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Friday, July 17, 2020

Leadership and College Experience

Watch Session Recording ›

9:10 AM - 9:30 PM

SPONSOR SPEAKERS

Alison Park Alison Park is currently a Program Manager for Advanced Manufacturing and Materials at Aerojet Rocketdyne Los Angeles. Aerojet Rocketdyne provides rocket propulsion and energetics to the space, missile defense and strategic systems, and tactical systems areas. Alison is a part of Advanced Space Launch System leadership group providing guidance and integration support to space and deep-space rocket engine programs (boosters, second stage, in-space thrusters, and Mars and Lunar landers) in the field of AM and advanced material technologies. Majority of her time is spent on working with Engineering Team to plan and coordinate to take Additive design concepts to engine hot-fire certification and eventually inserting into a series production program. She is a mom of two high school girls and two maltipoos.

9:40 AM - 10:20 PM

STUDENT SPEAKERS

Student presentations by Adriana Aldana (LPA), Eyleen Sanchez (LPA), Alicia Lopez (LPA), Lizette Araujo (Baja SAE), Kim Ortiz (Baja SAE), Eloy Rodriguez (ASCE), and Christian Garcia (Formula SAE).

10:30 AM - 12:00 PM

INDUSTRY SPEAKERS

	Michelle Tovar-Mora, MS, EIT Keeping the lights on for an entire city is something that is often taken for granted. Mrs. Tovar-Mora’s great passion for making a significant impact has led her to be part of the largest municipally owned utility in the nation, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), doing her part to provide reliable and sustainable energy to the community. Her career in the utility industry began as a Staff Mechanical Engineer at ASWB Engineering; a woman owned and operated consulting engineering firm. However, her passion for inspiring women engineers began in college where she held multiple leadership roles in the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), the Society of Hispanic Engineers and Science Students (SHPE), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and the Engineering, Computer Science and Technology Student Council (ECST). These leadership experiences helped launch her engineering career with an internship at the City of Santa Ana. Her educational background includes a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA). Her future educational and professional goals are to obtain a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and become a Licensed Professional Engineering in the state of California. In her free time she enjoys spending time with her son, planning vacations with her husband, and participating in STEM outreach for students. Michelle believes that “with dedication and self-motivation anything is possible.”
	Roxanna Del Toro Roxana Del Toro started taking community college courses during her last two years in high school. When she graduated high school she continued her education at Rio Hondo College before transferring to California State University, Los Angeles. She received an associate’s in Physics and Mathematics and continued to get her bachelor's in Civil Engineering. During her senior year, she interned for Jacobs engineering and is currently an engineer working for Southern California Gas Company.
	Nancy Duran Nancy Duran was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. She migrated to the US at age three and grew most of her life in the City of Azusa, CA. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from California State University, Los Angeles with a dual major in Applied Mathematics and Civil Engineering. She currently works for E2 Consulting Engineers, Inc.-- a contractor for SoCalGas--on the Pipeline Safety Enhancement Plan (PSEP). PSEP was implemented to avoid the 2010 San Bruno incident which involved a 30-inch transmission line, L132, exploding due to the overpressure of the pipe; this resulted in the immediate death of eight people, injuring 58 others and the destruction of 38 homes with damages to 70 others. Nancy is working full-time whilst preparing to obtain her PE license and is part of the American Society of Civil Engineers for the Los Angeles Younger Member Forum (ASCE LA YMF) chapter.