At GE Aircraft Engines in Albuquerque's South Valley (off of Broadway and Woodward), women move this industry into the future as top engineers and company leaders.

"Few Albuquerque residents realize that this plant has been an active presence in the community for 30 years," says GEAE site plant manager, Julie DeWane. As site plant manager, DeWane has responsibility for the entire operation of the plant. The plant operation is broad and complex, transforming raw materials into engine parts, then shipping those parts to an engine assembly site. DeWane is the first female plant manager at GEAE's Albuquerque site.

With an undergraduate degree in industrial engineering, DeWane started with GE straight out of college 14 years ago, never having stepped foot into a manufacturing shop. She entered a two-year training program in manufacturing management and learned manufacturing functions through numerous and varied assignments.

"From my first day in the plant, I've been hooked," she says. She liked the work pace where something is always happening. "You have to be able to think on your feet. It's a high-energy environment, which is what I thrive on."

A love for math and science propelled DeWane toward engineering, and nurturing by a large family accelerated her bent for competitiveness. "I'm one of those people that when you tell me I can't do something, I will do it just to prove that I can." When people ask her why she would want to go into engineering, she answers, "Why can't I?"

DeWane views her transition from hands-on engineering to management as a "natural progression" and recognized early in her career that she would evolve into a leadership position. "I enjoy helping people in the operation of the plant and helping the customers by delivering a product that gets better each time. É It was the best way of applying what I learned in engineering and working with people, and having these two skills married together."

DeWane's father passed away while she was young, so her mother, a teacher, was the predominant influence in her life and fostered a supportive environment. "She would say, 'I don't care what it is you do with your life. Whatever it is, be the best you can be.' Nobody ever told me I couldn't do something," DeWane says. To come in to work each day and look at changing issues is fun, she says. "It's by far and away the best job."

At GEAE the population of salaried women is near 20 percent. "When you look at the salaried population, you do see an evolution of more women entering technical fields, and you notice a shift in the work that women perform," DeWane says. "This is clearly recognizable when you walk through our facility and see the number of young women professionals in leadership.

Plant fulfillment manager, Tyra Chavez, exemplifies one of these young women professionals in leadership. Chavez implements an Oracle software system that does advance planning and scheduling. Her team is in charge of raw material orders, planning, delivery, inventory, shipping, and receiving. Her job is to make sure everything moves smoothly through the supply chain. "The Albuquerque facility is just one of the links in [the chain]," she explains. Other links are the raw material suppliers and the many different plants and processes required to build and then to deliver an engine to the customer.

A New Mexico native from Grants, Chavez started with GE as an Edison engineer in Cleveland, Ohio, directly after college. With a degree in materials engineering (metals, ceramics, and composites) from New Mexico Tech in Socorro, Chavez started with GE nearly 10 years ago. At first, she was part of a two-year program consisting of four, six-month rotations.

Assignments ranged from development engineering with thin film technology to training programs for environmental health and safety awareness in manufacturing shops.

"I liked the fast pace, where you have a problem and you're figuring out how to solve the problem, and then you go to the next problem." She moved from different manufacturing sites in Ohio and Canada, worked as a process engineer and then as a quality engineer. Later, supervisory positions helped her to continue moving, "as GE encourages," she says, and to jump after leadership roles.

A little over two years ago, Chavez was excited by a well-timed chance to return home to New Mexico at GE's Albuquerque site. As a member of the Society for Professional Hispanic Engineers, she was also looking for career advancement to a Six-Sigma (S) Black-Belt position.

Six Sigma means six standard deviations from the norm. GE management uses these statistical analysis tools to solve not only technical problems, but also all aspects of the business. Chavez uses these tools to gauge delivery performance, learn where issues are, plan decision-making, and find patterns that will help reach the heart of a problem more quickly. At GEAE, all salaried personnel are Green-Belt certified in Six Sigma after a two-week training program. The next tier is a Six-Sigma Black Belt with and ultimate tier as Master Black Belt. This level typically includes the leaders of the organization, such as DeWane.

Some of Chavez's time is spent with college-level recruiting. She also makes presentations at high schools and provides demonstrations for elementary students. She loves working with students and considers recruiting one of the perks of her job when she can fit it into her schedule. With high school and college students she stresses the importance of doing internships in school.

"It's a great motivator when you can actually see something that you're learning in school and how it can be applied. It's so much better to help you focus on where you want to go and helps you make decisions sooner. You're not graduating as a senior wondering, 'What on earth am I going to do with this engineering degree. What if I hate it?' That's a terrifying feeling."

Science, math, and engineering are Chavez's favorite subjects to promote, especially to girls and Hispanics, where the emphasis is weak. She says that when she asks students to draw their vision of a scientist or engineer, they typically draw a man with a long beard and a lab coat, hiding behind something. She quickly points out that she doesn't look at all like that! She says she enjoys being a role model, showing students what science and engineering can do for them, sparking their interest in math, and showing them something that is "near and dear to my heart."

Chavez, the oldest child in her large, extended family, was the first to go to college. When she was younger, Chavez says she helped her dad work on cars. She had a curiosity for how things tick and how to fix them. High school counselors registered her for summer college preparatory programs at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Metallurgy was her choice of departments. While there, she discovered new and exciting paths to knowledge. Her non-science-oriented parents, however, gave her the "most wonderful gift," she says, by instilling confidence that she could do whatever she wanted to do, as long as she worked to make it happen. "They gave me the opportunity, the wings to go do it, and the freedom to try something they weren't familiar with. They were always encouraging."

