Appendix D
Biographies of Speakers
(Speakers’ biographies at the time of the workshop)
Alice M. Agogino (National Academy of Engineering member) is the Roscoe and Elizabeth Hughes Professor of Mechanical Engineering and an affiliated faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) Haas School of Business. She also directs the Berkeley Expert Systems Technology Laboratory and the Berkeley Instructional Technology Studio. She has served in a number of administrative positions at UCB, including associate dean of engineering and faculty assistant to the executive vice chancellor and provost in educational development and technology. She continues as principal investigator for the National Engineering Education Delivery System and the digital libraries of courseware in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology. She received a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of New Mexico (1975), an MS in mechanical engineering (1978) from UCB, and a PhD from the Department of Engineering-Economic Systems at Stanford University (1984). She is a member of the Association of Women in Science and was awarded the National Science Foundation (NSF) Director’s Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars in 2004. She served on the National Research Council’s Committee on Women in Academic Science and Engineering and is a member of the NAE Council.
Barry Cordero is the national vice president for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and a principal project engineer at Medtronic’s Cardiac Rhythm Device Management business unit. At night and on weekends he manages the strategic plans of seven board members representing over 10,000 members seeking professional and skills development through SHPE programs and initiatives. During the day, he uses his Lean Sigma Black Belt Certification to mentor and lead Medtronic Operations’ process improvement projects locally and at their strategic suppliers. Prior to joining Medtronic, Cordero worked as a manufacturing engineer and a quality engineer at Abbott Labs and Alphatec Spine, Inc., where he made significant contributions to design for manufacturability and qualification/validation efforts. Simultaneously, he chaired the SHPE 2008 National Conference Hosting Committee, for which he managed a multimillion-dollar budget, 35 volunteers, and hundreds of stakeholder needs and requests, achieving one of the biggest conference attendance rates to date and the largest professional member attendance at an SHPE National Conference. Cordero attributes his unique perspectives at work and SHPE to his enlistment as a Nuclear Power Plant Electrician aboard the USS Nimitz CVN68. He proudly served his country for six years as a Reactor Drill Team Leader, Nuclear Electric Plant Load Dispatcher, and Reactor Electrical Training Office lead. The Nuclear Navy taught him the true meaning of “cost of quality,” the power of integrity, and the value of working in teams. Advancing in rank at every possible opportunity, he completed his enlistment as a First Class Petty Officer in 2003.
Jaquelina Falkenheim is a senior analyst in the Science and Engineering Indicators Program at the NSF National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). Her research focuses on higher education trends and diversity in science and engineering. She authored the higher education chapter in the 2012 Science and Engineering Indicators report and Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. Prior to working at NCSES she was a research program manager at the Center for Women’s Business Research in Washington, DC and an analyst at Gallup Argentina. She holds a BA in Statistics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an MA in Communication Studies from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and a PhD in International Communication from the University of Texas at Austin.
Suzanne Jenniches retired as vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman Government Systems Division in March 2010, following a 41-year professional career in education and engineering. Jenniches taught for five years as a high school biology teacher in Westminster, Maryland, while pursuing her master’s degree in environmental engineering at Johns Hopkins University. She has completed extensive postgraduate work in international affairs at the Catholic University of America and attended the Harvard Business School Program for Management Development. She joined Westinghouse Electric Corporation as a computerized test engineer in 1974 and later was the supervisory engineer of robotics development for electronics manufacturing. She then served as operations program manager from 1981 to 1985. In 1986, Jenniches was appointed manager of Systems & Technology Operations, where she was responsible for transitioning defense avionics hardware programs from engineering to smooth high-rate production. From 1989 she managed a broad cross-section of defense and nondefense profit and loss operating units with increasingly larger responsibilities for Westinghouse Defense, and in 1996 Northrop Grumman Corporation acquired the Westinghouse Electronics Systems. Jenniches is past president of the Society of Women Engineers and in June 2000 received its Achievement Award “in recognition of outstanding leadership in manufacturing innovation and for setting the highest standards of excellence in producibility engineering.” Jenniches served as a member of the United States Army Science Board from 1999 to 2005. She was a member of the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Commercial/Military Integration. She served on the board of directors of MICROS, a publicly traded NASDAQ corporation, from 1996 to 2003 and again from 2006 to present. She was the 2005 American Association of Engineering Societies Chair and received the Chair’s Award in 2008 for “continued advancement of the engineering profession.” She is on the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering National Advisory Council and was the founding chair of the Engineering Programs for Professionals Advisory Council (2003–2006); she was named a Johns Hopkins Distinguished Alumna in 2006. She has chaired the NAE “EngineerGirl!” Website Steering Committee since 1997.
