLikeAnEngineer campaign that was on the internet a few years ago — it openly addressed the unconscious bias that is out there in the world.

“GE embraced this campaign when it came out and we did a few internal events inspired by it. More recently, GE partnered with other leading companies to launch ‘She Can STEM,’ which is based on ‘If they can see it, they can be it.’ I would love to see more companies doing campaigns like these.”

“I believe it is up to our current generation of engineers to get the word out about how exciting and rewarding engineering can be. This is the responsibility of all current engineers, regardless of gender. We need men and women to tell their daughters, sisters, families, and educators to encourage women to consider this field,” Stoner said.

“We also need to get in front of young women in middle school. The Girl Scouts Trailblazing badges are a good example of reaching potential engineers sooner.

“Companies can encourage women engineers by partnering with the community as UTC does by supporting SWE,” Stoner concluded. “But we also need to ensure that we are placing women in highly impactful engineering leadership roles.”

One thing is for certain, Supra and Stoner can STEM with the best of them.

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Women in Engineering

MS exec follows

her star path to engineering and AI

Ms. Sophia Velastegui’s love for science and technology started at an early age. Like many of us, watching Star Trek and appreciating the references to science and engineering became a seed that was sown to later sprout into a career in technology. For Sophia, it was the Heinsenberg compensator for the Transporter. Her curiosity was peaked enough for her to “transport” herself to the library and investigate.

That curiosity continues as the important role Velastegui as the General Manager of Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence product organization. At Microsoft, she works on the part of the Microsoft Graph, called the Knowledge Graph, which strives to bring AI to every individual and organization by powering AI experiences in Bing, Office and Microsoft Azure.

Named one of Business Insider’s most powerful female engineers in 2018 and 2017, Velastegui’s past work includes serving as the Chief Product Officer at Doppler Labs and leading the Head of Silicon/Architecture Roadmap at Google and working on Special Projects at Google’s Nest. She has also directed

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Sophia Velastegui GM of Product Artificial Intelligence Microsoft the “Think Tank” Program Management and Laptop & Special Projects Product Management groups at Apple.

Where this is a woman, there is a way In addition to her superhero thought leaders at Microsoft (see sidebar), Sophia points to two influential women in history who also helped shaped her decision to become an engineer: pioneer scientist in physics and chemistry

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Marie Curie who, through her work in radiation, was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize; and Mae Jemison, the first African America woman in space who, incidentally, also appeared on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Both, says Sophia, pushed the boundaries of science and technology in an environment where they had no other women role models. “They were brave, tenacious, and curious

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Women in Engineering across multiple disciplines,” says Sophia.

Yet, the barrier women still face in the tech field is not one of just smoke and mirrors.

“Women are making major gains in getting into engineering and science, and it’s a heartfelt blessing,” says Velastegui. “Sadly, however, women are still often on the receiving end of stereotyping and multiple implicit biases.”

But Sophia feels there are ways to encourage women to pursue technical careers.

“All parts of society should be included to foster an environment of belonging,” says Velastegui.

She promotes small lean-in groups with cross-mentoring and support group and maintains that it is equally important to make work a psychologically safe environment where “…team members share information and collaborate without being penalized nor negatively judged for mistakes or failures or for challenging the status quo.”

“We need to hold establishment accountable through metrics,” Velastegui continues, “to promote diversity across many categories: ethnic, cultural, religious, and generational. Success will be fueled by diverse talent. “ Walking the talk For her part, Velastegui is working to change the status quo for women in engineering, as well with as in youth and minority groups. She spends a lot of time in her daily work and outside activities helping to facilitate growth and encourage new engineers and entrepreneurs.

“I am constantly working with engineers and scientists of all ages,” says Velastegui, “And I am especially focused on college students as I serve on the board of Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering in providing strategy and direction.”

Velastegui works toward advancing diversity both in the tech sector and through her personal activities. Beyond her work at Microsoft, Velastegui is on the advisory board of Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering, and the Create X incubator that helps brings startup culture to the students thru the “program pillars of 1) Learn, 2) Make, and 3) Launch.” It provides the framework for entrepreneurial confidence for all students, regardless of major or year of study.

This program has had widespread reach in bringing entrepreneurship across all of Georgia Tech.

Additionally, Velastegui serves as the board director of Elwyn.org, nonprofit servicing children and adults with disabilities. And, she has also served as the innovation advisor to the South Korean President Jae In Moon’s Labor dept from candidacy to presidency.

AI, meet Office 365 When we asked about her work at Microsoft, Velastegui pointed to the real and productive collaboration among engineers at the company that brings new Artificial Intelligence capabilities to real people’s daily lives to make their tech experiences more simple and powerful.

“At Microsoft, we work with the Office team to infuse artificial

intelligence into Office 365 in numerous ways,” she explained.

“One project I worked on was to bring new capabilities to Excel.

As a result of the work from myself and team, Excel now has machine learning-based stock and geography data types and is able to understand your entries related to stock and geography to pull in relevant data from the Microsoft Graph automatically. Stock data type users can insert detailed information like fund names, share prices, ticker symbols, etc. into an Excel spreadsheet. This gives people fundamentally new building blocks. The Excel and AI teams worked together to understand Excel customers and what AIinfused experiences would enrich their lives, and then we set out to make it happen,” she concluded.

The project, of course, is not without challenges but that’s just another word for “opportunity” in Velastegui’s vocabulary. She explained that the “Microsoft Knowledge Graph” has the potential to pull in world, work, and user knowledge from across Bing, Windows, Office 365, and other sources to connect and provide access to data that drives insight and productivity.

“We have,” maintains Velastegui, “the challenge to surface AI across varying experience canvases.”

Lesson learned and learning Two key lessons Sophia has learned and which she shares in her leadership role should resonate with anyone — despite their career choices. Keeping an open mind and

“Weakly held strong opinions are not fundamental truths. Opinions are a working hypothesis that should be used to guide your thinking, decisions, and actions.”

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Sophia’s Superhero thought leaders at Microsoft being willing to adapt to changes is critical.

“Ask questions to facilitate dialog and exploration,” Velastegui says, “Do not close your minds to dissent and lead on to a constructive debate if needed.”

Secondly, she says, remember that, “Weakly held strong opinions are not fundamental truths. Opinions are a working hypothesis that should be used to guide your thinking, decisions, and actions. As a leader, we should always question new ideas and ensure they’re supported by fact.

However, when there is mounting evidence and experience that shows our ideas and beliefs are wrong, we need to be open-minded and not resist change.”

Velastegui’s star path began and continues to be paved with curiosity and learning — even while she hikes and rock climbs with her family.

“You have to learn and think differently than your peers continuously,” she concludes, “Make connections that don’t seem obvious.”

Tara Prakriya, Partner Group Program Manager of Connected Vehicles From within Microsoft, Tara is another one of the exceptional women who is working on the connected car. Tara is a Partner Group Program Manager in Microsoft’s Azure IoT division focused on connected vehicles and Azure Maps. She rejoins Microsoft after a fun ride as CPO of a startup in enterprise AI, Maana, from seed to just before the close of series C. Before that she worked at Microsoft cumulatively for 15 years in Windows, and Bing. Tara also had roles at Merck and Scantron. In these roles, she has tackled machine learning, enterprise AI, big data analytics, content management, handwriting recognition, ink/touch and new hardware, educational LMS systems, and online advertising. She’s an AI pragmatist and believes the most important part of any solution is identifying and decomposing the right question.

Navrina Singh, Principal Product lead & Young Global Leader w/ World Economic Forum Navrina Singh is Principal Product Lead in Microsoft Cloud & AI, where she is focused on conversational AI for Business Application Group. Previously Navrina was the Director of Business Development for Artificial Intelligence, where she was responsible for business development, strategy and partnerships to forge new businesses for Microsoft leveraging Artificial Intelligence technologies. Before joining Microsoft in 2016, Navrina spent 12 years at Qualcomm Incorporated, where she held multiple roles across engineering, strategy and product management. At Qualcomm, Navrina was also the head of Qualcomm Innovation responsible for the vision and execution of the technology incubator program focused on building emerging technologies and delivering strategic partnerships in Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and Mobile. Navrina is a Young Global Leader with World Economic Forum (WEF), for her work in disruptive technologies, catalyzing startup ecosystems and a keen focus on diversity and Inclusion.

Kim Mathisen, General Manager of Mixed Reality Kim Mathisen is currently General Manager of Mixed Reality at Microsoft.

She leads a team that handles the customer engagement and product development work critical to determining what problems Mixed Reality can solve for consumers, the requirements for delivering those solutions, and how best to bring them to market. Kim recently oversaw the successful launch of the first two enterprise apps for the HoloLens, Microsoft’s augmented reality, head-mounted computer. Before joining Microsoft in 2017, Mathisen spent 11 years at Amazon.com, where she rose to lead one of the online retailer’s major lines of business. Along that trajectory, she held senior vendor management and marketing positions in several retail categories.

As Amazon’s Director, General Manager, Category Leader I Tools, Mathisen led a multi-billion- dollar business end-to-end. In this CEO-type position, she was responsible for everything from strategic planning to daily execution, including P&L performance. Mathisen is a mountain sports enthusiast and a lover of fine food and wine.

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Women in Engineering

One engineer’s devotion to consistency, quality, and safety Kristen (Robinson) Wegielewski is a CAPA Quality Engineer and Team Lead at Philips Healthcare at their operations in the Seattle area. For the uninitiated, CAPA stands for corrective action and preventive action — an approach for monitoring and improving organizational processes to eliminate anomalies and mistakes.

That’s particularly important in the engineering and manufacture of healthcare products — including automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) and other devices that Philips makes.

Wegielewski’s CAPA efforts at Philips initially focused on working with CAPA owners on root-cause investigations of product, process, and business issues … and familiarizing team members with root-cause methods when needed.

Other work related to both internal and external audits. Even as CAPA team lead though, a role she assumed this year, Wegielewski maintains her stand for quality systems and doing the right thing for the business — encouraging others to embrace investigations that go beyond technical troubleshooting. She also continues efforts to improve her company’s CAPA system through identification

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Kristen (Robinson) Wegielewski CAPA Quality Engineer Team Lead at Philips

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Women in Engineering

“I believe that one barrier women face is knowing how to strike that fine balance between being heard and yet not being perceived as a person grasping for attention.”

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identification of true root causes of issues and the generation of lasting solutions. In her new role, Wegielewski supports her company’s growing number of CAPA engineers — and prioritizes process consistency (so vital to quality initiatives) even while ensuring her team members get heard and encouragement to grow professionally.

When asked about what first drew her to engineering, Wegielewski said, “I don’t remember what first grabbed my attention ... but I was always good in math and the sciences — and I always gravitated to mechanically based skills and hobbies.”

She clearly remembers the decision to become an engineer, though: “I knew in high school that I wanted to make a difference with my talent in math and science. I debated heavily between becoming a teacher or entering industry to be an engineer. I decided to take the engineering route — and I’ve fulfilled my desire to mentor and teach in both my career and other facets,” said Wegielewski.

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Wegielewski does not cite any influential engineers as having shaped her decision to pursue the field and emphasizes personal drive (over organized programs) to boost the numbers of young women in engineering. More important than any particular program or effort, “You have to have the desire within to sustain,” underscored Wegielewski.

When asked about barriers (if any) women face in today’s engineering space, Wegielewski’s response was similar to those

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of others. She had this to say: “I believe that one barrier women face is knowing how to strike that fine balance between being heard and yet not being perceived as being a person grasping for attention. I think many women are respectful in discussions and allow others to speak before them … although that can potentially allow others to pass in front of them for growth opportunities.”

When asked to give an example of a design project well done, Wegielewski cited a time she was brought into a new product introduction (NPI) — after the product had gone past its development-plan due date. “I helped to clean up some of the design work. I also improved the design to be more cost effective — yet more customer-focused for the application of our product. In addition, I designed, accounted for use cases from the field, and coordinated with the manufacturer of our product’s carrying case for an improved offering … and drove the path of truly considering our customers.”

As with many other women we surveyed, Wegielewski has found the technical aspects of engineering challenges satisfyingly addressable with hard work and systematic approaches to resolution. It’s the non-engineering tests of life that prove harder to settle. “My biggest challenge has been a personal one that has arisen multiple times in my life — that of self-doubt. In fact, I am proud of my experience and that I can call myself an engineer. Even so, it can be hard to overcome the occasional internal voice saying, ‘you aren’t good enough or smart enough to continue to excel.’ So I’ve allowed myself to momentarily be down on myself — but then I call to mind how my mentors would handle this situation — and I draw on my own past successes — and then

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remember that I am good enough.”

As for her leadership style, Wegielewski said her leadership skills stem from a desire to instruct.

“I naturally mentor and coach people — and I grow when I do so. In fact, in my free time I am a motorcycle safety instructor, and I’ve learned a lot of the different learning styles from people who have come through my classroom.

I am able to apply techniques from that venue to work and vice versa to encourage growth in people in both places. I believe in inspiring by being a part of the team — not being a dictator.”

When asked what career advice she would give to her younger self, Wegielewski said: “Believe in yourself and allow yourself to have not-so-perfect moments. You will recover, people will forget, and you will be stronger after. Do what you can to keep that drive alive.”

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Women in Engineering

Loving the challenge In the world of product development, there are engineering challenges to be faced every day. But that’s what drives Lauren West — finding elegant solutions to complex problems daily. She works as a mechanical engineer for Austin-based M3 Design, a product design consulting firm. She focused on projects that require the design of novel mechanisms, the integration of electronics and code, multidisciplinary collaboration, and continuous learning and mastery of engineering topics.

