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 July Member of the Month is Kate Van Dellen! Kate witnessed an airplane crash when she was a teenager and her dreams of flying grew into dreams of creating safer skies. In her aerospace engineering career she has worked with cargo aircraft, business jets, helicopters, anti-missile systems, satellites, and unmanned aviation. Her specialties included flight test, systems engineering, and emergency field support.
She credits SWE with launching her career and enjoys giving back to the organization. She has been the Membership Committee Chair for the entire Society, and currently serves as a Region C Senator. SWE awarded her the Outstanding Collegiate Member Award in 2008 and the Distinguished New Engineer Award in 2015.
When Kate and her spouse moved back to Texas in 2015, she took a risk and started her own company focused on STEM learning and motivational speaking called, New Trees Education. The name is based on Kate’s philosophy that knowledge grows. She blogs for the Huffington Post and has been featured in local magazines. She was also recently featured on SWE’s YouTube channel, speaking on the importance of SWE’s Core Values.
I’ve moved thousands of miles for my career, multiple times, and my constant has been SWE. At one of my first SWE section meetings in a new town, I really connected with this one member, Janine. She had also recently moved, and I couldn’t get over how awesome her jacket was. I needed a new professional wardrobe, so I asked if she would come help me pick some items out. Fast forward to a couple years later, and she was helping me pick out my wedding dress. In fact, most of my bridesmaids were SWE friends, because I’ve met so many lifelong friends.
~Kate Van Dellen