News & Events

Member of the Month: Lynn Mortensen

by Dallas SWE on in Membership Appreciation

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 Member of the Month for July is Lynn Mortensen. Lynn is currently following her passion as a STEM advocate and volunteer after spending 30 plus years in the aerospace and defense industry. She started her career as a Computer Scientist with a degree from California State Polytechnic University Pomona. She retired from the Raytheon Company in 2013 having held many positions within the company in program management, product development and engineering management including vice president of engineering of a $3B business segment.

During her career, Lynn was the recipient of several awards including the Malcom R. Currie Innovation Award and Raytheon Womens Network Woman to Watch Award. In 2011, she was selected as a Women Worth Watching in Technology from the Diversity Journal. As a Raytheon executive, Lynn supported several SWE conferences as keynote speaker at the Raytheon & Navy sponsored collegiate luncheons as well as different sessions on mentoring.

Lynn is active in the community promoting STEM education through her participation as a member of the Tech Titans STEM Talent Team, the University of Texas at Dallas Jonsson School of Engineering Industry Advisory Council and leader of the STEM Team, and the University of Texas at Arlington Engineering School Board of Advisors.  Lynn is also active with the Collin College Department of Engineering as a mentor to students, partner in outreach activities, and member of the Convergence Technologies Business & Industry Leadership Team.

As a member of the Dallas Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Outreach Committee, Lynn has taken on leadership roles for the signature Dallas SWE Design Your World STEM Conference for Girls and as the lead for the Scholarship Committee.  Lynn is also an active volunteer at BEST robotics events and at High Tech High Heels Speakers Bureau as both a speaker and member of their Grant Review Team. Lynn is a member of the STEM Advisory Board for the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas (GSNETX) helping GSNETX identify technologies and activities for the Girl Scout STEM Center of Excellence at Camp Whispering Cedars.

Lynn continues to share her experiences with the next generation of engineers in the hope of increasing the number and diversity of engineers for the future.

“Being retired, I now have the time to volunteer with organizations where I can share my experiences with women and minorities as well as focus on the K-12 and post-secondary STEM pipeline. SWE offers me the opportunity to do both through our many events and meetings and our phenomenal scholarship and Design Your World outreach programs. By sharing my experiences with other SWE members, I hope that I’m helping them have a more rewarding career and personal life. Being able to connect Dallas SWE to other organizations that I work with is definitely creating value across our community and hopefully, helping increase the number of women and minorities in STEM. Dallas SWE has many innovative and accomplished members and I’m honored to work with everyone.”

Event Recap: FY17 End of Year Celebration and Member Appreciation

by Dallas SWE on in Membership Appreciation

Many thanks to those who were able to attend our FY17 End of Year Celebration and Member Appreciation event last Saturday, June 10. We had a great time at WhirlyBall, enjoyed some tasty food and drinks, and took some time to recognize the successes of this fiscal year. You can view more photos on our Facebook page, and don’t forget to check out our FY17 Year in Review Newsletter.

During this event we presented gifts to each of our FY17 Officers, and the following awards:

  • Dallas SWE Distinguished Service Award: Nandika D’Souza, Ph.D, for her service as FY17 Executive Vice President and, in past years, VP of Outreach, for mentoring and supporting future SWE leaders, and for advocating for women in academia.
  • Dallas SWE Distinguished New Engineer: Amber Scheurer, for her contributions to our section communications, professional development events, and dedicated outreach volunteerism. Amber will continue as Secretary in FY18, so stay tuned to your email inbox to enjoy more of her excellent work.
  • Dallas SWE Outreach Mentor Award: Terriekka Cardenas, for her STEM Outreach service in Dallas SWE and other community service organizations. Terriekka is our new Vice President of Outreach for FY18 and we look forward to her contributions there!
  • Dallas SWE STEM Advocate Award: Lynn Morensen, for her service to STEM Outreach activities in Dallas SWE, the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas, and Tech Titans, and for her dedicated mentoring of upcoming STEM leaders.