Sylvester Mendoza, Jr., is the corporate director for diversity and inclusion and EEO for Northrop Grumman in Falls Church, VA, where he leads the strategic design and execution of its programs, including Work/Life Integration. Before joining Northrop Grumman, he held a position as the senior director for global diversity strategies at Schering-Plough in New Jersey, where he led the pharmaceutical company’s diversity and inclusion strategy and implementation worldwide. Mendoza’s extensive experience also includes a role as director of diversity and talent acquisition for Quest Diagnostics, the country’s largest medical laboratory, headquartered in New Jersey, and a similar corporate position at Merrill Lynch in New York. Previously, he
worked at Hughes Electronics in Los Angeles, and with General Telephone of California in a senior human resources management capacity. Mendoza has been an active board member with a number of community-based organizations, including the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Search to Involve Filipino Americans, and the Los Angeles Southwest College Foundation. He is a current member of the Business Advisory Council of the Asian American Justice Center, Washington, DC, and a former board member of the Asian American Federation of New York and the Employment Committee for the Office of Disability Employment Program, US Department of Labor. His professional affiliations include the Conference Board (Council of US Diversity and Inclusion Executives), Equal Employment Advisory Council, and Mercer/Organization Resource Counselors. Mendoza received his BA from California State University, San Francisco, and his JD from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He also completed the advanced program in Human Resource Management at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Six Sigma training.
Richard (Rick) Stephens is senior vice president for human resources and administration for the Boeing Company and a member of the Boeing Executive Council. Stephens, a 31-year Boeing veteran, oversees leadership development, training, employee relations, compensation, benefits, Global Corporate Citizenship, diversity initiatives, and the Shared Services Organization, which is responsible for providing common infrastructure and services to Boeing businesses. During his career with Boeing, Stephens has led a number of business areas at sites across the United States and around the world including Homeland Security and Services, Space Shuttle, Tactical Combat Systems, and Internal Services. He serves on a number of nonprofit and business-focused boards and has been recognized for his longstanding leadership in local and national organizations. Passionate about improving education both in and outside the classroom, he works directly with community and education leaders to prepare future workers to meet the challenges necessary to succeed in an ever-changing and competitive business environment. A former US Marine Corps officer, Stephens serves on the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Advisory Committee, designed to assist governors in developing comprehensive STEM agendas. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, where he is chair of the Career and Workforce Development Steering Committee, a member of the Business-Higher Education Forum, founding member of the Business and Industry STEM Education Coalition, member of the Illinois P-20 Council, chair of the Global Midwest Alliance, and chair of the Illinois Business Roundtable. Stephens also is part of the Chairman’s CEO Leadership Caucus for the Orange County, CA, Business Council. He has served on the Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council, the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education, the President’s Board of Advisors on Tribal Colleges and Universities, and the National Science Resources Center Advisory Board. Stephens received his BS degree in mathematics in 1974 from the University of Southern California, where he is the Boeing executive, and his MS degree in computer science in 1984 from California State University, Fullerton. Stephens is an enrolled member of the Pala Band of Mission Indians and served as tribal chairman in 1988–1989.
Herman B. White, Jr., is a scientist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He is an expert in particle physics and the only African American in his field at this facility. He completed his BA at Earlham College, his MA at Michigan State University, and his PhD at Florida State University, all in physics. He was a resident research associate in nuclear physics at Argonne National Laboratory, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Travel Fellow at the CERN
Laboratory for particle physics research in Geneva, Switzerland, and University Fellow in Physics at Yale University. His research has covered a range of topics in particle and nuclear physics, including neutrino and kaon physics, as well as work with accelerators and particle beams. He has been involved with many communication efforts to bring information, concerns, and focus about the workforce and about physics and physical science research to the US Congress and government agencies. He has also made invited presentations to business and law school students at the University of Caen in Normandy, France, on the value of science in their professions. White has mentored and interacted with underrepresented minority students who participate in Fermilab’s pioneering internship program since 1974, and has a working relationship with a number of minority-serving institutions to encourage more underserved students to enter the scientific workforce. He has served on the American Physical Society (APS) National Committee on Minorities in Physics, APS International Physics Group, and is an adjunct professor of physics at North Central College in Naperville, IL. White has also served on the joint US Department of Energy/NSF High Energy Physics Advisory Panel, and on a number of institutional and corporate boards of directors.
