News & Events

September 2024 Member of the Month: Sammy Zellner

Join Dallas SWE in congratulating Sammy Zellner, our September Member of the Month! Sammy is now in her sixth term as Dallas SWE Secretary. She works tirelessly behind the scenes to make our website, newsletter, event logistics, etc. run like clockwork. The Dallas SWE Officers cannot say enough about how much Sammy’s organization and commitment have helped us – thank you Sammy! 

Sammy Zellner is a Plasma Process Engineer at Texas Instruments (TI) in Dallas, TX. She graduated from the University of North Texas (UNT) with her B. S. and M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, where she found a love for materials processing and semiconductor physics. 

Sammy started at TI in 2019 in DFAB, which is TI’s second oldest wafer fab that is still in operation today. She served in various roles, including Plasma and Thin Film areas as a Process and Equipment Engineer, where she made great strides in process improvement and tool stability. Within her first 5 years in her career, she was elected to TI’s Tech Ladder, which is a technical excellence program to recognize individual contributors that make significant technical contributions, demonstrate strategic leadership within TI and the industry, and are role models for the engineering community aspiring to get on this journey. 

Sammy has actively been involved in SWE since 2014, and she has served in a variety of positions since then. Her first leadership position was as the UNT Section President from FY17-18, where she helped coordinate bringing 15+ section members to multiple SWE conferences. She was also a FY17 SWE Future Leader for Region C. Currently, Sammy is serving her sixth term as the Dallas SWE Secretary as well as her second term as the UNT SWE Section Counselor. 

In addition to her local SWE Leadership roles, Sammy also is an active speaker at SWE and other Women’s Leadership Conferences. She has spoken on a variety of topics, ranging from job search to workplace stereotypes to career transition, at 2019, 2022, and 2023 WE Locals and at WE23 Society Conference. Sammy has also spoken at the 2019, 2023, and 2024 National Conference for Collegiate Women Student Leaders. Sammy was also selected to speak at the upcoming WE24 Society Conference on “‘Engineeringly’ Blonde: Crushing Stereotypes in the Workplace.”

Sammy’s favorite part of SWE is the sense of community and leadership opportunities that the organization provides. She also loves sharing her creative side in creating content for the Dallas SWE newsletter, website, and social media channels. Give Dallas SWE a follow on IG and sign up for our newsletter to see what Sammy shares for Dallas SWE next!

FY25 Kickoff Brunch

Join Dallas SWE for our FY25 Kickoff Brunch at Mexican Sugar in Plano! This event will be a great way to meet the FY25 officers and other fellow members. A raffle will be held for anyone who has renewed their membership by the date of the kickoff.

Saturday, September 14, 11AM
Mexican Sugar | 7501 Lone Star Drive | Plano, TX 75024

**Registration is REQUIRED for this event. If you register and are unable to attend, please contact Ashley Johnson (ash92johnson@gmail.com) so we can keep the restaurant up to date with the correct numbers.**

Outreach Event: VMYDF College Festival October 5th

Join Dallas SWE Outreach for the College Festival event at Vickery Meadows Youth Development Foundation on Saturday, October 5th from 9am to 1:30 pm!

This event aims to support underserved high school students who may be first-generation college students or have had limited exposure to the college process. Hosted by VMYDF in collaboration with Dallas SWE, Big Thought Organization, and local colleges, this event will offer students valuable insights into college life and potential career paths.

The event will take place at VMYDF (7110 Holly Hill Dr, Dallas, TX 75231) and we are looking for volunteers to help with biomedical engineering, health professions, college readiness, and science activities. Please sign up by September 16th.

Help us inspire the next generation—volunteer today!

September Dallas SWE Book Club

**Registration encouraged so you receive any event updates**

The next Dallas SWE Book Club will be September 7. The book will be The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business by Erin Meyer.

Saturday, September 7, 10AM
Legacy Hall at Legacy West
7800 Windrose Ave., Plano, TX 75024

We will be meeting on the 2nd floor of Legacy Hall. There are tables on the side next to the beer vats. Feel free to grab food / drinks at any of the restaurants in the Hall, or you can order from the table once you arrive.

