Society of Women Engineers to celebrate 30 years at KU, honor alumnae April 12

LAWRENCE -- The University of Kansas chapter of the Society of Women Engineers will celebrate its 30th anniversary by honoring four engineering alumnae who have led distinguished careers.

The event, at 5 p.m. Saturday, April 12, in the Kansas Room of the Kansas Union, will recognize Angela Chammas, director of mailing services at Sprint; Linda Ellis, account executive at ExxonMobil; Marjorie Franklin, principal engineer and co-owner of Franklin Associates Ltd.; and Jenifer Jill Rivera, senior member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories.

"The School of Engineering is very pleased to acknowledge these four women, who have distinguished themselves not only in industry, but in their community," said Florence Boldridge, director of diversity programs for the KU School of Engineering and adviser to the SWE student chapter. "This event also recognizes the efforts taken during the past 30 years to recruit and retain talented female students and faculty into engineering. It's an opportunity to thank key individuals in the university and the school who made these advances a reality."

The program will include a keynote address by Don Green, Deane E. Ackers distinguished professor of chemical and petroleum engineering. Green was instrumental in the founding and support of a SWE chapter at KU.

SWE 30th anniversary honorees
Angela Chammas, a 1979 mechanical engineering graduate, has 24 years of experience in the telecommunications field in the areas of engineering, information technology, quality and training. Chammas, who lives in Shawnee, has held a number of key leadership positions with Sprint since 1991. She also serves on the KU Engineering Diversity Programs Advisory Board.

Linda Ellis, a 1978 chemical engineering graduate, joined Exxon Co. upon graduation from KU. She has held a variety of positions with the company and now is an account executive with ExxonMobil, with responsibility for sales of more than $400 million of Lube Basestocks in North and South America. Ellis, who lives in Houston, Texas, is a member of the School of Engineering Advisory Board.

Marjorie Franklin, a 1956 aeronautical engineering graduate, is internationally known for her expertise in characterization of municipal solid waste. For more than 20 years she has managed the development of the material-flows methodology for characterizing waste for annual Environmental Protection Agency reports. She has made presentations at the National Research Council/National Academy of Engineering and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Franklin was the first woman to graduate from the aeronautical engineering program at KU and was the first woman initiated into the Sigma Tau engineering honor society in the United States. Franklin, of Prairie Village, serves on the KU Engineering Diversity Programs and the School of Engineering advisory boards.

Jenifer Jill Rivera, a 1983 mechanical engineering graduate, has worked in a variety of fields at Sandia National Laboratories, including computational physics and simulation frameworks, testing of equipment design, and advanced engineering and manufacturing software development. Her current responsibilities include development of design tools to assist with engineering analysis. Rivera, who lives in Rio Rancho, N.M., is active in her community and church. In 2002, Rivera received the Department of Energy FY 2001 Weapons Award of Excellence and the Sandia President's Quality Award-Silver for her work on Sandia projects.