News & Events

The Society of Women Engineers strives to advance and honor the contributions of
women at all stages of their careers as well as recognize the successes of SWE
members, individuals, groups and companies who enhance the engineering profession
through contributions to industry, education and the community. 

This year, SWE is honored to recognize Ashley Johnson for being awarded the WE
Local FY23 Local New ELiTE Award. The WE Local New ELiTE Award honors SWE
members with less than ten years of experiences in an engineering, engineering
technology, or science related to engineering profession, who have demonstrated
outstanding technical performance and proactively served SWE, SWE’s partners and
the community.

This is truly an exceptional accomplishment as the awards cycle is very competitive.
Dallas SWE is honored to have nominated and supported Ashley in her application.
Ashley is currently a Systems Engineer at L3Harris. She has 8 years of experience,
progressing through rigorous technical roles at L3Harris. Prior to her current role,
Ashley served as Project Engineer and a Mechanical Systems Engineer. She has led
complex projects for various aircraft systems. She has a Bachelor of Science in
Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University and a Master of Engineering in
Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington. Ashley is currently
pursuing a second Master of Engineering in Systems Engineering from Stevens Institute
of Technology with completion in the fall, 2023.

For Dallas SWE, Ashley has done an outstanding job leading several Outreach
initiatives as well as Membership programs, including the bi-monthly Book Club. For her
contributions, Ashley was nominated as Member of the Month in August, 2022. Dallas
SWE is fortunate to have Ashley in our section and we truly value her contributions and
passion to promoting women and girls in STEM. Ashley will be recognized with her
award at WE Local in Seattle on March 31. Connect with Ashley here.

If you would like to see yourself be nominated for an award, an individual award cycle is
currently open and we would love to hear from you. The requirements for the current
awards cycle is available here. Please email dallas.swe@gmail.com if you are
interested in applying. 

If you are interested in attending WE Local, please complete the  WE Local interest
survey here. Please see this link for more details on the upcoming WE Local
conferences.

Congratulations to Sofia Hart, Dallas SWE’s February Member of the Month! Read more about Sofia below.

Growing up, Sofia always had an interest in science and an infinite curiosity for how things work inside. One time, when she was probably around 9 years old, she had this brilliant idea to open a Voltage Stabilizer box her dad used for the TV. There was a strong sense of curiosity to see how that box worked and why it was needed to be able to watch TV. But once she got the box open to study the inside, there were so many screws of different sizes that it became impossible to put it all back together and she was in big trouble with her dad. From this she learned to be more careful and take a systematic approach when taking things apart so they can be put back together.

Sofia’s engineering journey started in Colombia in a small town called Neiva. Her passion for math, physics, and science drew her to pursue Electrical engineering at the University Surcolombiana. While pursuing an Electrical Engineering degree, her university started a student exchange program with the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK. Her desire to learn and explore other places motivated her to apply and she was selected to the exchange student program. She considers this was one of the toughest challenges of her life so far due to her lack of fluency in the English language at the time and the scarcity of financial support. However, despite these challenges she persevered and through her classes impressed a professor that would later give her a job as a research assistant and support her in returning to the University to continue with her Master’s in Electrical Engineering.

After completing her Master’s degree she joined Halliburton in Duncan, OK. It was an exciting journey as she was given the opportunity to work on electrical design installations for land and offshore oil equipment. Given her love of travel it was perfect that this position provided the opportunity to travel to interesting places such as Denmark, Norway, Argentina, and Louisiana. Two and a half years later, her family had a need to relocate to the Dallas area and she was able to find an opportunity within Halliburton’s Sperry Geobalance Group that was a promotion and based out of the Carrollton office. Sofia’s new role in the team was to dive into the requirements to satisfy CE marking requirements for ATEX and Pressure Equipment directives as well as standards required by the Norwegian Petroleum Industry. Through her work in this role, Sofia was selected to travel to Norway to represent Halliburton in meetings with their skid fabricator to review designs and to explain the specifics of the assembly and certification requirements in order to ensure alignment between Halliburton and the fabricator. She would continue to travel often to work with fabricators on the manufacturing of the other components for their skids.

After working at Halliburton, Sofia took a position with Inogen, a medical device manufacturer building Portable Oxygen Concentrators (POCs). She was a part of the team that designed and manufactured POCs for people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). She was involved in a variety of projects, ranging from new product development, and redesign activities to improve reliability, to sustaining activities providing support to products in the field. She particularly enjoyed being a part of the medical industry while being able to design and manufacture products that improve people’s quality of life.

Last year, she joined Collins Aerospace as a Senior Electrical Engineer providing production support for electrical circuits, assemblies, and components for the space value streams. Through Collins Sofia was encouraged to join the SWE Dallas Chapter last year. Since joining, she has enjoyed being able to get involved in activities within this wonderful organization such as the book club and joining the Christmas party. Sofia considers herself a very introverted person but has found the comfort and confidence to open up more through the support of the Dallas SWE community. She looks forward to the opportunities ahead to give back through SWE and hopes to positively impact and inspire the younger generation growing up interested in the engineering world.

Outside of work, Sofia enjoys spending time with her kids, traveling whenever possible, loves dancing (especially Zumba and Latin music), and mountain biking with family and friends.

Congratulations to Dallas SWE’s January Member of the Month, Liberty Cortes! Read more about Liberty below.

Liberty Cortes has been a member of SWE since her freshman year of college at The University of Texas at Arlington in 2013. During her years at school she was heavily involved with her collegiate section holding positions such as outreach chair, secretary, and president. She also held numerous positions at the region level and helped the transition of SWE away from the regions in her time as senator.

Upon graduation, Liberty joined the Fort Worth SWE section for two years where she held the position of secretary for the section. This year she transferred to the Dallas section and joined the outreach committee and helped organize the panels held at the Perot museum for young women interested in the STEM field.

In her professional career, Liberty graduated with a dual degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering in 2017 and became a project engineer for CertainTeed roofing (a division of Saint Gobain North America) in Ennis, TX. She continued in engineering until June of 2021 where she accepted the position of maintenance supervisor at her plant. Making her the first female maintenance supervisor in her company. In this role, Liberty leads a team of 13 technicians to increase the reliability and efficiency of the plant.

Liberty’s time in SWE has shaped how she sees the future of STEM and the need for diversity within the field. She enjoys helping with outreach events and encouraging more female into STEM backgrounds. A mission even closer to heart now that she’s expecting her own little girl this coming April.