August Member of the Month: Savitha Pinnepalli

Congrats to Savitha Pinnepalli, Dallas SWE’s August 2024 Member of the Month!

Savitha Pinnepalli graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering ( Electronics, India), a Master’s in Power Electronics Engineering (India) and a Master’s in Engineering Science from Louisiana State University. She is currently serving as the Department Head of Engineering, Gaming and IT at Dallas College, TX. Savitha’s career includes an array of education, mentoring, advising, and leadership roles that prioritize promoting minority women in Engineering and IT fields. Her primary goal is student success, and she mentors students by providing networking and career opportunities with Business and Industry. Savitha also has a passion for teaching seniors and has grown the Cyber Seniors Program with the help of student mentors and community sponsorships. Savitha has been involved with Dallas SWE, and is working to start the SWE student chapter at Dallas College.

Her previous experiences include serving in the Computer Science Department at LSU as Instructor, ERA (Electronic Research Administrator) Manager in the office of sponsored programs at LSU, Department Chair at Rhodes State College in Lima Ohio, Associate Professor at Marshalltown Community College in Iowa, Department Chair and Associate Professor, and Computer Information Technology at Chattanooga State Community College. She has also served as an adjunct professor at UTC (University of Tennessee, Chattanooga) and Dallas College.

She is a certified CIW Internet Business Associate, and an ACUE certified instructor. She has experience in Accreditation through ATMAE and has also served on the Accreditation team to visit Owens Community College in Ohio. She was instrumental in implementing the Cyber Seniors program, Girl Scouts STEM program, IT Entrepreneurship program, Hour of code program and capture the Flag competitions at Chattanooga State Community College. She conducted the Cyber Seniors workshop at Dallas College in the El Centro campus. She serves as administrative lead for the ASME (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers) student Chapter and collaborates with the Women in Engineering Club with Faculty advisors. She is working to start the SWE student chapter at Dallas College. She partnered with Angelo State University, TX to create articulations for Civil and Mechanical Engineering transfers. She is also working to create articulation agreements with SMU, UTA, UTD, West Texas A & M.

Savitha is recipient of the LSU Tiger Athletic Foundation Undergraduate Teaching award at LSU (Louisiana State University) and the River Parishes Community College Outstanding Teaching Faculty award (LCTCS System). She served as Faculty Senate president at River Parishes Community College. She is a Salzburg and Bioscience Industry Fellowship Fellow. She has served as the AmeriCorps Vista in STEMUP, Baton Rouge. She has presented at several National Conferences including the League of Innovations, NISOD, Service-Learning Conference in Franklin, AACC and attended ATD Conference. She is affiliated with the National Convergence Technology Center and completed several Professional Development workshops in IT funded by NSF through summer working connections. She is also a member of NITIC National Information Technology Innovation Center where she completed an NSF workshop on Generative AI tools for the classroom.

At Dallas College, she has organized several video game mixers for the Game program. She has formed the Program Advisory Committees for the GAME program and conducted Game-A-thon. She has provided administrative support in the NSF 3D printing for Entrepreneurs workshop at Dallas college. She presented at the TCCTA conference in Houston. She has attended the ASEE and SWE Society of Women Engineers conference along with Faculty. She has partnered with Career and transfer services at Dallas College to take a group of students to visit Angelo State University for a campus tour and Engineering Challenge. She has assisted Engineering Faculty with program development. Engineering students mentored by Engineering Faculty from Dallas college participated in the ASME CCEP E-Week Challenge and secured first place. The Gaming students at Dallas college secured National Gold medal at the Skills USA competitions. She helps with mentoring, advising, and recruiting students to the Engineering, IT and Gaming programs. She works with success coaches, pathway specialists, stem center, learning commons and stem league activities at Dallas College.

Call for Committee Members

Committees and our volunteers are what make Dallas SWE’s goals and initiatives great. As a committee member (or chair) you will improve collaboration, teamwork, and leadership skills while building relationships with our great officers and members. Consider joining a committee by completing our Committee Interest Survey.

Survey submissions will be accepted until August 31, 2024. For additional information or if you are interested after the survey interest submission deadline email us at dallas.swe@gmail.com.

Thank you to our current and past committee members and chairs!

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