The path to engineering West studied mechanical engineer at the MassachuA career in engineering wasn’t something West setts Institute of Technology, where she first discovgrew up dreaming about. In fact, she said it wasn’t ered the world of product design. Since that time, even on her radar. She didn’t know any practicing she has designed products from the ordinary to the engineers and famous ones weren’t really brought obscure — everyday kitchen appliances to medical to her attention. But there were influential nondevices. engineers who shaped the decision to become an

“I enjoy this variety in my work and am always engineer. looking forward to the next design challenge that

“Besides family, the main influence was my high comes my way,” she said. school physics teacher, Mr. Cherry,” West said. “He

However, West said, the challenges are not always brought a certain excitement and intrigue to the glamorous or exciting. She explained how one time, classroom that made learning fun. When college a client’s product was leaking in the field. Customers application time came around, he was influential in were complaining, and they needed a solution quickly. encouraging me to apply to engineering programs.

“There were multiple potential leak sites on the Beyond high school, there were also numerous device and they were difficult to isolate,” she said. peers, professors, and professionals who inspired “With too many variables in play, I had to develop me with their enthusiasm for engineering.” a game plan in which I could modify the product to

“Truth be told, I didn’t know much about isolate and test each potential leak site. This proved engineering when I decided to major in it,” to be an enormous task as the testing would take West said. “This is what I knew: I enjoyed math weeks.” and physics, I liked creating things, and my

Daunted by the sheer manual labor about to older brother, who I admired, was studying ensue, it became a challenge of willpower and engineering.” motivation for West.

“Despite not knowing what I was getting

“Luckily, I found a way to work smarter,” she said. into, there was a defining moment when I knew I “I quickly developed a simple, automated test bed had stumbled upon a perfect career choice. It was that greatly reduced variability, physical fatigue, and the end of my sophomore year and I just finished increased reliability. This allowed me to obtain results a hallmark course in the mechanical engineering I could trust and rule out variables quickly. The testing curriculum. It was a course designed to get students still took a while, but once I identified the source of involved with design and fabrication under the guise the leak, I was able to make design modifications to of a friendly robot competition. Although many of mitigate it completely.”

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Lauren West

Mechanical Engineer M3 Design Inc.

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Women in Engineering our robots were glorified hunks of sheet metal, there was so much to the class that was new and eye-opening for me.

As I reflected on the term, I discovered that there was a way I could make a living combining book knowledge with my love for creative problem solving in a hands-on manner. I may have simply stumbled upon engineering, but I stayed after I discovered what it had to offer.”

West would like to encourage more young women to pursue careers in engineering — she said there needs to be better information about engineering available to them.

“Early exposure to engineering through hands-on workshops, museums, and toys is great. Knowledge of the career and exposure to everyday role models who promote it can make a big difference as well,” she said. “However, it seems like engineering could also use a re-branding. It’s not the stodgy job many people imagine. Engineering is a creative career. We have a hand in designing and creating almost everything around us.

This is the narrative that should be told about careers in technology.”

Being a leader is critical There are many things that make a good leader, but one attribute that has stood out to West in particular is an ability to make others feel important and valued.

Early in her career, she worked at a global corporation. Collaborating with a team of engineers, industrial designers, and marketers around the world was not an easy task, she said.

“Each office brought its own perspective and misunderstandings could happen easily,” West said. “I found that I could successfully lead a team when I had established healthy working relationships with my colleagues. This meant I worked at getting to know each individual. When they presented ideas, I thoughtfully considered their words and tried to demonstrate empathy for their perspectives. I also made a point to provide specific, positive feedback when a job was well done. Positive feedback is so often forgotten. It’s not news, but people want to work for leaders who appreciate their efforts and acknowledge

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them. Leaders who frequently express disappointment in their team will struggle to find success. This is especially critical to remember when managing young engineers and interns. Your team is going to make mistakes. It’s important to avoid expressing disappointment when that happens. Calm coaching and constructive feedback is the better response because it removes fear from failure.”

Helping and giving back has its own place Recently, a coworker pulled West onto a project in a cameo role to help with a specific problem. The challenge was to design the gear train for a medical device. The coworker had dynamometer data for a handful of motor configurations and needed help evaluating the motors and designing the transmission.

“Working around the desired torques and speeds of the device, I was able to build a mathematical model that fed through each motor characterization curve,” she said.

“What I found was that the ideal motor had a second, unidentified operating point that was both quieter and more efficient. This discovery launched the project team into bench top testing to confirm my findings. Though my role was brief, I was able to help out my coworkers and coincidentally discover a design solution that was even better than originally expected. It was great to be able to help my coworkers in this way.”

Mentoring young engineers and college students is also something West enjoys. When she lived near MIT, she frequently served as a mentor and teaching assistant for undergraduate mechanical design engineering courses.

“This was a great opportunity because I could share all the things I wish I had known when I was younger. Although I no longer live near my college, I still mentor

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aspiring product designers and engineers by fielding career path questions and reviewing design portfolios,” she said.

Working today West explained that it’s not hard to find research and articles outlining the prevalence of the mistreatment of women in the workplace.

“The challenges are very real and are not to be ignored nor minimized.

However, I want to highlight that it’s not all misery for women in the workplace,” she said. “I have had the pleasure of working with some truly great and genuine people, male and female, who have encouraged and coached me in my career. While there may be a bad apple here and there, to say that I have had a lot of maltreatment would be an inaccurate depiction of my former and current colleagues. I hope my experience is not so rare. Even though my experiences have been positive on the whole, I cannot claim to have figured out the key to obtaining mutual respect in the workplace.

What I do know is that maintaining a positive outlook and establishing boundaries helps.”

And she noted that a person’s career growth is first and foremost their own responsibility — advice she said she’d give her younger self.

“Employers can certainly play a role in providing feedback and opportunities, but it’s not their job to ensure you achieve your full potential. It’s like playing a sport — the coach is there to help and guide you, but you have to put in the work to reach the next level.”

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Women in Engineering

Engineering as a tool for medical innovations For Lauren Wickert, the path to engineering came through medicine.

Her grandfather had a leg amputated around the time she was in high school. After the operation he received a prosthetic leg. “The mobility and freedom it gave him was amazing and that fascination with the human body and the medical innovations that restore quality of life, gave me the desire to become a biomedical engineer.”

Wickert graduated from The University of Akron in 2015 with a BS in Biomedical Engineering and a focus in Biomechanics. Prior to graduation, she was an intern as a systems engineer at ABB Inc. in Wickliffe, OH. Then, she worked for ABB as a full-time contractor in systems engineering, Zimmer Biomet, Inc., then as a design engineer in Warsaw, IN on their global knee team. Now she is head of quality for Vesco Medical in Columbus, OH.

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Lauren Wickert

Head of Quality Vesco Medical, Columbus, OH

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Women in Engineering

During her career, she gained experience assessing the design and effectiveness of medical devices and systems, especially as they relate to orthopaedics and life sustaining devices. Since 2013, she has lead development teams, coordinated with partnering groups both in the United States and overseas and managed quality departments to ensure that all FDA requirements are met and thorough design history files are created. These documents include but were not limited to functional analyses, product pricing and market values, and data reports relating to Medical Device Reporting. She has experience evaluating current medical devices as well as designing new and innovative products, writing 510(k) s and participating in FDA audits.

All of which have given her a strong knowledge of medical device design and federal regulations pertaining to medical devices.

In the blood Throughout Wickert’s life, she was exposed to engineering as a possible career choice. “My other grandfather, Walt Barnes, was a phenomenal electrical engineer, and during his career, he worked extensively on the radar for the patriot missiles still in use to defend the United States today. Many of my other family members are also either engineers, including mechanical, chemical, biomedical and electrical, or have several patents (Dallas Margraf), despite not having the title “engineer.”

In addition, Wickert found inspiration through others while she was at the University of Akron.

“I was always very impressed with the work Heidi Cressman was doing with “Women in Engineering” at the University of Akron. In my graduating class at Akron, about 50% of the biomedical engineers who graduated with me were women.”

Early in her career, while she was still in college at the University of Akron, she worked in an area that was not her chosen major.

“I worked as a co-op for ABB, Inc. doing systems engineering.

This in and of itself was a challenge because I have been trained primarily in Biomedical Engineering, but I thought it was worth a shot because I’ve always enjoyed programming.”

The branch of ABB that she worked in mainly created operator plant graphics that operators would use to run the entire chemical plant.

She was tasked with creating the operator graphics for this multimillion dollar facility.

“During my second rotation, I had to develop around 40 interactive graphics on a tight deadline. Nearing the end of the project I met with the plant manager to ensure all the graphics behaved appropriately, and to teach him how the new system worked. It was an incredibly intimidating and challenging task for such a young engineer, but I jumped in feet first and was quite successful.”

To young engineers....”don’t be afraid to branch out and try something different than what you originally planned. My degree is in biomedical engineering, and I chose to accept my first position in systems engineering.”

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Such experiences have helped Wickert hone her leadership skills.

Some of the things she has learned, particular for a female engineer, include:

5 Have a firm handshake.

those fields can impact society.

Based on what I’ve seen in my career, women have the tendency to join fields that focus on humanitarian goals. Disciplines like biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering fall under that category because of the drastic impact that is visibly made in people’s lives. If young women are helped to realize the impact that fields like electrical or computer engineering can have on individuals, I think that more women would choose those roles as well.

“I have also been blessed to work with and for some wonderful engineers, both men and women who recognize the value and skills of their team. I think that when women choose to enter a field that is primarily made up of men, it is possible to be respected and seen as an equal, you simply have to believe it yourself, let your work speak for itself, and choose not to dwell on negative experiences.”

“As a leader I strive to be an encourager and delegate where possible, but I’m not afraid to roll up my sleeves and do the work.”

Being a leader in engineering often involves mentoring others, especially newly graduated engineers coming into a field.

“After my third co-op rotation at ABB and continuing as a contractor after, I trained and mentored new co-ops and new employees as they were added to our team. Also, for the projects I was involved with at Zimmer Biomet, I trained many of the incoming engineers, some of which were beginning their first position after graduation.”

“And as far as encouraging other women to explore the field of engineering, I do think that it’s important to focus on promoting each type of engineering to every young woman who may be interested so that they’re aware of all the possible fields, and how

As for advise to young engineers, … “don’t be afraid to branch out and try something different than what you originally planned. My degree is in biomedical engineering, and I chose to accept my first position in systems engineering. This has proven to be a great career move, because I’ve been able to gain experience in a large company, working with a team, and I was required to think critically to learn new skills that I hadn’t encountered at school. Later when I took a position as a development engineer in my discipline, I was amazed how many of those skills translated.

Also, I often fall into this trap of convincing myself that I haven’t experienced enough in my career and that I have to have all the answers before I can be good at what I do. So, I would advise not to short change yourself and to be proud of the skills you’ve acquired.

I’ve accomplished far more than

1 Speak with confidence, and people will have confidence in you. And along those lines, if you have something of value to say, don’t shy away from sharing your point of view because you feel as though you don’t know enough.

2 Remember that you are valuable and have been hired for a reason.

3 Have integrity, especially when no one is looking.

4 Don’t be afraid of criticism.

Be gracious and use it to better yourself.

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I realize, and I am much better at finding solutions than I think I am because I’ve learned how to think critically in any situation. Most importantly, I will always be learning and will never know everything and that’s okay.

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2018 Camilla Ølgaard Jægerholt Technical Designer Svendborg Brakes ApS Technical Designer Industrial production.

I am 30 years old and live in a little village called Gudme, with my husband and two children.

I have been employed for 4 ½ years.

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Talk about the culture at your company. What makes it inclusive or supportive of women? What do you enjoy about working there as an engineer?

The culture in Svendborg Brakes is perfect. I feel I am respected and recognized for the work I do by my colleagues, and the projects I work on are exciting and challenging for the level that I am currently at. I graduated as a Technical Designer approximately a year and a half ago, so I still have a lot to learn.

What first drew you to engineering? / When did you first know you wanted to be an engineer?

It was a bit of a coincidence that I became a Technical Designer. I was about to finish my maternity leave and couldn’t find a job in sales and marketing. I sat one day together with my father, discussing what education I might take, something with a good future, and Technical Designer came up. I thought the education sounded exciting, and that it suited me really well; an education where you learn to use ideas to create, develop and design new products.

Describe your biggest engineering challenge. How did you conquer it or resolve it, or what was the outcome?

The largest assignment I have worked on with my colleagues was a Machining Tool used in the Wind Turbine industry. My job was to create the 3D model, some of the documentation and machine drawings of all the various parts. It was an extremely educational and exciting project for someone who was a new graduate at the time.

The project I am currently working on, constructing in CAD our new Production Facility that will be built in India and completing the drawings and documentation for this project. Again, another very exciting and educational assignment that I am proud to be a part of.

What career advice would you give to your younger self?

With the knowledge I have today, I would have definitely gone this way from the start with my education. I was 25 years old when I started my education as a Technical Designer.

Looking back, I would have taken the relevant vocational training after the 10th grade (~ High School / Sophomore ) and from there carried on to Technical Design and / or Engineering from there.

For more of Camilla Ølgaard Jægerholt’s comments, see them online at www.designworldonline.com

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2018 Randa Mahmud Juma Documentation Manager Svendborg Brakes I studied “Bachelor of Engineering in Integrated Design” at University of Southern Denmark. The education is about industrial design, mechanical engineering and product development.

I also have another education previous to university: Technical Designer (Technical Drawer) at Odense Technical School.

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Talk about the culture at your company. What makes it inclusive or supportive of women? What do you enjoy about working there as an engineer?

I have worked at Svendborg Brakes for 6 years and I still think that there is a lot of existing things to learn. There are high standards. Svendborg Brakes does a lot to educate its employees and turn them into experts. It is very inspiring to with colleagues that are dedicated to their jobs. In Svendborg Brakes we help each other and share our knowledge.

There is no difference if you are a man or woman, it is your skills and personality that matters. The communication in Svendborg Brakes is very informal and straightforward.

What first drew you to engineering? / When did you first know you wanted to be an engineer?