Another GEAE remarkable woman leader is process and floor support engineer Elizabeth Kwak (kuh-vak), a Six-Sigma Green Belt. Kwak says that her individual contribution to GE is working with composites, the material used for many non-metallic parts of jet aircraft engines. "These engines run hot, and composites work well in the front of the engine where there isn't as much heat." Composites are lightweight, strong, and thermal-set materials. They cannot be remelted and reformed. In her job, she networks with suppliers for processing and design engineering at other GE locations.

Kwak completed an undergraduate degree in chemistry and later a master's degree in industrial engineering. She moved to New Mexico in 1973 after she was offered an engineering job in manufacturing. A single mom, she has a son who is a freshman in college at Vanderbilt in Tennessee; she survived the death of her older son 10 years ago.

Considered the driving force of the plant's volunteer community service arm, called ELFUN (GE Electric Fund), DeWane says of her, "Liz is one of the best examples of a dedicated GE employee - a woman who leads and is always present at any community service project of event."

Kwak explains that ELFUN is a global GE community group. Television spots for GE show ELFUN members participating with youth projects. This is Kwak's third year with ELFUN, and she is treasurer of the local chapter at GE. One of their projects is to help mentor youth at Harrison Middle School through the Wise Men and Wise Women program, which Kwak was instrumental in starting. "We help kids develop another perspective on important issues, advise them, but mostly just listen and give them feedback," she says.

In addition to ELFUN, Kwak also volunteers time on her own with high school foreign exchange students through the 50-year-old American Field Service.

Though GE encourages its employees to "give back to the community," she says her work with AFS is a personal preference. "We volunteer wherever our interests lie," she says.

GE creates a network to help support women and their families in its operations, according to employee and human relations manager, Jeanne Wolff. While this network is available to all GE employees, the company does foster capabilities for women and minorities in non-traditional roles. It enables them to prosper, not only through its manufacturing arena, but also through volunteer work and community involvement projects.

In October, volunteer employees strung beads on necklaces to be given away at their GE Balloon Fiesta booth for a breast cancer awareness campaign. The wooden machined beads were symbolic of the various-sized lumps that can be detected through regular and random mammography and through self-exams. The fiesta display also showed the new GE digitized mammography systems that will soon be available and will make the procedure less painful and more accurate. Free shower cards were distributed that show women how to do a breast self-exam and men how to do a testicular self-exam.

Cancer awareness is only one community-service project that GEAE is doing throughout the greater Albuquerque community. They are now extending support to community-wide education through their mentoring program, which Kwak is a part of. College-bound programs through north and south valley high schools encourage youth to engage in environmental and conservation projects through the Wetlands Project at the Rio Grande Nature Center. "The students É see us serving as role models to help them understand the importance of education."

Another project GEAE coordinates to help at-risk children realize a higher level of self-esteem, self-confidence, and discipline is through the company's support of the National Dance Institute. "The program helps the children learn how to follow instructions, how to keep focus, follow sequences, how to be proud of themselves for what they're doing, and have fun learning," Wolff says.

Community efforts don't stop with youth. Regular company bake sales benefit the American Diabetes Association. Diabetes has become a key social issue at GEAE since many in their adult population suffer from it or have family members who do. "This issue hits home," Wolff says. Employees and retirees also support shelters and food banks, participate in March of Dimes walkathons, make Christmas baskets, and supply middle school students with backpacks filled with school supplies.

Wolff considers their Good Neighbor Fund, run by employees who are elected as stewards, as the financial piece of community commitment. Employees distribute portions of their paychecks as they see fit through various Albuquerque nonprofit centers. The stewards select criteria to measure success rates of these centers. "The council is very diverse and includes male and female representatives of all races and ages," Wolff stated.

Wolff hopes that the Albuquerque community will recognize that GE makes more than just light bulbs; they make community.

With an average of 22 years of service at this plant, employees are extremely loyal. According to Wolff, it is common that many GE employees' parents and grandparents worked at GE. "It's absolutely phenomenal to realize the linkages," she says. "I think employees will tell you they are proud to be associated with GE É that GE treats them well É . They work very hard at doing what's right for their business."

According to company records, 57 percent of this organization of more than 600 employees is minority based. Women in the leadership pool of officers and managers measure at 19 percent. Wolff said that people frequently are startled when they realize how many women run the operation of the plant. But it's not uncommon in GE operations. "We foster the growth of women and minorities in the workplace in this organization."

With their community outreach, visibility in schools, and management leadership programs at colleges, young women are given role models and mentoring relationships. They are recruited to aim for effective career paths. "The fact that we have a female leader speaks the lion's share to the business's investment into the future of women in enterprise," Wolff said. All candidates for GEAE jobs are selected with equal opportunity regardless of race or gender.

GE Aircraft Engines provides exciting career paths for women as machinists, toolmakers, manufacturing engineers, and leaders. The company prides itself in its outstanding track record of giving back to its employees and its community - and also in its role as a provider of quality aerospace equipment, so vital to our nation's economy and security.

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