News & Events

June Member of the Month: Nick Barnhill

Congratulations to Nick Barnhill, Dallas SWE’s June 2021 Member of the Month!

While Nick officially became a member in SWE in 2020 when his wife (Thi Dao) asked him to become a volunteer coordinator in her committee, his SWE involvement really started as the unofficial pack mule at Design Your World events over the last couple of years. Back then, no one knew his name – he was just somebody’s husband carrying event tables up and down the hallways all day long. And now today, he is the member of the month and what a come-up story it has been.

Nick is involved with the Outreach committee and helps coordinate volunteers for events. He has enjoyed the opportunity to serve young women that attend the outreach events and it’s been a pleasure to see the impacts that the events have on people. Although his background is in corporate finance, Nick enjoys being included in the volunteer events and getting the chance to serve the SWE group.

To give some background on Nick’s professional career, he has served in corporate finance roles for over 8 years and is currently serving as a manager in the Valuation, Modeling and Economics division at Ernst & Young LLP. Nick’s transaction experience includes supporting valuation analyses related to M&A advisory, security valuations, and fairness opinions. His transaction experience includes transactions spanning a wide range of industries, including consumer products, oil & gas, power & utilities, technology, banking, credit cards, etc.

Nick holds a BS degree in Accounting and MS in Finance from Texas A&M University. Nick is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a Certified Public Accountant. He also holds memberships in CFA Institute and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

To discuss what he most appreciates about SWE, “It’s clear how much people care about this organization and the impact that the volunteer events have on young people is amazing. It’s not easy to take on a role in an organization but the level of energy and effort that people regularly bring in SWE has always been impressive to me. Thank you to the talented and dedicated women that are involved in Outreach events and Dallas SWE.

Dallas SWE Membership Survey


Dallas SWE truly values the opportunity to have served our membership throughout the year. We also value all of the feedback from our members and use this as an opportunity to reflect on what went well and any potential areas of improvement so we can continue to serve our membership even better. Please take a few minutes to fill out our membership survey and let us know your thoughts! We truly value your input!

Responses to the membership survey are due by June 25.

Dallas SWE Annual Membership Appreciation Event

Please join for our annual Membership Appreciation Holiday Party on Saturday, June 26th from 1-3pm! FY21 has been a wonderful year and we have only our terrific members to thank for that! We will celebrate and recap highlights from this year and engage in a fun, virtual art activity together. We will also be recognizing members with awards for their outstanding contributions to Dallas SWE. Let’s come together one last time with all of our SWEsters as we recognize and appreciate our members for all the great things we have done this year. Please RSVP below or on Eventbrite by June 21st.

SWE Houston Area Host Virtual Film Screening – Pioneers in Skirts

Virtual Film Screening – Pioneers in Skirts

Date: Thursday, June 3rd Time: 6:30-8:30

Location: Zoom

Cost: $10

SWE-HA is working on setting up a virtual film screening of the movie Pioneers in Skirts, an examination of gender parity in the workplace! We will watch the movie together and then have a discussion regarding our own experiences.

Register here.

Renew your SWE Membership!

Renewal season has begun! The Society of Women Engineers would like to remind you of your member benefits with SWE including a community 40,000+ strong, access to professional development and mentorship, career connections and job opportunities, events for women in engineering and tech, awards opportunities, diversity groups, and more!

Keep active in Dallas SWE and renew your membership today by logging into the SWE member portal and making your annual dues payment. Professional, retired, unemployed, and recent graduates can receive $5 off membership through 6/30/2021 by using the code EBIRDFY22.

Dallas SWE May Member of the Month: Susanna Biancheri

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!”

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