I always liked to draw when I was a kid. My father inspired me to study “Technical Designer.” Both of my parents worked as technicians. I wanted to become a Technical designer because I was fascinated by 3D CAD modelling. My motivation was to become good at modeling complex models in 3D. Later on, when I worked as Technical Designer, I strived to learn more. I was inspired by the engineers working together with me. I wanted to learn more about material science and I wanted to work with product development from start to end. Because of that, I finally decided to leave my job as Technical Designer, to start at University to study engineering. I chose the Bachelor of engineering in Integrated design because it is about product development from start to end, and it combines the subjects mechanical engineering and industrial design.

Describe your biggest engineering challenge. How did you conquer it or resolve it, or what was the outcome?

I once worked with three engineering developing projects at the same time. We needed to develop three new product series of brakes. Many stakeholders (from both USA, Denmark and India) were involved and had an opinion on the brake design. The product series had similar features. That meant that every time we changed the design on one of the brakes, all the other brakes, needed to change as well. The projects became bigger, with more products and features than originally described in the requirement specification. We could not meet the original time schedule. I solved the tasks with a lot of patience and I used my collaboration and structure skills. I have learned that next time it would be easier and more timesaving to develop one project at a time and then copy the design afterwards. Working at three big developing projects at the same time did not save time.

For more of Randa Mahmud Juma’s comments, see them online at www.designworldonline.com

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2018 Tricia Mellor Design Engineer Supervisor Altra Industrial Motion BSME from University of Hartford

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Women in Engineering

Talk about the culture at your company. What makes it inclusive or supportive of women? What do you enjoy about working there as an engineer?

Altra Industrial Motion truly looks at the individual, not their gender or race. At my plant in New Hartford we have many females in mid-level management. These women are in these positions because they can do the job not because of who they are. I feel that people at Altra see me first as an engineer then a female. Every other company I have worked for I have had to work hard at proving I could do the engineering job because I am a female. The people would say they are equal opportunity employers, but the actions of those people did not measure up to that statement. This would still be true after working in these companies for years.

The environment that sees the individual for what they can do, not what gender or race they are is vastly more creative and productive. This fact alone makes it enjoyable to work for Altra Industrial Motion. I can state my opinion without having to defend that I am female. My work is evaluated the same as other engineers. It is a totally different world than I experienced at other companies. It has allowed me to enjoy the work I love to do.

What first drew you to engineering? / When did you first know you wanted to be an engineer?

From a very young age I have been interested in how things work. I would take things apart to see how they worked. In high school when looking at college the guidance counselor said, “you are good at math you should become a math teacher,” I thought that there had to be other options. I chose Mechanical Engineering.

Were there any influential engineers (women or men) who helped shaped your decision to become an engineer? If so, who and why?

I would have to say my parents helped me. They would encourage us to be what we wanted to be. They would help us to get there. They never said you cannot do that because you are a girl. When I wanted to take drafting class in High School my parents fought to get the school to let me.

What barriers do women face in today’s engineering world, if any?

I do not know the current environment for woman getting into engineering as I am not at the point in my career. I happen to be in a barrier free environment. I do not believe it is the norm. Though hopefully someday it will be.

Describe your biggest engineering challenge. How did you conquer it or resolve it, or what was the outcome?

The biggest challenges have not been the engineering. It was working in an environment that you had to prove you had the skill to do the job every day. I had to be much better than the others just to work with them. I overcame it with grit and determination. In the end I guess it made me a better engineer.

For more of Tricia Mellor’s comments, see them online at www.designworldonline.com

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2018 Sophie Morneau Director, Global Strategic Accounts, Automation Solutions at Emerson Emerson (Danbury, Connecticut, USA) M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Université de Montréal (Montréal, Québec) B.S. in Materials Engineering, Université de Montréal Associate Degree in Electronics, Montmorency College (Laval, Québec)

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Talk about the culture at your company. What makes it inclusive or supportive of women? What do you enjoy about working there as an engineer?

Emerson has provided me with a challenging work environment and increasingly interesting learning and growth opportunities. For example, in September, I attended the company’s first Women’s Leadership Summit for executives and rising leaders. This was a day-long immersion of leadership strategies for women taught by award-winning Georgetown Professor Hillary Sale and other Emerson executives and demonstrated to me Emerson’s commitment to the advancement of women to leadership roles.

Emerson’s Women in STEM, is the first corporate-wide Employee Resource Group (ERG). I have been on the board of Emerson’s Women in STEM ERG since 2016. The group was initially created in 2013 by Emerson’s Diversity Council to help recruit and develop women engineers. The program now has active chapters in more than 40 countries worldwide.

What first drew you to engineering? / When did you first know you wanted to be an engineer?

My interest in technology and engineering was motivated by my own curiosity about the world, how it worked and progressed. I was always drawn to ideas and things I perceived as challenging, cutting edge, competitive and futuristic.

I wanted to be part of those things.

Were there any influential engineers (women or men) who helped shaped your decision to become an engineer? If so, who and why?

My father, who owned and managed a barber shop, played an important role in supporting my decision to become an engineer. When I was in my late teens, I mentioned my interest in engineering and soon thereafter, without consulting me, he organized a lunch to introduce me to four of his acquaintances—all engineers!

Although I felt intimidated and shy at first, I learned quickly they wanted to see me succeed as they shared their work experiences and helped me better understand what engineering was all about.

I was deeply impressed as these men took the time to share their stories.

These experiences punctuate the importance of having role models from a young age.

For more of Sophie Morneau’s comments, see them online at www.designworldonline.com

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2018 Lynn Braunschweig Project Manager maxon motor Aerospace Unit Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt University Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis MBA from Washington University in St. Louis

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Talk about the culture at your company. What makes it inclusive or supportive of women? What do you enjoy about working there as an engineer? maxon motor Group is a family owned company that employs 2,500 people worldwide with 1,200 of them being in Switzerland at their headquarters. Our mission states that “we form a team of individuals and personalities who combine their interests and qualities to achieve common success. We treat each other with respect and actively seek to create a trusting work environment.” There are people from various cultures, background and ethnicity working at maxon. Due to the small size of our product, there is a high percentage of women in production who work both part-time and full-time to accommodate family obligations.

Furthermore, maxon has a small daycare facility on-site for employees. Unfortunately, the number of women in engineering and higher-level management positions is still on the lower end, but I enjoy the challenge of proving to everyone around me that women are just as capable as men in this field. Furthermore, being able to work on “cool” projects such as motors going on the next NASA Mars Rover is a great motivator.

What first drew you to engineering? / When did you first know you wanted to be an engineer?

My mother is an emancipated woman, a math teacher and good at fixing things around the house. When I was young, I always aspired to be like her. She introduced me to the world of technology and always encouraged my siblings and me to pursue our dreams, whatever they may be. I did enjoy playing with Barbies and Legos, but 3D puzzles were my passion.

In high school, I completed a career assessment that suggested I either become a lawyer or an engineer. As I didn’t want to argue in court every day (at the time I thought that’s what lawyers did), I decided to study mechanical engineering.

What barriers do women face in today’s engineering world, if any?

The first barrier is that girls aren’t exposed to engineering related classes. I know that some schools in the US have started these type of classes, however in Switzerland they are still lacking. ...So most girls grow up thinking that you need to be good at math to become an engineer, which is not true. A basic knowledge of how things work is far more important in a person’s education.

Secondly, once women enter the work force, they face two obstacles: their age and their gender. As a young female engineer at my first job out of college, I had to prove my worth because it was my first job, but I also had to overcome the prejudice of being a woman.

I enjoyed the challenge and thrived, but because of this I can see how it is hard for some women to prove themselves in such a demanding environment.

For more of Lynn Braunschweig’s comments, see them online at www.designworldonline.com

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2018 Luise Löskow Design Engineer at maxon motor Mechanical Engineer at University of Applied Sciences in Zwickau, Germany

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Talk about the culture at your company. What makes it inclusive or supportive of women? What do you enjoy about working there as an engineer?

First of all, it’s good to see that there are many women working throughout the maxon organization in numerous departments. maxon’s job descriptions are not gender specific and I’ve never felt that they would prefer a man over me in my position. I like to work with so many different departments and different people. It’s interesting to be involved in so many aspects during the design development of a motor. Even if the construction itself is done, there are many other things such as the production, purchasing, handling or sales which don’t really need my expertise but I can be involved. I can improve some things and I can learn a lot with these possibilities.

What first drew you to engineering? / When did you first know you wanted to be an engineer?

I explored many different interests during my teenage years. For years, I enjoyed music which included singing in a choir and playing guitar. After that, I was involved in the arts and enjoyed acting and painting. When I turned 16, all my friends had an idea what they wanted to do and where they wanted to go but I still didn’t know. My family and friends would suggest many ideas/options for me but none of them interested me. Then, while having dinner at my then-boyfriend’s house, his father was telling us about the difficulty his company was having in getting engineers. He could not understand why many young people did not want to pursue a career in engineering. It would always be an interesting field because there would always be new developments and the world is always moving forward and needs good engineers for that. So, at that moment it sounded like a good idea.

I focused my studies in math and physics and decided that I would pursue a degree in mechanical engineering.

Were there any influential engineers (women or men) who helped shaped your decision to become an engineer? If so, who and why?

During my first internship, I met an engineering team leader. He was young, had three children and a wife. He was hardworking but he managed his private life and work life with ease. He was so ambitious in his job and with even the most complex concepts and constructions, he would find the smallest details that might be missing in order to produce a flawless design. He was extremely creative and you could see in his eyes how much he enjoyed his job. I wanted to be just like him.

For the remainder of Luise Loskow’s comments see them online at www.designworldonline.com

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2018 Angelica Perzan Sales Engineer at maxon precision motors Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Roger Williams University in Rhode Island.

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Talk about the culture at your company. What makes it inclusive or supportive of women? What do you enjoy about working there as an engineer?

I am fortunate that my employer is focused on the individual rather than his or her gender. maxon gives me and my male colleagues the same opportunities to be successful and to reach new heights in our careers. My direct supervisor consistently asks me, as well as the others, what we need in order to reach our personal and career goals. His willingness to take the extra step of mentorship is a large factor of why I want to do well. If I do well, the company does well – I am confident that he believes this as well.

What first drew you to engineering? / When did you first know you wanted to be an engineer?

My father founded his own company when he came to this country from Poland in the early 1980s. I was raised in a home where your gender would never define your career path. I was always enjoyed math, so my parents suggested I pursue engineering. After my first engineering course in high school, it just seemed like the logical choice. Additionally, I attended an all-girls high school where again I was surrounded by people who wanted to promote women.

Were there any influential engineers (women or men) who helped shaped your decision to become an engineer? If so, who and why?

My father was a large influence in my life. He was able to become a successful engineer in the US without knowing the language or having a penny to his name. The milestones in his life seemed that much greater because of his hurdles.

Talk about your leadership skills. What lessons have you learned?

The most important aspect of being a leader, is to understand when to take a step back.

Taking a step back and collaborating with a team, may appear to make you a follower, but being a team player makes you the best type of leader.

In your opinion, what more can be done to promote greater participation of young women in engineering today?

Exposure is key. Historically, gender roles have been established at an early age – down to the color of children’s toys. Barbie was always a princess, never a mathematician. I believe the first step is parent involvement. Expose your children to all their possibilities.

For the remainder of Angelica Perzan’s comments see them online at www.designworldonline.com

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2018 Marisol Salgado Technical Support Manager, North America Newark element14 Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Electronics Engineering, DeVry University

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Talk about the culture at your company. What makes it inclusive or supportive of women? What do you enjoy about working there as an engineer?

During the time I have been working at Newark element14 I have felt valued, heard and respected. My manager, mentor and HR business partner have always been supportive in my development. Two key elements that have helped me grow are receiving constructive feedback and having the freedom to make mistakes without feeling criticized. I can be myself and still feel respected.

At Newark element14 we have a support group for women called RISE. The group meets every month to discuss topics that concern women. I really enjoy the sessions because they help me understand that I am not alone …we all face similar challenges. The sessions promote positive support and the meeting environment is very trusting and open.

As a Technical Support Manager, I love developing my team by being the support they need during their professional and personal challenges. I also enjoy interacting with our customers to help them find a solution to their technical problem. Recommending solutions for a new project or helping a customer in a line-down situation is a really rewarding experience.

What first drew you to engineering? / When did you first know you wanted to be an engineer?

My curiosity and problem solving skills is what drew me to engineering. I have always enjoyed taking things apart to understand how they work. I love fixing things, and just being able to find a solution to a problem is an awesome feeling.

Were there any influential engineers (women or men) who helped shaped your decision to become an engineer? If so, who and why?

I didn’t have the opportunity to meet engineers during my early years, but my 7th grade math teacher Mr. Wasson played a big role in helping shape my confidence.

I was always good in math and always ranked as a top performer… Mr. Wasson made a comment that stuck with me throughout the years “You are very good in math and you would do great in engineering science.” I then started to explore more about engineering and how it would fit with what I liked.

For more of Marisol Saldgado’s comments, see them online at www.designworldonline.com

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2018 Sheila M. Schermerhorn South Central Regional Manager Renishaw Inc AAS in Mechanical Engineering Alfred State College

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Talk about the culture at your company. What makes it inclusive or supportive of women? What do you enjoy about working there as an engineer?

Renishaw is a fantastic company to work with and for. Our company does not limit any person from achieving success in any role. We have many females in engineering roles in our UK facility. I am very privileged to represent the engineered and innovative Renishaw products in the manufacturing sector.

I began my career with Renishaw in November of 2000 as a Regional Sales Manager and retain that same title today although in a different region. I have supported three different regions in this capacity as a Sales Manager and although I do not currently have an Engineering title, my education and manufacturing background provide the skills and strengths to promote and support my role more as a technical sales person with confidence to demonstrate the capability of our industrial metrology solutions in any customers manufacturing process. Prior to joining Renishaw, I worked in positions predominantly held by men as an applications engineer, manufacturing engineer, manual machinist, NC machinist, CNC machinist, CNC Programmer, Advanced Industrial Engineer, product manager as well as mechanical and electrical designer all of which I am extremely grateful for the experience as well as the knowledge gained along the way.

