With our Member of the Month program, Dallas SWE seeks to recognize some of our non-officer members whose technical contributions, leadership accomplishments, or SWE volunteer service are particularly noteworthy. If you would like to nominate a Dallas SWE member for his/her contributions, please email us.
Our Member of the Month for July is Lynn Mortensen. Lynn is currently following her passion as a STEM advocate and volunteer after spending 30 plus years in the aerospace and defense industry. She started her career as a Computer Scientist with a degree from California State Polytechnic University Pomona. She retired from the Raytheon Company in 2013 having held many positions within the company in program management, product development and engineering management including vice president of engineering of a $3B business segment.
During her career, Lynn was the recipient of several awards including the Malcom R. Currie Innovation Award and Raytheon Womens Network Woman to Watch Award. In 2011, she was selected as a Women Worth Watching in Technology from the Diversity Journal. As a Raytheon executive, Lynn supported several SWE conferences as keynote speaker at the Raytheon & Navy sponsored collegiate luncheons as well as different sessions on mentoring.
Lynn is active in the community promoting STEM education through her participation as a member of the Tech Titans STEM Talent Team, the University of Texas at Dallas Jonsson School of Engineering Industry Advisory Council and leader of the STEM Team, and the University of Texas at Arlington Engineering School Board of Advisors. Lynn is also active with the Collin College Department of Engineering as a mentor to students, partner in outreach activities, and member of the Convergence Technologies Business & Industry Leadership Team.
As a member of the Dallas Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Outreach Committee, Lynn has taken on leadership roles for the signature Dallas SWE Design Your World STEM Conference for Girls and as the lead for the Scholarship Committee. Lynn is also an active volunteer at BEST robotics events and at High Tech High Heels Speakers Bureau as both a speaker and member of their Grant Review Team. Lynn is a member of the STEM Advisory Board for the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas (GSNETX) helping GSNETX identify technologies and activities for the Girl Scout STEM Center of Excellence at Camp Whispering Cedars.
Lynn continues to share her experiences with the next generation of engineers in the hope of increasing the number and diversity of engineers for the future.
“Being retired, I now have the time to volunteer with organizations where I can share my experiences with women and minorities as well as focus on the K-12 and post-secondary STEM pipeline. SWE offers me the opportunity to do both through our many events and meetings and our phenomenal scholarship and Design Your World outreach programs. By sharing my experiences with other SWE members, I hope that I’m helping them have a more rewarding career and personal life. Being able to connect Dallas SWE to other organizations that I work with is definitely creating value across our community and hopefully, helping increase the number of women and minorities in STEM. Dallas SWE has many innovative and accomplished members and I’m honored to work with everyone.”