Thanks to our FY17 Officers, Committee Chairs, and all the volunteers who helped make this year another great one for Dallas SWE! We are looking forward to FY18 and will be transitioning responsibilities to our newly elected officers in the coming months. If you are interested in serving on a committee or as a Committee Chair, you can check out our Committee Descriptions to learn more about your choices. Email us to let us know where your passions lie and help us make Dallas SWE even better!

FY17 Year In Review Newsletter

by Dallas SWE on in Announcements

As one SWE fiscal year ends and another begins, we’d like to take a moment to celebrate our accomplishments, thank our leadership team for their hard work, and thank our loyal members who make Dallas SWE such a great organization! Check out our FY17 Year in Review Newsletter below! 

FY18 Dallas SWE Leadership Team Elected

by Dallas SWE on in Announcements

Voting concluded last week and the Dallas SWE FY17  Nominating Committee is pleased to announce the FY18 Dallas SWE Executive Board! All elected officers will serve a one year term from July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018, except for our Treasurer who will serve a two-year term ending June 30, 2019 and our new Financial Advisory Committee member who will serve a three-year term ending June 30, 2020.

  • President – Shelley Stracener
  • Executive Vice President – Uche Maple
  • Vice President of Membership – Amanda Posadas
  • Vice President of Outreach – Terriekka Cardenas
  • Secretary – Amber Scheurer
  • Treasurer – Liz Hainey
  • Section Representative – Kim Concillado
  • Financial Advisory Committee (three year term) – Katie Mills

Thanks to all the candidates for volunteering to serve as Dallas SWE leaders, and to each member who voted in the election! Thanks also to all the outgoing FY17 officers; Dallas SWE would not be as enjoyable nor successful without their involvement!  Committee Chairs for FY18 will be appointed in the coming months. If you are interested in being a leader in Dallas SWE, view this list of committee descriptions and let us know where your passion lies at dallas.swe@gmail.com.

Dallas SWE Nominating Committee
Teri Cate – Chair
Zaineb Ahmad, Tessa Hazlett, Molly Sing & Rachel Sheppard – Members

FY17 Feedback Survey

by Dallas SWE on in Announcements

We want to hear from you! Please take about 5 minutes to help us improve your experience with Dallas SWE. This survey focuses on the previous fiscal year (July 2016 – June 2017). Once you finish the survey (by June 30), please provide us your name (optional) and you’ll be entered into a drawing for a free SWE polo! 

Click here to take the Dallas SWE FY17 Feedback Survey!

Event Recap: May Meeting with Juanita DeLoach

by Dallas SWE on in Meetings

Juanita DeLoach was the guest speaker for the Dallas SWE May Professional Development meeting, May 23, 2017 at Olive Garden in Addison. The event was organized to provide our members and guests with the opportunity to consider alternative careers such as law for engineers.

Juanita first provided insight into the decisions and framework that guided her to pursue her academic, engineering, and law career pathways. Juanita had a Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate degrees in Electrical Engineering, worked for a few years as an etch and thin-film process engineer with Texas Instruments. At TI, she was the named inventor on 8 patents and published many patent applications. With this experience she pursued another Masters degree in Business and then a Law degree. She provided the details on costs and alternatives she used to pay for her education, compared starting salaries for the various steps in her career, contrasted public, private, and corporate law environments, and explained her current career stage responsibilities as an engineer and patent attorney.

As happens at many Dallas SWE professional development meetings, the atmosphere was mutually supportive and Juanita DeLoach turned from guest speaker into a coach! Members asked questions that related to work life balance and diversity as well as Juanita’s intellectual excitement from being a patent attorney. She suggested ways engineers can work in patent law without pursuing a law degree, such as serving as an expert witness. The SWOT analysis of all options was analyzed as she engaged in each conversation. Attendees resonated with her experiences and reflected on ways to develop their own careers through the information she provided.

Finally, Juanita discussed winning one of ten Hidden Figures of Dallas Awards from the National Society of Black Engineers DFW chapter this year! This award was inspired by the 2016 box-office hit film of the same name. Like many women engineers, Juanita was hesitant to nominate herself for the award and skeptical that she would be selected, but her achievements and commitment to her career in engineering and law were recognized by the local diversity organization. We are so glad Juanita shared her story with us! It was clearly a wonderful experience for all attendees and Dallas SWE is grateful for her talk.

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