What first drew you to engineering? / When did you first know you wanted to be an engineer?

I knew at a young age prior to entering high school that I wanted to be in the engineering field because of the vison of having freedom of creativity, as well as wanting and always seeking a challenge along with having a mechanical aptitude.

Were there any influential engineers (women or men) who helped shaped your decision to become an engineer? If so, who and why?

I guess I would say the decision was hereditary, I followed the footsteps of my grandfather who worked as a tool & die engineer and was always tinkering in his home shop in either wood or metal which I found fascinating. My grandfather showed great interest in my studies during college and often stated he wished he were 50 years younger so that he could attend college along with me to share the experience and was very encouraging as I embarked on my journey.

What barriers do women face in today’s engineering world, if any? Women really have no true barriers to becoming an engineer or working in any field if they do not permit others or themselves to set limits on them. I feel we are all offered the same opportunity to advance if we share the desire and motivation to excel.

For the remainder of Sheila Schermerhorn’s comments see them online at www.designworldonline.com

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Women in

MEDTECH

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HERE’S WHAT WE SEE

Lessons learned from top women leaders in medtech According to the Center for American Progress, women account for 47% of the country’s labor force and 52% of all professional-level jobs. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports that just 20% of U.S. high-tech executives, senior officers and management are women, including pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing and medical equipment and supplies manufacturing. If we break it down further, to race and ethnic diversity,

the divide is even more stark: 83.31% are white, 10.55% are Asian-American, 3.11% are Hispanic and just 1.92% are black.

“We have aspirational goals that we established. If we want to talk about just metrics for a minute, it’s very difficult to get credibility in these spaces without actually measuring what you’re doing. Talking about inclusion is critical, but representation matters,” Sophia Khan, senior director of global inclusion and diversity at Medtronic, said during DeviceTalks Minnesota last June.

Khan also acknowledged that the problem is complicated: “It’s not an ‘us versus them,’ and when we talk about inclusion, everybody’s diverse.

Everybody has an element of diversity.”

In preparing this special issue, I spoke with a number of women leaders in the medical device industry. Their humility stuck out to me. Some told me that they worked with great teams; they didn’t want to make it about women empowerment.

Here are some other insights I learned from them: • Mentorships. It’s important to forge mentorships early in your working life. Having someone in the industry to guide and advise is a big help in advancing your career.

• Network. Most of the medtech executives I’ve spoken to say that networking at industry events is key.

Danielle Kirsh Assistant Editor Medical Design & Outsourcing d k irsh@wtwhmedia.com

| |

• Give yourself more credit. This is important advice for everyone, but perhaps especially so for women, who sometimes back away from opportunities because we feel we won’t be heard or taken seriously.

| |

• Be passionate about what you’re doing. Your enthusiasm will shine through. M

CONTRIBUTORS

FAYER

MINICHILLO

MARISSA FAYER is an 18-year medtech executive, entrepreneur and philanthropist. She is the CEO and founder of non-profit HERHealthEQ, president of consulting firm Fayer Consulting and a partner at direct investment platform LLEX Partners.

JOHN MINICHILLO writes and teaches in Nashville, Tenn.

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WOMEN IN MEDTECH

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WOMEN IN MEDTECH

Having a plan and sticking to it can help increase diversity in the workforce.

DAN I ELLE KI RSH | ASSI STAN T EDI TOR

WOMEN

occupy more executive leadership roles in the medtech industry compared to 20 years ago, but there's still a lot of work to do in moving from unconscious bias toward a more diverse and inclusive work culture.

Women account for 50.8% of the U.S. population and, according to the Center for American Progress, for 47% of the country's labor force and 52% of all professional-level jobs. But only 20% of executives, senior officers and managers in U.S. high-tech industries are women, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And the numbers are worse when it comes to minorities: high-tech leadership in the U.S. is 83.3% white, 10.6% Asian-American, 3.1% Latino and 1.9% black.

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"For many years, perhaps even decades, we've been talking about unconscious bias and at some point, we have to admit to ourselves that it's no longer unconscious," Ann Anaya, 3M's chief diversity officer, said during a diversity and inclusion panel at DeviceTalks Minnesota last June.

“Whether it’s for gender, ethnicity, race, disability or other, the playing field has to be leveled,” Anaya said.

So how do we keep moving toward a more diverse and inclusive work culture?

Affirmative action laws in the U.S. for institutions and organizations that work with the government are designed to improve opportunities for groups that have historically been excluded, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

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"Any company that does business with the government has a mandate to have affirmative action plans," Anaya said. "We all know that those affirmative action plans, although they can be audited, have not made a difference in diversifying the workforce. So, the question is, what else [can we do]? The idea of diversity and inclusion, for me at least, is that first you have to have public goals, then you have to measure progress toward those goals, then you have to have accountability for progress.”

MINNESOTA

JUNE 4-5, 2018 INTERCONTINENTAL ST. PAUL WATERFRONT

Ann Anaya (left), 3M's chief diversity officer; Janie Finn (center), founder and president of executive search firm Finnesse Partners; and Sophia Khan (right), senior director of global inclusion and diversity at Medtronic, discussed how to increase medtech leader diversity during DeviceTalks Minnesota in June.

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Companies such as 3M and Medtronic take engagement into account when diversifying their workforces. For example, inclusion at 3M is measured on an inclusion index through an 11-question standard opinion survey. Each company and business at 3M is held accountable for the inclusion index and designated employees (“inclusion champions”) who implement, enforce, encourage and engage employees. Each inclusion champion at the company helps drive the diversity index and inclusion index.

Medtronic isn't much different when it comes to measuring diversity and inclusion. It also uses a formal structure with goals and objectives for the VP-and-above population that involve more than just representation. The company uses an engagement survey that asks questions such as, “What is world class?” “Where should the company be?” and “Where are the company’s opportunities focused?”

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"We have aspirational goals that we established. If we want to talk about just metrics for a minute, it's very difficult to get credibility in these spaces without actually measuring what you're doing," explained Sophia Khan, senior director of global inclusion and diversity at Medtronic. "Talking about inclusion is critical, but representation matters."

Representation and accountability are pivotal for garnering a work culture that is inclusive to more than just women, but also includes military veterans, LGBTQA+, people with disabilities, different ethnicities, races and more. There are lots of dimensions to diversity, so bringing more diversity of thought into the room to talk about what companies need to offer to customers is important for driving business.

"To be really frank and open about that, representation matters for many reasons. I would say because we do still have underrepresented populations, whether it's in the U.S. or across the world. We can talk about the most obvious, gender. We have an aspiration goal at Medtronic to have 40% or more managers and above global representation for women, and we're very close to it," said Khan. "But it's not about just being close to it. It's about everything that fuels the engine to build talent."

Although companies are implementing diversity programs for more inclusive cultures, experience still matters when promoting diversity in executive roles.

"A lot of people like to talk about [diversity of thought] because then they don't have to talk about representation. When we talk about inclusion, at Medtronic we really look at experience. Not everybody is going to have industry experience coming in, or specifically medical device [experience]. Our business model at Medtronic is changing," Khan said.

Town hall forums help companies talk about what initiatives are being implemented to bring in more diversity, she added. They’re also a good opportunity for companies to talk about how their initiatives are working and to start a conversation about what else needs to be done.

"With our CEO, it's fascinating. We talk about engagement, we talk about representation. It's almost like he is processing live on stage. Omar Ishrak will say, 'You know what, diversity of thought, but let me tell you why it's important.' It's not just important to have people who are different in the room,

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WOMEN IN MEDTECH

FOR MANY YEARS, PERHAPS EVEN DECADES, WE’VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT UNCONSCIOUS BIAS AND AT SOME POINT, WE HAVE TO ADMIT TO OURSELVES THAT IT’S NO LONGER UNCONSCIOUS. what do you do with that? What happens when you leave the room? How does that challenge our thinking and impact our patients?" she said.

Setting goals and holding people accountable are some of the most common ways to promote diversity and inclusion in the industry. But even with defined goals, there’s always something to improve.

"Best practices, I think, are putting equal weight for both diversity and inclusion, setting a goal and holding people accountable for progress towards that goal through data and metrics. What could we do better?" Anaya said. "I think we could do better with transparency. I also think we could do better with convincing those that are not yet convinced about the value of diversity and inclusion. I think many times we preach to the choir, and we have to find ways to reach more people." M

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Covering medtech lawsuits and promoting women’s leadership Nationally recognized for her trial record of 57 defense verdicts, Greenberg Traurig’s Lori Cohen is a leader in life sciences and product liability law – with nearly 25 years in the field.

B Y DA NIELLE K IR S H | A SSIS TA NT EDI TOR

A

s an advocate for the medtech industry and for the advancement of women in life sciences, Lori Cohen is often tapped to represent industry members in their legal issues.

Cohen is co-chair of Greenberg Traurig’s Global Litigation Practice, as well as chair of the firm’s Pharmaceutical, Medical Device & Health Care Litigation Practice. She has also served for the past five years as chair of the Women in Life Sciences Conference, held annually in Boston.

Cohen’s interest in medtech started as a young attorney. She was drawn to the human element of the cases and the intersection of law with science and medicine.

“Medtech is an industry that is bringing important innovation and development to everyone. It’s saving and improving lives, and allowing us to live better and longer. The industry is giving people access to amazing new technologies and pharmaceuticals,” Cohen said. “So, for me to be able to defend this industry for so long has been extremely rewarding and inspirational, day after day, year after year.”

For the past six years, Cohen has been involved as national counsel and trial counsel in the vaginal mesh litigation, considered one of the most complex medtech product liability cases in history. The case started out small and has become “enormously large,” she said.

“It’s probably the largest case in the history of the multi-district litigation in the United States.

At one point for all companies, there were over 200,000 cases,” Cohen noted.

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There are a number of legal cases that are currently ongoing in the medtech industry. From medical device patents to class action suits, each has unique nuances.

Over the years, Cohen has obtained numerous defense verdicts in complex litigation with millions of dollars in controversy. This includes a two-month trial with $28 million in alleged damages involving pelvic mesh implants; a two-month trial with $30 million in alleged damages involving a laser-resistant endotracheal tube against a medical device manufacturer; and a three-month trial with $78 million in alleged damages against the world’s leading manufacturer of pacemakers.

“All of my cases have been interesting, but I’ve had a couple of major trials that I would say have been particularly rewarding because they went all the way through trial,” Cohen said.

One of those was the 2013 Medtronic case, where the patient went in for a 10-minute outpatient procedure that was intended to laser off nodules on the vocal cords using Medtronic’s Laser-Shield II. The patient suffered serious injuries, and the question was whether there was a problem with the device or another cause of the patient’s injuries.

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LORI COHEN

“That case was challenging because it involved numerous defendants, including medical professionals, my client, which was the medical device company, and the plaintiff, whose injuries were very sad and tragic,“ Cohen said. “We took it all the way to an eight-week trial, and the case ultimately went to the jury.

Fortunately, we had a strong jury that was able to understand the medical technology and the design issues, and come to the right conclusion, finding that our medical device company was not liable for what happened. Our key witness was the designer of the medical device, who gave very compassionate and credible testimony – in combination with a strong cadre of industry experts.”

THE WOMEN IN LIFE SCIENCES CONFERENCE WAS VERY WELL RECEIVED, AND IT BROUGHT TOGETHER A NEW GROUP OF WOMEN PROFESSIONALS IN THE MEDTECH INDUSTRY. Cohen leads a team of nearly 150 lawyers in the firm’s product liability practice. Under her direction, they represent clients in some of the largest multi-district litigations and mass tort cases in the country, while defending against some of the most dangerous single-plaintiff catastrophic injury cases.

The group was named The American Lawyer’s “Litigation Department of the Year” for products liability in January 2018.

Currently they are working on a variety of matters, including representing clients in many of the most active pharmaceutical and device cases, such as Taxotere, mesh, talc, opioids, and filter cases, to name a few.

Although the medtech industry serves a diverse population, its leadership doesn’t always reflect that diversity, with few women in top positions. With this in mind, Cohen has focused on growing the annual Women Leaders in Life Sciences Conference, which is produced by American Conferences Institute (ACI) and held in Boston. After being a featured speaker at ACI events for many years, Cohen was approached by ACI leadership to help launch the Women Leaders in Life Sciences Conference. Cohen has chaired the event for the past five years, along with two other co-chairs, and has grown the conference from 40 attendees to over 200 attendees every year.

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“The Women in Life Sciences Conference was very well received, and it brought together a new group of women professionals in the medtech industry,” Cohen said. “I’ve been the conference chair for five years, and it’s really exploded. I think what makes this event so special is that it brings together women from across the spectrum of the medtech industry, including innovators and service providers. By getting to meet such a diverse group, the conference has dramatically expanded our horizons in terms of who we know.”

The conference provides an opportunity for women in medtech to come together and network.

Women helping women is one way to break barriers to get more women in executive roles.

“Women have certainly made significant strides in workplace equality, but those advancements have taken place predominantly at the entry level and middle management,” Cohen said. “There are still not enough women in C-suite roles or executive positions. This is why it is critical to elevate more women to leadership roles, where they can play a key role in the corporate decision-making process. In the medtech industry, I am always urging companies to ‘walk the walk’ when it comes to increasing diversity at the top. We can look across different pharmaceutical, medical device and medical technology companies and see female leaders, but it still pales in comparison to the number of male leaders.”

But the industry is improving. More women are rising through the ranks, while others are founding their own companies. The trend needs to continue, as more women in CEO, VP and executive roles means more opportunities.

“If you consider who benefits from medtech innovations as a consumer, many of the people in that target market are women,” Cohen said.

“With more women leaders in place, medtech companies would benefit from more diverse viewpoints and a better understanding of the marketplace they are trying to serve.” M

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WOMEN’S HEALTH

What is the state of women’s health?

In the developed world, it’s mostly about innovation. In the developing world, it’s about necessity. The two needs have and need to intersect somewhere.

