Congratulations to Susanna Biancheri, Dallas SWE’s May Member of the Month!
Susanna Biancheri will be celebrating 40 years as a SWE member this fall. As she reflects back on her SWE experiences over the years, she is very grateful to all those who have so positively influenced her path!
Susanna is from New York and was the first in her family to attend college. In those early years, it was the senior SWE members at the University of Rochester who encouraged her to stay on course as she pursued her degree in Chemical Engineering. Susanna shared that she strongly suspects that she would not have stayed on her original academic path if she had not joined SWE.
SWE leadership roles enabled Susanna to interact with engineers from all disciplines, as well as other undergraduate engineering students with whom SWE organized joint activities. She married one of her engineering classmates, and together they have four children. Three of them are old enough to already be pursuing careers in engineering. She credits their class-valedictorian, US-Marine Corps officer, patent-holding-engineer, stay-at-home Dad for their degree selection.
While working as an engineer in New York after graduation, Susanna found inspiration from SWE colleagues in the local professional section. Many were pursuing their Masters degrees at night while working, which prompted Susanna to collect two Masters degrees of her own. Both proved quite useful at work as she progressed through different career assignments.
Leadership positions within the professional SWE chapters over the years provided Susanna much experience which benefited her career. When moving from NY to Chicago, she joined the engineering organization in which she still works. That departmental selection was based on strong guidance from the SWE National President, who was a leader in that department herself.
During Susanna’s career in engineering and operations, she has volunteered to organize countless on-campus SWE events. She has recruited many exceptional SWE students, who are now co-workers, going out on their own to recruit and inspire NEW generations of SWE engineers.
Susanna strongly suspects the (sometimes admittedly unwilling) participation in weekend and evening SWE on-campus events over the years influenced her own four children in a positive way. Susanna was delighted to hear that her daughter (without any prompting whatsoever) has taken on a SWE leadership position, as she started her own engineering studies as a freshman last August. Another benefit of SWE membership: an industry leading tech company came across her daughter’s resume in the university’s SWE resume book, and her daughter is thrilled to be an intern with that company this summer!
Today, Susanna most appreciates that SWE offers members the opportunity to influence young girls, and perhaps more importantly, their parents. Inspiring technical events like “Design Your World”, which target both girls and their parents, help those who might never have considered engineering for themselves or their children to consider that possibility. Susanna shares that she has been inspired by the parents she has met in these forums over the years. Many have not attended college themselves but instill a strong work ethic and desire for academic excellence in their children, as her own parents did. She is the oldest of seven siblings, all of whom are successful college grads, thanks to parents who encouraged them all in such a positive way.
Susanna LOVES meeting with former SWE students whom she originally met while organizing panel discussions for their SWE student chapters years ago. It is wonderful to hear the perspective of new engineers as they enter the workforce. Susanna is deeply grateful to these new professionals, and her co-workers, who consistently give SO very generously of their time to be the inspiring campus panelists current SWE students need to meet. She is also grateful for their help in picking up food for meetings, as an encouragement for students to attend!
In closing, Susanna shares: “SWE has had a positive impact on my life in so many diverse ways. I am EXTREMELY grateful to our local Dallas SWE leadership team for all the great work they have done during the pandemic to keep us all connected, engaged, inspired, and entertained! I can’t wait to see what exciting activities we have ahead!”