Marissa Fayer | HERHealthEQ |

Women’s healthcare is a constantly evolving space with new studies, new technology and new markets.

Since about half of the world’s population is women—3.73 billion, to be exact—it only makes sense that we create and design products geared specifically to their needs.

As the World Health Organization relates, the state of women’s health matters, too: “Being a man or a woman has a significant impact on health, as a result of both biological and gender-related differences.

The health of women and girls is of particular concern because, in many societies, they are disadvantaged by discrimination rooted in sociocultural factors.”

In the developed world, we focus on the newest innovation, the latest tech and the highest degree of imaging for absolute perfection and ease. In the developing world, we focus on necessities and basic care.

There has to be somewhere where the needs of the developed and developing worlds intersect.

Given that we are a global society, the state of women’s health should start to equalize and meet in the middle between high tech and basic necessities at a faster pace than it has in the past.

Access to technology, to equipment, to medicines, to new innovations and to the tried-and-true is the answer. Women in the developed world have all of that at their fingertips. Women in the developing world barely have access to the basics, and when they do, it typically requires significant travel and is considered basic or “good enough.” Mobile health solutions are working to narrow the gap, but mHealth is mostly used for diagnosis. The gap then involves treatment availability.

Some of the sociocultural factors that prevent women and girls from benefiting from quality health services and attaining the best possible level of health include: www.medicaldesignandoutsourcing.com

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• Unequal power relationships between men and women; • Social norms that decrease education and paid employment opportunities; • Inadequate equipment to treat specific women’s health issues; • An exclusive focus on women’s reproductive roles; • Potential or actual experience of physical, sexual and emotional violence.

Access, availability and proximity are many of the ways the developed world can help the developing world attain the levels of health that we benefit from. Mobile health is one solution, but better technologies to reach the billions who strive to have equity in health is the answer.

We need new solutions to problems affecting the billions of women in the developing world, who have both common and unique medical difficulties compared to the developed world.

Many studies have shown that when you empower and equip a woman when it comes to her health, she empowers and supports her community. She sends her children to school, including girls, and for every additional year of education that girls/women of reproductive age receive, child mortality is decreased by 9.5%, according to U.N. Women. Increasing women and girls’ education contributes to higher economic growth, up to 50%. Healthy women support and develop their families, and that in turn develops their communities. Without improved health, women, children and society cannot progress past their current state.

HERHealthEQ is working to change the state of women’s health around the world. The company is working to provide equity in health to developing countries so that women’s health is on par to men’s.

Women need to have their health to be able to send their children to school, to be able to work or start a small business to provide income for their families, and to help their community rise out of poverty. By providing medical devices to diagnose, treat and prevent the top women’s health issues in developing countries, HERHealthEQ is changing the state of women’s health around the world. M 11 • 2018

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Heidi Dohse

WOMEN IN MEDTECH

ALL HEART: A Google executive’s real-world experience with medtech B Y B R I A N J O H NSO N | P R ESID ENT | MA SSMEDI C

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fter hearing the story of her 10 cardiac surgeries and seven pacemakers, you could be forgiven for thinking that Heidi Dohse has a weak heart. But the Google executive, endurance cyclist and, now, inspirational speaker may have a stronger heart than most people on the planet.

Dohse, a senior program manager at Google and previous keynote speaker at DeviceTalks, was 18 when an EKG before a routine knee surgery to clean out scar tissue, which had built up during her days as a competitive skier and professional windsurfer, uncovered a rare and potentially deadly arrhythmia.

“It turns out 270 [beats per minute] is not normal,” Dohse said.

That routine EKG visit turned into a 30day stay at the University of California-San Francisco’s cardiac care unit, she told us, where she became essentially a research subject as doctors tried to decipher a rare arrhythmia that caused her heart rate to fluctuate from 270 BPM to 12 BPM. Eventually, Dohse was asked if she wanted to participate in an experimental AV node ablation surgery, performed by Dr. Melvin Scheinman. It was then that she was implanted with the first of her seven pacemakers.

The revelation of her malady had answered years of questions that had stymied her – why would she feel fine while

exercising, only to be overcome by bouts of extreme lightheadedness? Why could she never find her pulse in gym class?

“I could always feel my heart beating, actually see it beating in my chest,” Dohse recalled. “I never considered it wasn’t normal.”

I COULD ALWAYS FEEL MY HEART BEATING, ACTUALLY SEE IT BEATING IN MY CHEST. I NEVER CONSIDERED IT WASN’T NORMAL. Dohse was so used to the feeling that, once she was implanted with the pacemaker, she was terrified because she could no longer feel her heart beating anymore.

After surgery, she found herself in a strange place emotionally. Although relieved to finally have answers about her heart, there was a new reality Dohse hadn’t counted on: She was wracked by the anxiety of living with a machine implanted in her body to keep her alive. It was deeply troubling for the teenager; Dohse told us she spent nearly 18 months housebound, trying to figure out how to cope with her new reality and traumatized by the ordeal she had faced.

And although there were setbacks — and more surgeries — Dohse began to regain to her formerly athletic life, first returning to the water as a windsurfer and then eventually finding

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competitive cycling in 2004. That year she appeared in the first of the 200-mile, single-day races from Logan, Utah, to Jackson Hole, Wyo., in which she’s now a regular competitor.

Dohse also re-started her life as a patient advocate, dovetailing with her work at

Google, where she works on cloud-enabled technologies for healthcare and the foundation she started, Tour de Heart.

Dohse said she hopes to use her platform to help patients better adjust to life after the hospital, providing them with inspiration and knowledge on how to better interact with the medical technology that’s now a full-time part of their lives.

And she hopes to provide inspiration for heart patients, showing they can still live active and fulfilling lives in ways they may have thought impossible. M

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WOMEN IN MEDTECH

A blood filter shows promise in treating sepsis After early work with magnetic nanoparticles, Path Ex co-founder & CEO Sinead Miller turned to a common blood collection technique for inspiration.

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n elite cyclist turned medtech researcher, Sinead Miller may be in her greatest race yet — developing technology to treat sepsis, a major killer in U.S. healthcare settings.

An overwhelming immune response to infection, sepsis affects about 1 million Americans a year, killing up to nearly a third of them, according to NIH. To combat it, Miller initially focused on developing nanoparticles to magnetically extract bacteria from the blood while working as a graduate research assistant in recent years at Vanderbilt University.

But although the lab successfully bound bacteria to the nanoparticles and removed them from small blood samples, the process wasn’t scalable to human blood volumes, Miller told Medical Design & Outsourcing.

Miller needed to find another solution.

“I developed a mathematical model to simulate the design, and through computational modeling, I found it wasn’t going to work. This eventually led to the idea of using inertial force to separate bacteria from healthy blood components,” said Miller, now the co-founder and CEO of a startup called Path Ex.

Inertial force is already used to separate blood components in apheresis machines. This concept, combined with her experience with nanoparticles, led to the idea behind the Path Ex blood filtration technology, she explained.

Bad crash with a good outcome Miller knows what it’s like to overcome a major challenge.

Miller, who grew up competing in bike races, went to Marian University in Indianapolis on a cycling scholarship and joined the U.S. National Team with a goal to compete in the Olympics. Her dream came to an end in 2010, when a severe crash in the Netherlands caused severe brain injury and numerous broken bones. She was out of school for a year while she recovered. “[The experience] inspired me to want to get into medicine, but I knew I didn’t want to be a physician. I wanted to be the person developing the technology, so I went into biomedical engineering,” she told MDO. As a woman in a male-dominated field, Miller said she’s never felt that gender prejudice held her back.

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SINEAD MILLER

“There are fewer women in the field, but I can’t say I’ve had any negative experiences because of that.” she said. “When we go to pitch, the investors are mostly male, but that has never been an issue for us. It’s been fair.”

THERE ARE FEWER WOMEN IN THE FIELD, BUT I CAN’T SAY I’VE HAD ANY NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES BECAUSE OF THAT. WHEN WE GO TO PITCH, THE INVESTORS ARE MOSTLY MALE, BUT THAT HAS NEVER BEEN AN ISSUE FOR US. IT’S BEEN FAIR. Bacteria are bad –­ but so are the endotoxins Technically not a filter, the Path Ex device works through adhesion. Using a dialysis-like device, it pumps blood through a helical channel that creates inertial forces to separate bacteria from healthy blood components, based on their size and shape.

A coating in the channel binds to bacteria that are specific to pathogens and endotoxins. Referred to as a filter because it removes bacteria from the blood, treatment with the device takes about the same time as a hemodialysis session, anywhere from four to 24 hours.

Miller said that the applications for the Path Ex device could extend beyond sepsis, noting

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that a few small tweaks would allow it to target blood-borne diseases. And, she noted, it can do something that antibiotics can’t do: physically eliminate bacteria cells.

John Kellum, professor of critical care medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and director of the Center for Critical Care and Nephrology, said bacterial die-off often leads to a common side effect of antibiotic treatment.

“An example of that happens very commonly when patients are admitted who are ‘teetering on the brink.’ They’re given antibiotics and before they get better, they get worse,” Kellum explained. “Most of the antibiotics that we use, by virtue of killing the bacteria, actually release bacterial products into the bloodstream. Therefore, there could be a role in the use of something to clean up the blood of bacterial products even in the setting of effective antibiotic therapy.”

In the end, however, removing endotoxins could prove the more significant benefit of the Path Ex device. That’s because these by-products cause a massive reaction in about a third of sepsis patients, Kellum said.

“The reason endotoxin hurts you is not because it’s intrinsically toxic, but because it binds with a receptor and then causes a massive endogenous inflammatory reaction,” Kellum said. “About one-third of the patients with septic shock have detectable levels of endotoxin in the bloodstream, at least at some point. And the more they have the worse they do.” M

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100 WOMEN IN MEDTECH

Our editorial team at Medical Design & Outsourcing, MassDevice and DeviceTalks drew on its resources to produce this alphabetical list of 100 women executive leaders in the medtech industry. The list is a who's who of women founders, CEOs, presidents, VPs and more who are breaking down barriers in a still male-dominated industry.

1 Deborah Andrews

5

Jeanne Berg

9

2

Elizabeth Barrett

6

Juliana Blum

10 Elsa Chi Abruzzo

3

Michelle Basil

7

Megan Brandt

11 Lori Chmura

4

Amy Baxter

8

Allison Byers

12 Dorothy Clarke

CFO

Staar Surgical

CEO

Novartis Oncology

EVP, General Counsel Haemonetics

CEO & Founder PainCareLabs

VP Global Surgical OEM Ecolab

Co-founder & VP Humacyte SVP Metavention

Co-president

Digital Cognition Technologies

CEO

JenaValve Technology

CEO & President Cygnus Regulatory

CEO

Dune Medical Devices

VP, Health Care Compliance, Medical Devices & Diagnostics

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Victoria Carr-Brendel

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The importance of partnerships between medtech companies and doctors Close partnership between physicians and medical device companies is one of the keys to effective innovation, according to BioTrace Medical CEO Laura Dietch.

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dvances in interventional cardiology over the years were driven by the close collaboration between physicians and medical device developers, according to BioTrace Medical CEO Laura Dietch, citing the rise of transcatheter aortic valve replacement in recent years.

“When there’s a partnership, it has driven innovation forward at a very fast pace, which has resulted in better care,” Dietch said. “Transcatheter aortic valve replacement is one example of that.”

Formerly performed via open heart surgery – with high morbidity and mortality rates – aortic valve replacement can now be performed percutaneously with outcomes that match or better surgical replacement.

That rapid advance was driven by the partnership between TAVR developers and the doctors charged with treating aortic stenosis, Dietch told Medical Design & Outsourcing.

“There are certain specialties that are really conservative, and it’s more difficult to enable innovation,” she told us. “But that’s how the industry has helped drive forward the delivery of better healthcare in the past.”

Doctors hone their techniques to deliver the best care, Dietch explained, learning procedures and devices that may be outdated after a few years as new technologies emerge.

“They stick to what they know to provide good outcomes,” Dietch said. “The faster adoption of technology and working together to develop better devices and better procedures results in better patient outcomes.”

Menlo Park, Calif.-based BioTrace Medical makes temporary pacing leads to improve patient outcomes while also reducing hospital costs.

The company’s Tempo lead uses an active fixation mechanism, bipolar electrodes and a soft tip to create secure and stable cardiac pacing and reduce complications following cardiovascular procedures.

The focus on developing its reputation among physicians and other caregivers paid off as BioTrace expanded its footprint, Dietch said.

“We are pleased that the growing adoption of the Tempo lead is resulting in an increasing body of evidence that continues to validate the lead’s safety and effectiveness, both intra- and post-procedure, as well as its contribution to reducing costs,” Dietch said. “The Tempo lead is already migrating throughout the hospital wherever safe, stable, temporary pacing is needed.” M 102

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13 Lori Cohen

Chair, Pharmaceutical, Medical Device & Health Care Litigation Practice

Greenberg Traurig

14 Diane Côté

CEO & President Medteq

15 Laura Dietch

CEO

BioTrace Medical

16 Janet Dillione CEO Bernoulli

17 Sheri Dodd

VP & GM, Medtronic Care Management Services Medtronic

18 Jennifer Doyle

VP, Medical Affairs, Respiratory, Gastrointestinal & Informatics Medtronic

19 Elaine Duncan

President & Founder Paladin Medical

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20 Lisa Earnhardt

28 Jenny Freeman

36 Lee Jones

21 Meg Eckenroad

29 Ginger Glaser

37 Elli Kaplan

22 Rachel Ellingson

30 Betsy Gross

38 Stephanie Kaplan

CEO & President Intersect ENT

VP, Women's Health Hologic

SVP, Strategy Zimmer Biomet

23 Karen Erickson

Co-founder & CEO Respiratory Motion

CTO

Monteris Medical

Head, Global Market Access, Indirect Markets

Intuitive Surgical

EVP & Chief Quality Officer, Optum

UnitedHealth Group

31 Jessica Grossman

24 Bettina Experton

32 Jeri Hilleman

President & CEO Humetrix

25 Judith Faulkner

Founder & CEO Epic Systems

26 Marissa Fayer CEO HERHealthEQ

27 Sherry Fox

President & Co-founder

BioCare Systems (LumiWave)

CEO Medicines360 CFO

Intersect ENT

33 Antonia Holway Co-president

Digital Cognition Technologies

34 Marlou Janssen President Biotronik

35 Marie Johnson

CEO & President AUM Cardiovascular

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CEO & Co-founder Rebiotix

CEO & Co-founder Neurotrack COO Madorra

39 Katie Karloff

CEO

INVO Bioscience

40 Francine Kaufman

CMO, Medtronic Diabetes Medtronic

41 Janet Kay

VP, Regulatory Affairs Integra Lifescience

42 Julia Kensick

VP, Quality Tandem Diabetes Care

43 Deborah Kilpatrick CEO

Evidation Health

44 Lynn Kirkpatrick

CEO

Ensysce Biosciences 11 • 2018

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45 Kim Labow

49 Kelly Londy

54 Louise Makin

46 Paula Lank

50 Michelle Longmire

55 Kathy McElligott

51 Nancy Lurker

56 Ashley McEvoy

CEO Medfusion

CEO Lumicell

VP, Regulatory and Clinical Affairs, Physio-Control Stryker

47 Sandra Lesenfants

VP & GM, Endovenous Franchise, Aortic Peripheral Vascular Medtronic

48 Brooke LeVasseur CEO AristaMD

CEO Medable

52 Trang Ly

SVP & Medical Director Insulet

53 Carolyn Magill

CEO Aetion

How blockchains could empower patients and secure data Blockchains are best known as the technology behind cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. But the founders of a young Atlanta-based company called Patientory think they could have another important use – securing health data and empowering patients along the way.

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President & CEO EyePoint Pharmaceuticals

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CEO BTG

EVP, CIO, & CTO McKesson Corp.

EVP, Worldwide Chairwoman, Medical Devices J&J

57 Chrissa McFarlane

CEO & Founder Patientory

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ecure access to patient data is a major issue for the healthcare industry. Patients have a hard time accessing their records, and hospital networks need to transfer the data between networks if a patient chooses a new provider. That process can take days to complete, and even then, the patient doesn’t own their data.

“The biggest burden we have is getting access to patient data,” said Chrissa McFarlane, Patientory’s CEO and founder.

Patientory generated enough buzz in the blockchain community that it managed to raise $7.2 million

over a three-day period last year through cryptocurrency crowdfunding.

The crowdfunding resulted in 1,728 contributors who bought 70 million PTOY currency coins. The blockchain technology that the company is offering is similar to what cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin currently operate on.

Blockchains are troves of data and records, known as blocks, that are linked together and secured using cryptography. They are designed to be secure and are part of a distributed computing system. Blockchains’ functions are decentralized – multiple computer

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systems possessing the same up-to-date ledger at the same time – and the lack of a central point of failure (a vulnerable central point that can be easily hacked) makes blockchains ideal for securing medical records, according to McFarlane. Think of blockchains as a virtual wallet and ledger.

McFarlane thinks blockchains could be the solution to the healthcare industry’s headaches around Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) violations and cybersecurity concerns. Blockchains can store and protect patient data because they’re tough to hack. At the same time, health providers can easily integrate them into hospital electronic records to provide a more efficient way of care for patient data, according to McFarlane.

“We’re basically solving the issue of siloed and centralized healthcare systems,” McFarlane said.

When it comes to care management, blockchains could secure patient data, with the patient able to access data through what would essentially be a virtual mobile wallet. Doctors and healthcare providers can save time and money treating patients with blockchains because it prevents them from having to go over and do duplicate tests for something when the information from a different provider can be easily accessed through a blockchain virtual wallet.

“The big idea is having a central location where patients can actually own that data,” said McFarlane. “Right now, patients don’t own that information. It’s owned by a hospital. That’s the biggest step – more patient empowerment.”

One of the biggest challenges when it comes to blockchain technology is the need to break down the silos in healthcare, according to McFarlane. Hospital system administrators, for example, might be reluctant to incorporate the technology because portable access to patient information might make it easier for a patient to go to another health provider. If Patientory and its patient information blockchain technology are to succeed, the company will have to find a way to bridge the gap between providers and patients.

“We’re going to see a much more free market economy and more consumerism in healthcare. ... While [healthcare systems] may think they may lose money short-term, eventually it’s actually good for their performance and incentivizes healthcare systems to actually perform better once there is a sense of competition where patients can choose where they want to receive their healthcare,” McFarlane said.

Like cryptocurrency, people are either really in favor of blockchains or against it. It’s not going to be implemented quickly throughout healthcare systems.

“Look at Bitcoin. It took Bitcoin 10 years to get where it is, and it’s still in its early stages. While [blockchains are] still in … early stages, we can still see mass adoption within that five- to 10-year mark,” McFarlane said. “It’s definitely not happening overnight because it’s an emerging technology.” M

58 Sinead Miller

CEO & Co-founder Path Ex

59 Anne Morrissey CEO

Alydia Health.

60 Stephanie Muir

VP, R&D, Ethicon Johnson & Johnson

61 Anne Mullally

VP/GM, Physio-Control Stryker

62 Heather Nigro

VP, Regulatory & Clinical Affairs

NxStage Medical

63 Laura Niklason Founder Humacyte

64 Lisa Olson

President

Regulatory and Clinical Research Institute

65 Marie O'Malley

Sr. Director, Supplier Outreach Medtronic 11 • 2018

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AI could be a gamechanger for older people and cognition

66 Sharon O'Reilly

President & CEO SmartTRAK/BioMedGPS

67 Maria Palasis

President & CEO Lyra Therapeutics

Ruth Poliakine Baruchi, founder & CEO of MyndYou, describes how artificial intelligence could transform mental health care for older patients.

68 Jennifer Palinchik

BY HEAT HER TH O MPS O N | S EN I O R ED I TO R

President

Jalex Medical

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yndYou founder & CEO Ruth Poliakine Baruchi believes strongly in the power of artificial intelligence to change health. MyndYou is an AI healthcare company dedicated to identifying and tracking cognitive changes in older adults. The goal is to help these adults stay with their families longer and gain better care than they might get in a hospital or other facility.

Medical Design & Outsourcing asked her some questions about MyndYou’s technology, the benefits of AI, and the place for data accuracy in digital healthcare products.

69 Azin Parhizgar

President & CEO, Claret Medical

Boston Scientific

70 Karen Parkhill

EVP & CFO Medtronic

71 Luann Pendy

SVP, Chief Quality and Regulatory Affairs Officer Medtronic

72 Shacey Petrovic

President, COO (slated to become CEO in 2019) Insulet

73 Ruth Poliakine Baruchi

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MDO: Tell us about MyndYou’s technology?

RPB: MyndYou has created an AI-based solution that empowers caregivers to deliver targeted, data-driven and individualized cognitive and behavioral treatment to older adults, prolonging their independence and improving their quality of life as they age.

Our solution consists of a web platform used by care practitioners to conduct remote care calls and an app that is downloaded by the user that passively collects activity-related data as the user goes about their normal daily routine. The platform detects anomalies from one call to the next as well as subtle changes in cognition that are recorded during regularly scheduled calls with the clinician. Using signal processing, machine learning and AI, the MyndYou platform integrates this behavioral and cognitive daily-living data with existing care protocols to provide objective, comprehensive and personalized care recommendations to care providers.

Professional practitioners, health care workers at all levels and family members receive actionable, professional care guidelines that have been individually tailored to the user. The benefits of MyndYou’s approach accrue across the board to all caregiving partners, whether professional or otherwise, to optimize care and maintain awareness of changes as they occur.

MDO: What does it measure and why?

RPB: The MyndYou platform and app collects routine data from all aspects of the daily lives of older adult clients (such as driving, walking and voice).

The data is analyzed using a proprietary platform and subtle changes in cognition and behavioral health are isolated. Metrics such as cognitive stimulation, voice analytics and activity analytics to study a client’s intonation in conversations over time can help clinicians detect subtle

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S U M M I T clues that could indicate cognitive decline. Caregivers receive alerts following detection of these changes as well as insights and a list of professional care recommendations to optimally address the situation from a personalized standpoint.

MDO: What are the fundamental benefits of artificial intelligence in healthcare? How does MyndYou tap into those advantages?

RPB: One of the greatest difficulties facing both practitioners and researchers in addressing cognitive decline is the lack of objective, organic data from their client’s daily lives. Today’s cognitive assessment methods rely heavily on subjectivelyreported evaluations, which are created in a periodic “snapshot” manner. As a result, health workers and caregivers are challenged to connect generalized care methods to individualized circumstances impairing outcomes and care efficiency.

MyndYou’s AI-based technology provides clinicians and healthcare practitioners with objective data based on their clients’ specific status and individual needs while also syncing the data with the most effective care protocols to optimize care delivery.

MyndYou recently announced a groundbreaking partnership with Genesis Rehab Services, supported by a $900,000 grant from the BIRD Foundation. This long-term collaborative effort will enable Genesis therapists to provide care to thousands of seniors utilizing the tools provided by MyndYou. Working together, MyndYou and Genesis are raising the bar for in-hospital care and for clients transitioning home after discharge while, at the same time, reducing costs of sub-optimal treatment.

MDO: What approach did you take with your company in regards to collecting data and providing usable insights?

RPB: One of our most fundamental and guiding principles is our firm commitment to be as unobtrusive as possible when collecting data. We want our clients to maintain a sense of autonomy, dignity and self-reliance. We have found time and time again that the purest, most actionable data is derived from a client who is simply focused on carrying out the normal routine of their day rather than striving to provide data. Occupational therapists, neuropsychologists and other specialists have been involved in MyndYou as innovative partners since the beginning.

The clinical guidance of these employees and partners have been crucial in developing a product that fits the evidence-based needs of the practice and insights that are derived from MyndYou’s unique analytics while also speaking the practitioners ‘language’ MDO: How important is data accuracy, depending on the healthcare setting? E.g., does accuracy matter less at home than at the hospital bedside? Why or why not?

RPB: In addressing and treating cognitive and behavioral change, accuracy is less critical than identifying trends and anomalies over time. In parallel, the ability to identify and raise alerts regarding subtle changes in cognition is also critical. These markers signal when a change of care protocol may be warranted and what to look for in future assessments. This is true both in the home setting and in the hospital environment. M 11 • 2018

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&

E X P O

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100 WOMEN IN MEDTECH

There’s a simple way to improve stroke treatment in the U.S. Technology is already available to greatly improve outcomes for people suffering from stroke but the healthcare system stands in the way, according to Stacey Pugh, VP & general manager of the neurovascular unit at Medtronic.

B Y DA N IELLE K IR S H | A S S ISTA NT ED ITOR

T

he most important thing that could boost stroke treatment is passing proper legislation about taking patients in emergency situations to comprehensive stroke centers for proper treatment, Medtronic’s Stacey Pugh explained during her keynote discussion at DeviceTalks West, held December 2017 in Orange County, Calif.

Technology has changed, but systems of care have not, according to Pugh.

“The most important thing we can do today in stroke unfortunately isn’t innovation. It’s legislation,” Pugh said.

A stroke occurs when blood flow to an area of the brain is cut off, resulting in a deprivation of oxygen to brain cells, which then start to die. When brain cells die during a stroke, the abilities of that area of the brain are lost. Nearly 800,000 people a year experience a new or recurrent stroke in the U.S., according to the National Stroke Assn.

Medtronic has a small device on the market – the Solitaire revascularization device – that reduces stroke mortality. It goes through the groin and into the brain – integrating into a clot and pulling it out of a large vessel occlusion. But only about 10% to 15% of people in the U.S. who are eligible to receive the therapy get it.

“There’s a couple of reasons for that,” Pugh said. “Part of it is stroke systems of care. The underlying medical system hasn’t evolved with the technology.”

The American Heart Assn. and the American Stroke Assn. help designate primary and comprehensive stroke care centers.

Solitaire is generally only available at comprehensive stroke care centers; primary centers are limited to doing a CT scan to locate a bleed or blockage and administering clot-busting tissue plasminogen activator drugs, according to Pugh.

Without legislation, an ambulance can drive past several comprehensive stroke centers that are capable of performing the intervention with Solitaire before arriving at a primary care center – even if the stroke sufferer is outside the time window in which tPA therapy is effective.

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“There’s nothing in 30 states that says you have to be transferred to a comprehensive center,” Pugh explained.

Go to a primary center before a comprehensive center, and data shows that it’s a 90-minute delay on average, according to Pugh.

“Ninety times 1.9 million [dead brain cells a minute] – it’s not a pretty sight,” Pugh said. “So, for every 30 minutes you’re delayed from getting intervention, you decrease the likelihood of a good outcome – not zero disability but what we would consider reasonable functional independence – by 10%.”

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE CAN DO TODAY IN STROKE UNFORTUNATELY ISN’T INNOVATION. IT’S LEGISLATION. The present system of transport for stroke patients reflects a time when tPA was the only way to treat stroke – and the idea was to get stroke sufferers access to the drug as quickly as possible, Pugh said. Before there was device intervention, comprehensive and primary centers were not much different from each other. They could both administer tPA and determine if a patient needed a higher level of care – for bleeding in the brain, for example – and transfer the patient as needed.

“We’ve been able to show in that study that you could drive a patient an additional 20 miles and take them to a comprehensive stroke center and they still get tPA faster. So the only reason to stop in the primary center was to get a patient tPA faster, but you can get it faster going to the comprehensive center, even with an additional 20 miles, because speed is everything in these centers,” Pugh said.

The odds of getting treatment are better if a stroke patient is a trauma patient as well, according to Pugh. There is a system in the U.S. that states if a patient is having a massive injury, they are guaranteed a direct route of care. There are designated trauma centers that are well-known. That’s not the case with stroke. There is no designated pathway for getting stroke treatment. M

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11/27/18 10:42 AM

100 WOMEN IN MEDTECH

74 Stacey Pugh

VP & GM, Medtronic \ Neurovascuular Medtronic

75 Amy Belt Raimundo

Managing Director

Kaiser Permanente Ventures

76 Holly Rockweiler

CEO & Co-founder Madorra

77 Kim Rodriguez

President & CEO Acessa Procedure

78 Erica Rogers

President & CEO Silk Road Medical

81 Kate Rumrill

88 Martha Shadan

82 Renee Ryan

89 Amy Siegel

President & CEO NeoSync

VP, Venture Investments, Johnson & Johnson Development Corp.

Johnson & Johnson

83 Katherine Ryder

Founder & CEO Maven

84 Maria Sainz

President & CEO Aegea Medical

85 Surbhi Sarna

Founder & CEO, NVision Medical

Boston Scientific

79 Eileen Rose

86 Lisa Sasso

80 Bridget Ross

87 Lori Schechter

VP, Global Project Management

Boston Scientific

President, Global Medical Group

Henry Schein

VP, Global Marketing, Smith & Nephew

Co-founder

S2N Health

90 Carla Smith EVP HIMSS

91 Elizabeth Staub

VP, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance Stryker

92 Mary Szela

CEO President

TriSalus Life Sciences (formerly Surefire Medical)

President & CEO

Medical Development Partners (MedDevCoach)

EVP, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer

McKesson Corp.

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100 WOMEN IN MEDTECH

OUTSET MEDICAL: Giving patients a sense of control with self-serve devices

93 Leslie Trigg

CEO

Outset Medical

94 Leigh Vosseller

Outset Medical CEO Leslie Trigg discusses giving patients a sense of control over their treatment with the Tablo home hemodialysis device.

95 Judy Wagner

BY DAN I ELLE K I R S H | AS S I S TAN T ED I TO R

EVP & CFO Tandem Diabetes Care VP & CFO Bayer Medical Care

96 Kathy Wengel

EVP & Chief Global Supply Chain Officer

Johnson & Johnson

97 Sue Willman

VP, Global Diabetes Integrated Care Services and Solutions

Medtronic Diabetes Care

98 Tiffany Wilson

CEO

Global Center for Medical Innovation

99 Amy Winslow

President & CEO Magellan Diagnostics

100 Sharon Wolfington

President & CEO Acumed 110

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I

ntimidating medical devices can cause anxiety for patients — in much the same way that some experience “white coat hypertension” when seeing a doctor.

Devices that are smaller and more patient-centered could help patients feel better about their treatment and make them feel like they’re in charge, according to Leslie Trigg, CEO at Outset Medical in San Jose, Calif.

“Because you’re in control of it, it’s a different experience, even if it takes the same amount of time. It’s really about control. I think when you strip that all away, what really matters to us as human beings is the value we place on being independent and in control of our own destiny. And that’s really on a human level what the driving philosophy is behind Tablo,” Trigg told Medical Design & Outsourcing.

The Tablo is Outset Medical’s 3-foot-high kidney dialysis machine. It makes clean water, produces dialysate, takes blood pressure and delivers medication — all in one compact design. The machine is no taller than a desk and features a touchscreen interface meant to make treatment easier in clinics and hospitals.

Its low-profile design is much smaller than other dialysis machines that require special filtration centers and large machines in the office.

“Tablo was launched in some of the existing 6,500 dialysis clinics [in the U.S.] to enable patients to do dialysis on their own. And this idea – we call incenter self-care – is really akin to self-serve dialysis. We kind of just borrowed on the concept of self-serve in retail,” Trigg said. “We are borrowing from that retail concept of self-care and bringing it into the dialysis setting because the system is so easy to use for the average patient. This is an opportunity for the patient to come in and set up Tablo on their own and manage their treatment.”

While Tablo is not currently available for home use, personalizing treatment and making it convenient helps patients feel at ease with their conditions.

There are certain chemotherapy treatments that can be done at home, and the National Institutes of Health report that it can improve patient outcomes and improve the quality of care.

Bringing the treatment closer to the patient is important since people are living longer and it provides a cost-effective solution to different treatments.

“People are living longer,” Trigg said. “If people are able to manage cancer as a chronic disease rather than an acute terminal episode, you have an opportunity – and obviously a responsibility – to make those sorts of chronic [therapies] that are maximumly cost-effective for patients and maximumly cost efficient for payers and providers.” M www.medicaldesignandoutsourcing.com

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WOMEN IN MEDTECH

Marie Johnson Co-founder & CEO, AUM Cardiovascular Women in Medtech

After 12 years as a manufacturing engineer at the brake and wheel spindle bearings divisions of General Motors in her native Ohio and Michigan, Marie Johnson spent 20 years in senior leadership positions at cardiovascular and orthopedic medical device and diagnostic companies. Johnson is the inventor of AUM Cardiovascular’s patented technology, which is designed to detect heart disease using acoustic signals. Before founding AUM, Johnson designed and launched the University of Minnesota Medical Devices Innovation Fellowship program, modeled after the Stanford biodesign program where she was a fellow.

MDO: What first drew you to medtech? When did you first know you wanted to be in the industry?

Johnson: I spent 12 years at General Motors in Ohio. My husband and I moved to Minneapolis, and I transferred to a GM service parts operation in Edina. There are a limited number of things that can be automated and improved at a warehouse, so I had to change industries. I entered academia and stayed for a MS, PhD and three Post-Docs. All were focused in biomedical engineering/medtech.

MDO: What are some of the barriers women face in today’s medtech world, if any?

Johnson: Recently I was fundraising in China and encountered gender bias. The meeting included both men and women. The female marketing manager acted as a waitress and served the men lunch and drinks. During the post-lunch meeting one of the women said, “How can you leave your children at home while you do this?”

I appreciated they were honest about their biases, as it allowed me to understand their thought process. In the United States, people don’t talk about bias and are not in your face like the Chinese group – which leaves you wondering.

MDO: Describe your biggest leadership challenge. How did you conquer it or resolve it, or what was the outcome?

Johnson: I tended to not think clearly when interviewing/hiring.

After many bad hires, I’ve finally learned to listen very carefully to the person interviewing and to ask more questions about career and lifestyle goals.

MDO: Talk about your leadership skills. What is the most important lesson have you learned that has guided you in your career?

Johnson: After many years in academia, where you singularly plan and execute, it is not natural to include others. I had to get over myself and let others have a chance at success. I also discovered www.medicaldesignandoutsourcing.com

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communication is key. Some people need more explanation and others little. When you’re in a leadership position you have to be willing to explain as much as is required.

MDO: In your opinion, what more can be done to promote greater participation of young women in the medtech industry today?

Johnson: Recruiting, exposure to other women in leadership positions and more hands-on in elementary, middle and high school.

MDO: What career advice would you give to your younger self?

Johnson: Move on from dead ends quickly.

MDO: Why is it important for companies to be more inclusive and have more women in charge?

Johnson: Women are trained to be more accommodating than men. My daughter’s tennis coach taught the girls to be aggressive and menacing with their opponents. I was pleased because it mirrored what my son was being taught in football. Women need to have role models and advocates.

For example, when I worked at General Motors the managers would invite the team to go boating and swimming. There was an immediate disparity based upon swimming suits – men wear longer shorts while women are much more exposed – even in one-pieces. If one chose not to be undressed then you had to miss the fun and sit on the side. The men would make comments that you weren’t fun or that you didn’t take part in group activities. Women would be more sensitive to this situation and provide alternatives. M 11 • 2018

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WOMEN IN MEDTECH

Jennifer Palinchik President, Jalex Medical Women in Medtech Jennifer Palinchik, president of Jalex Medical, used to dream about improving people’s lives through medical innovation.

Today she’s living it.

A native Clevelander, Palinchik earned a bachelor of science degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Toledo and holds an MBA in executive management from Ashland University. She began her career conducting stem cell research in Ann Arbor, Mich.

MDO: What first drew you to medtech?

When did you first know you wanted to be in the industry?

Palinchik: I knew at an early age that I had the aptitude for comprehending complex problems in math and science. I was encouraged by a guidance counselor in high school to pursue engineering, but I was not necessarily interested in the more traditional disciplines like mechanical and civil engineering. After researching additional options, I chose the field of biomedical engineering and was captivated by the possibility of using my math and science skills to help people from a medical perspective. Biomedical engineering is such a broad industry, from cancer research to developing artificial organs, to biomechanical implants, pursuing a career in this field felt challenging and exciting.

MDO: What are some of the barriers women face in today’s medtech industry, if any?

Palinchik: It is true that the field of engineering and the medtech space in general have more men than women in the profession, but there are many opportunities out in the market. If one has the skill set and determination, they can overcome challenges and make their mark. Higher level positions and advisory board openings are harder to come by, but when they do, it is critical for qualified women to seek them out and push for them. This not only benefits their own careers but also opens the door for other women to follow in their footsteps.

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The key is to trust your instincts, surround yourself with talented and supportive professionals, speak up and be ready to take the lead when the opportunity arises.

MDO: Describe your biggest leadership challenge. How did you conquer it or resolve it, or what was the outcome?

Palinchik: Stemming from my comment above, if an opportunity arises and you are determined and believe you are the right person for it, you must pursue it and overcome any challenges to obtain it.

When I felt ready for a leadership position based on merit, knowledge and what I was accomplishing for the company, it did not initially happen. I was told I was wasn’t ready for a leadership role and I should settle for where I was. That led me to reflect on my abilities, reanalyze what it would take to be successful and question if I had what it takes for the role. In short, I decided not to take no for an answer. I had to be an advocate for myself. I re-planned and prepared to deliver why I was the right person for the position and why I had the skill set and qualities to take on this role, which resulted in me being awarded the opportunity. Since then, I am accountable for the company’s financial health, client satisfaction, employee engagement and strategic planning to continue growing a successful and profitable company. It has been and continues to be one of my greatest accomplishments.

MDO: Talk about your leadership skills.

What is the most important lesson you have learned that has guided you in your career?

Palinchik: Lead by example, be hands-on, and motivate and empower those around you.

Trust and transparency are keys to a healthy work environment. I set high expectations and standards for the betterment of the employees and support them in developing their careers and skill set. I also roll my sleeves up and help any chance I get. I acknowledge and praise the excellent work our team members provide. I also listen and learn from

11 • 2018

every experience and situation I come across.

Having a “what can we learn from this” mindset allows me to analyze our results, make necessary adjustments and give us the best chance to obtain desirable outcomes for the benefit of the company, our clients and our employees.

MDO: In your opinion, what more can be done to promote greater participation of young women in the medtech industry today?

Palinchik: Start developing talent at a young age and get young girls excited about the industry earlier. There are studies showing that if you don’t get a girl interested by eighth grade, the chances of her pursuing a career in STEM drastically decrease, mostly because of the perceived social status of liking math and science. It’s OK to be a girlie-girl and be passionate about math, science and the medical industry. Teachers and counselors need to continue playing a bigger role at an early age, as well as parents and the community. The early-age programs that I’ve come across at my daughter’s kindergarten are a great start. We’ve come a long way since I’ve joined the industry, and it’s exciting to have a voice in this movement. It’s incredibly rewarding to have young women reach out to me for mentoring and advice on navigating and succeeding in this industry.

MDO: What career advice would you give to your younger self?

Palinchik: Be assertive, decisive, speak up and be proud of your accomplishments. It’s inevitable that there will be people throughout your career who will put up roadblocks and not offer full support, but keep pursuing your dreams and believe in yourself. M

www.medicaldesignandoutsourcing.com

11/27/18 1:42 PM

WOMEN IN MEDTECH

Kate Rumrill President & CEO, NeoSync Women in Medtech

Kate Rumrill’s experience in the medical device and pharmaceutical industries dates back 28 years to her days as a toxicologist with companies such as Sterling Winthrop and Eli Lilly. Now president and CEO of NeoSync, a clinical stage company developing non-invasive neuromodulation devices, Rumrill shifted to clinical research, taking on various roles over the years ranging from clinical research associate to vice president. Before taking over the corner office at NeoSynce, she was VP of global medical affairs with Covidien’s peripheral vascular division.

MDO: What first drew you to medtech?

When did you first know you wanted to be in the industry?

Rumrill: I actually fell into this industry somewhat by accident. After finishing my undergraduate degree, I had planned to go to medical school. The summer after graduation, I took a temporary position with a pharmaceutical company in my hometown.

It was there that I caught the research bug and the rest is history.

MDO: What are some of the barriers women face in today’s medtech world, if any?

Rumrill: I’d have to say that this industry is actually quite supportive of women in general. It’s when you look at higher levels of leadership that it becomes evident it’s still a very male-dominated field. We’re getting better, but women have to work a lot harder to get the same opportunities for advancement. I myself have been blessed with some really great mentors and advocates throughout my career who helped me identify barriers and overcome them. They encouraged me to pursue opportunities I might not have had the confidence to pursue on my own at the time.

MDO: Describe your biggest leadership challenge. How did you conquer it or resolve it, or what was the outcome?

Rumrill: The first thing that comes to mind is influence. I’d say this is the case no matter what level of an organization or what role you’re in, especially for women.

Having to convince someone that you know what you’re talking about and to listen to what you have to say can be daunting. I’ve always been data-driven, so I tackle the discussion/debate with data and facts. It also helps to understand where the other person is coming from and find a common ground on the issue at hand.

MDO: Talk about your leadership skills.

What is the most important lesson have you learned that has guided you in your career?

Rumrill: For women especially, the “how” is just as important as the “what.” I’ve learned that my male colleagues’ leadership styles may not be effective coming from a female. To me it has always come down to finding the right balance. I need to drive accountability while still being an authentic leader and not losing sight of everyone’s personal perspectives.

MDO: In your opinion, what more can be done to promote greater participation by young women in the medtech industry today?

Rumrill: I asked my two daughters, who are just starting their careers as young professionals, this question and found their responses intriguing. They both said, “Stop making it such a big deal.” In other words, we need to stop pointing out when women achieve success as if it’s surprising. Until that day comes, when it’s not unusual or abnormal to see a woman named to a key position or to achieve great success, we still www.medicaldesignandoutsourcing.com

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need to work towards equality and building up women. We need to help young women by providing them opportunities for growth and learning, breaking down barriers and giving them confidence to pursue higher leadership positions without fear of failure or rejection.

I think my generation has cracked the glass ceiling and the younger generation of women is coming close behind to shatter it.

MDO: What career advice would you give to your younger self?

Rumrill: In career and in life, don’t be afraid of change and never underestimate what you are capable of achieving. I never set out to be a CEO of a medical device company, but through an amazing journey, here I am and I have grown with every twist and turn along the way.

MDO: Why is it important for companies to be more inclusive and have more women in charge?

Rumrill: My first response to this question is “WHY NOT!?” Simply put, with diversity comes strength! Whether it’s women, minorities or simply people with differing experiences or backgrounds, we all bring a unique perspective to the table that can bring great insights to a project, program or company. M

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WOMEN IN MEDTECH

Martha Shadan VP, Global Marketing, Smith & Nephew

Women in Medtech

When Martha Shadan joined Rotation Medical in 2013 as president & CEO, she already had more than 30 years of experience as a business leader in a variety of organizations. Prior to joining Rotation Medical, which was acquired by Smith & Nephew in December 2017, Shadan was president of the trauma division at Zimmer and VP/general manager of vascular therapies and VP/general manager of biosurgery and sports surgery at Covidien.

MDO: What first drew you to medtech?

When did you first know you wanted to be in the industry?

Shadan: My undergraduate and master’s education was in biology, and I wanted to be able to use that education in my career. I started in the life sciences in lab diagnostics and tools.

The transition from lab tools to medical devices was not planned, but resulted from being in the right place at the right time. I was offered a position at Covidien which launched me into the medical device industry. I discovered a strong affinity for medical devices and can’t see myself working in any other industry.

MDO: What are some of the barriers women face in today’s medtech world, if any?

Shadan: The Wall Street Journal published an article that cited a landmark study of 118 companies and nearly 30,000 employees about what is holding women back. They reported that some of the reasons holding women back include: • They don’t see resources being put in place; • Hesitate to seek high level positions due to lack of P&L experience; • Don’t believe they would have senior staff to advocate for them.

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tend to be few women who hold senior roles in the companies where I have worked and even fewer women in senior operating roles.

As an industry we need to create opportunities for women in roles that matter to the company’s bottom line.

Women may have less access to the network that fosters senior roles. In my experience, men tend to sponsor other men for senior roles and will champion their career advancement. There are always exceptions to this, of course.

In my experience, women tend to be more hesitant applying for positions unless they feel they have 100% of the requirements. Men, on the other hand, tend to apply for the same job with only 70% of the requirements.

Women need to advocate more strongly for themselves, routinely network, seek out those that can sponsor and mentor them and actively drive their own careers. I believe that if we do these things, the barriers will not seem as insurmountable.

MDO: Describe your biggest leadership challenge. How did you conquer it or resolve it, or what was the outcome?

Shadan: There have been two situations in my career where the organizational dynamics were similar. Both organizations had a disproportionate number of its employees with 10-years-plus tenure and there were few women in any director role or above and no women in operating roles. In both cases, my mandate was to take a slow- to moderategrowth business and find a way to accelerate growth. Neither organization was considered to be innovative, most new products were more iterative than truly differentiated.

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11/28/18 11:44 AM

WOMEN IN MEDTECH

To create the organizational and cultural changes I felt were required, I first needed to establish trust between myself and management. I held frequent meetings where I actively sought management’s opinion, met one-on-one with each department leader on a weekly basis and followed up with frequent emails on progress. This was challenging for me because I like to move fast, but in these organizations, I knew that change was not readily embraced and I needed to bring the organization along.

We also created brainstorming opportunities to help encourage different thinking and empower management to explore solutions that otherwise they may not have pursued. It was critical to ensure I was inclusive in decision-making and give management a platform to voice their reservations and ideas.

Ultimately, when we made organizational changes, many of the managers supported the new direction. In the cases where there were managers who were not on board, I needed to make some tough decisions. The important thing was to make these decisions in a timely way. Creating a culture that embraces change and fosters innovative thinking takes time. In both organizations, we needed to start saying ‘no’ to some things to provide focus on the things that mattered.

Building trust, including management and others in decision making and fostering a culture where it was expected and encouraged to think differently resulted in our ability to execute on key initiatives with improved time lines.

MDO: Talk about your leadership skills.

What is the most important lesson have you learned that has guided you in your career?

Shadan: I learned early in my career that being a good leader does not mean that I need to have all the answers, but I do need to be able to ask the right questions

and have the ability to listen very carefully.

More often than not, the answers reside within the organization. Sometimes it just takes asking that pointed question to crystalize the real issues. Early in my career, I felt enormous, self-imposed pressure to be the one with the answers. If you want your team to embrace the plan, whatever it may be, and be accountable, they need to feel ownership for the ideas/solutions.

I also believe that engaging employees at every level is critical to creating an open and engaged culture. When I worked in very large organizations, I regularly held skip level lunch meetings with all levels of employees to get their input and perspectives on a variety of topics.

MDO: In your opinion, what more can be done to promote greater participation of young women in the medtech industry today?

Shadan: There are a number of things that we can do to promote greater participation of young women in the medtech industry.

We can create on-campus forums for college students to help educate them on the benefits of working in the industry. We can use social media to create awareness and interest in the industry. We need to reach them where they are likely to get their information. So, Twitter, Facebook and other platforms could be effective. We could create “industry days” and invite college students and others to local businesses to hear from these organizations on the benefits of working at these businesses.

These are just a few ideas, but there are certainly many others.

MDO: Why is it important for companies to be more inclusive and have more women in charge?

Shadan: There is a strong business case and improved organizational engagement that support the reasons why a more inclusive organization is better. In a recent study, Catalyst found significantly higher returns in Fortune 500 companies with more women at the top and on their boards of directors.

Other published reports and research have shown that in a group of publicly traded companies, those with gender diversity in leadership experienced higher return on equity, operating profit and stock price. Why is this? Why does a company’s bottom line improve when there are more women in leadership positions? I believe it is not about which gender can lead better, it is really a diversity issue. I believe that organizations make better decisions, they have greater innovation and creativity and higher employee engagement when there is gender diversity in leadership. M

MDO: What career advice would you give to your younger self?

Shadan: Don’t take yourself so seriously.

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in the scheme of things. Laugh at yourself more often. It is okay. And most importantly, be genuine and don’t try to act like a man. Embrace our gender differences and celebrate them rather than try to subjugate them.

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2018

SPONSORED

Rebecca Stolarick

Women in Medtech

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Rebecca Stolarick is corporate VP of regulatory affairs for B. Braun Medical in the United States. She has 29 years of experience in the medical industry, 21 years in management, 7 of which are in executive management. Stolarick leads a team of 18 regulatory professionals focused on obtaining approvals for medical device and pharmaceutical products marketed in the US. Throughout her career, Stolarick has managed the submission and clearance of over 100 medical device premarket notifications [510(k)s] and Canadian Medical Device Licenses (MDLs). She manages establishment registrations and listings for B. Braun domestic and foreign facilities for over 5,000 products.

Stolarick manages the submission and approval of new and abbreviated drug

applications (NDAs, and ANDAs) for B. Braun in the US. She oversees the maintenance of over 100 drug applications for about 500 drug products. One of Stolarick’s main areas of expertise is in the development of regulatory strategies for new and modified medical products. She has experience in submission of Investigational Device Exemptions (IDEs) and Investigational New Drug Applications (INDs). She has adapted to the challenges in the highly regulated medical industry where increased requirements and scrutiny by regulatory authorities is a mainstay.

Stolarick holds a bachelor of science degree in food science from the University of Delaware. She joined B. Braun in 1989 after spending 7 years in the food industry.

Rebecca is a member of the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS) and AdvaMed.

www.medicaldesignandoutsourcing.com

11/27/18 1:37 PM

SPONSORED

Q&A: with Rebecca Stolarick Corporate Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for B. Braun Medical Inc.

MDO: What first drew you to medtech?

When did you first know you wanted to be in the industry?

Stolarick: I enjoy the challenge of being in a regulated industry and medtech is certainly full of regulatory challenges. It is rewarding to continue learning and applying my expertise.

TREAT PEOPLE WITH RESPECT. RECOGNIZE SUCCESSES AND LEARN FROM DISAPPOINTMENTS. MDO: What are some of the barriers women face in today’s medtech industry, if any?

Stolarick: In my opinion, the biggest barrier is the perception that we have barriers. If you believe there are barriers, you are holding yourself back. We all have issues that we have to overcome in life.

MDO: Describe your biggest leadership challenge. How did you conquer it or resolve it, or what was the outcome?

Stolarick: Everyone on a team needs something different to be successful. One approach doesn’t fit every individual. I’ve learned to identify people’s strengths and I use that knowledge to develop staff and collaborate with others.

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MDO: Talk about your leadership skills. What is the most important lesson you have learned that has guided you in your career?

Stolarick: There’s no single important lesson, but rather a fundamental approach that involves empowering, delegating and holding people accountable. Then there’s the human element. Treat people with respect. Recognize successes and learn from disappointments.

MDO: In your opinion, what more can be done to promote greater participation of young women in the medtech industry today?

Stolarick: The sooner and more actively we can reach out to high school and college students when they are forming opinions on careers and industries, the better. There are lots of options in medtech – and it’s a field that will not become obsolete anytime soon.

MDO: What career advice would you give to your younger self?

Stolarick: Be confident and provide evidence to support your recommendations; never stop questioning; change is good; negotiation and collaboration skills are essential.

MDO: Why is it important for companies to be more inclusive and have more women in charge?

Stolarick: Diversity is needed for continued success. We must understand the needs of our internal and external customers. Different perspectives and worldviews are essential to fully understand others and put things in context. M

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2018

SPONSORED

Patricia Rushia

Women in Medtech

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Patricia Rushia is director of sales and marketing operations for Tegra Medical. She has nine years of experience in the medical device manufacturing industry, preceded by 12 years of manufacturing and 8 years of research and development in other industries. Rushia oversees Tegra Medical’s quick wire and tubing business including the operations team, leads the customer service team for the company’s Massachusetts locations and manages scheduling in a key production work center. In juggling these disparate roles, she manages financial and business logistics, forecasts revenue and leads supply chain efforts while also serving as a customer advocate between sales, customer service and operations.

When Tegra Medical needed an organized, experienced operations manager to simultaneously oversee two busy lines of business they turned to Rushia, who led the employees, ensured compliance with

good manufacturing practices (GMP) and forged new lines of communication between management and the manufacturing floor.

While the company was hiring a general manager for their biggest manufacturing facility, they again turned to Rushia to complete many of the tasks on top of her own during the new GM transition.

Throughout her career, Rushia has never shied away from challenging situations.

As a business and operations manager for Polaroid, she led a large manufacturing organization through the upheaval of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, new ownership and numerous changes in direction while preserving the company’s ISO certification and maintaining the manufacturing team’s performance and morale.

Rushia holds a bachelor of science degree in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

www.medicaldesignandoutsourcing.com

11/27/18 1:37 PM

SPONSORED

Q&A: with Patricia Rushia Sales and Marketing Operations Director for Tegra Medical.

MDO: What first drew you to medtech? When did you first know you wanted to be in the industry?

Rushia: I always liked the challenge of manufacturing -- making time-sensitive decisions with available data and putting the puzzle together with team members.

Medtech was where manufacturing was growing and seemed a logical fit.

MDO: What are some of the barriers women face in today’s medtech industry, if any?

Rushia: Medtech is a welcoming industry with many opportunities. I believe learning as much as possible from the people you respect helps keep the barriers at bay.

NEVER STOP LEARNING BECAUSE THERE IS ALWAYS MORE TO LEARN FROM OTHERS EVERY DAY. MDO: Describe your biggest leadership challenge. How did you conquer it or resolve it, or what was the outcome?

Rushia: Today’s challenges are those outside my role – stepping in to resolve unanticipated issues. This entails assessing the big picture, determining the holes that need to be plugged and leading various folks that I may not normally lead – creating an ad hoc team that solves the issue.

www.medicaldesignandoutsourcing.com

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MDO: Talk about your leadership skills. What is the most important lesson you have learned that has guided you in your career?

Rushia: Nothing beats teambuilding. Your team needs players with different skill sets and must keep developing new skills. Grow and cultivate team members through open, constant communication so they’re informed and can generate action plans using sound methodology.

MDO: In your opinion, what more can be done to promote greater participation of young women in the medtech industry today?

Rushia: Get the word out to a younger population about the opportunities for women, including various paths from engineering to operations or supply chain and finance.

MDO: What career advice would you give to your younger self?

Rushia: Never stop learning because there is always more to learn from others every day.

Keep an eye on the big picture, but also get very comfortable with analyzing and providing data.

MDO: Why is it important for companies to be more inclusive and have more women in charge?

Rushia: Women can bring a different viewpoint to the team. For example, I actively participated in conferences regarding ASD (autism spectrum disorder) and have been a champion for hiring folks with ASD within Tegra Medical while coaching team members how to provide a supportive, inclusive environment. M

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AD INDEX | WOMEN IN ENGINEERING | WOMEN IN MEDTECH

Altra Industrial Motion Corp...........................71

Newark element14..........................................47

B. Braun OEM ...................................................2

Renishaw.............................................................1

Emerson.......................................................4, 91

Resonetics...................................................... IFC

Maxon Precision Motors.................................55

Tegra Medical................................................IBC

Memory Protection Devices..........................BC

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