Officers for 2010-2011

Section Officers

Committee Chairs

We welcome volunteers for all open positions!

Outreach Group Professional Development Group
Communications Group

Counselors

Biographies of Officers


Krista Pohl - President, Temple Counselor



Krista currently is a senior civil designer in the rail group at HNTB Corporation. Since joining HNTB in 2006, Krista has worked on jobs for Amtrak, CSX, DM&E, SEPTA, PATCO, and NJTransit. Prior to joining HNTB, she worked for DMJM+Harris and Amtrak. Her work experience includes local transportation planning, urban design and land-use, track design, track maintenance, capital maintenance project controls, estimating, and scheduling. Her current project is the $1.6B replacement of the Portal Bridge with two (2) new bridges and capacity improvements. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering Systems from the University of Pennsylvania in 2001, and she recently completed a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering at Temple University. Krista was a student member of SWE all four years in college. She re-joined as a professional in 2006. Krista previously served as Scholarship Chair. Krista currently serves as the Senior Vice-President and as Vice-President of Outreach. She has also dedicated time as Sponsorship Chair for this conference. In her spare time, she is studying for the PE exam.


Alexis Wallen - Senior Vice President - Outreach, University of Pennsylvania Counselor



Alexis joined Philadelphia SWE after receiving a BS in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University in 2003. She first joined the workforce as an engineer at Merck supporting process development and technology transfer for novel vaccines. While employed at Merck, she completed her MSE in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2008, Alexis left Merck to pursue full-time graduate study at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is currently a PhD candidate in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Alexis has been an active member of SWE for over ten years, beginning in college. As an undergraduate, she served as Elementary Outreach Co-Chair, Fall Banquet Chair, and Secretary. After moving to Pennsylvania, she took on a variety of SWE leadership roles including Region E Conference Chair, Philadelphia SWE Senior VP, and University of Pennsylvania Counselor.


Liz Hill - Vice President - Professional Development



Elizabeth has been an active SWE member since 2000, serving as Co-Chair of her collegiate section, on numerous outreach programs, and on the workshop committee for the recent Region E conference in Philadelphia. She began her industrial career as part of the research engineering rotational program with Rohm and Haas Company in 2007, where she held positions in both Research and Manufacturing organizations. Currently, Liz is a new applications and scale-up engineer with Dow Water and Process Solutions in Spring House, PA. She holds a BS and PhD in Chemical (and Biomolecular) Engineering from The University of Rochester and Georgia Institute of Technology, respectively. When not in the lab or on the plant floor, Liz enjoys hiking with her husband Frank and their two Labrador-mixes, Sera and Emma.


Jackee Nowicke - Vice President - Communications



Jackee has been involved with SWE since her sophomore year of college at MIT. In college, she served as MIT SWE's social chair and the Mechanical Engineering representative. She received her BS in Mechanical Engineering in 2008 and moved back to her hometown of Philly to work for Boeing in Ridley Park, PA, where she is a structural engineering for the V-22 Osprey helicopter. She joined the SWE-Philadelphia chapter after graduating. Since then, she has served on the scholarship selection committee and the officer election committee and organized the Boeing chapter meeting this past November. She is excited have the chance to better serve SWE-Philadelphia and to bring her enthusiasm for women in engineering to this position.


Michelle Gawrys - Secretary



Michelle has been actively involved in SWE since her freshman year at Princeton where she held numerous positions, including Co-President. She led outreach events for high school girls and girl scouts, held themed study breaks, organized industry brunches, introduced a mentoring system across class years, and attended numerous regional and national conferences. She joined Merck as a chemical engineer in 2009 and enjoys living in Center City Philadelphia. She is excited to become more involved in Philly SWE after planning the Friday Night Event in the recent Region E Conference. She wants to help the Philly section operate smoothly and facilitate communication and networking across the section.


Rebecca Snelling Rose - Treasurer



Rebecca has been involved in SWE since 2002, starting as a member of the Smith College collegiate section where she was vice-president of her junior year and president her senior year. Upon graduation with a B.S. in Engineering Science, she moved to the Philadelphia area in 2006 and joined Accenture where she is currently a consultant responsible for interfaces among different databases on information management projects. Rebecca has served as the Philadelphia SWE section treasurer since FY08. She also enjoys gardening, hiking, and helping her husband with home improvement projects.


Victoria Morgan - Section Representative

Tori, a prior student member, has been a professional member since 2000. She received her BS in Electrical Engineering with a concentration in Computers from the University of Pittsburgh in 2000. While attending Pitt, she served in variety of SWE positions including secretary. Tori has M.S. in Systems Engineering from Penn State University and an MBA from Villanova. For the Philadelphia section she has served as Secretary and Membership chair. She works as a Systems Engineer with Lockheed Martin, IS&GS.


Jennifer Garner - Collegiate Liaison



Jennifer is a Process Engineer with Merck's Global Vaccine Technology and Engineering department, providing technical and project support for incoming raw materials. She is pursuing a certificate in Supply Chain Management from Lehigh University. Originally from New Jersey, Jennifer has served the Philadelphia section as Counselor, Secretary, Section Representative and President. She also served as the co-Chair for the Region E Conference held with Drexel University in March 2006. Jennifer enjoys fencing, hiking, 5K runs, football, and is new to motorcyle riding. She is also a member of the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers. This year as Collegiate Liaison, Jennifer hopes to strengthen relations between the college and professional sections of SWE, and help the collegiate sections set and reach membership and program goals.


Adrienne Nikolic - Corporate Liaison



Tracie Spangler - Meeting Coordinator

Tracie joined SWE her freshman year of college at Northeastern University, where she participated as the fundraising chair, vice president, and finally president her senior year. Upon graduation with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, she moved to PA to work at Merck & Co. as a Biochemical Engineer. She has been at Merck for just over 2 years, and has recently transitioned from novel product process development to inline product support for vaccines and other existing biological therapeutics. Tracie enjoys spending time with her friends, family, and pets, as well as traveling and trying new things. She is also currently working on her M. Eng in Biological Chemical Engineering part-time at Lehigh.


Ann Lastuvka - Membership



Julie Nicholas - Newsletter Editor

Julie is currently an environmental engineer at Stantec Consulting Services. Her work includes project management, environmental permitting, stormwater systems design, and remediation engineering design for multiple utility clients in the Pennslyvania, New Jersey and New York areas. She graduated with a bachelors in science and engineering in Civil and Environmental Engineering and a certificate in Environmental Studies from Princeton University in 2003. She completed my Masters of Business Administration in Finance from Temple University Fox School of Business in 2007. Julie joined SWE during my freshman year at Princeton University in 1999. I renewed my membership after I graduated in 2003. Julie enjoy golfing in the summers and skiing in the winters with some running, biking, and swimming to fill in the other months.


Sandahl Parrish - Scholarship Program

Sandahl Parrish has been a SWE member since she attended the University of Pittsburgh in 2003. She received her degree in Industrial Engineering and minored in German Studies. Sandahl enjoys speaking German and traveling abroad. She has completed many cost saving projects, kaizen (continuous improvement) events and efficiency studies within the manufacturing, warehouse and transportation industries. She is currently an Industrial Engineer working on setting standards, completing cost savings projects and reorganizing the warehouse at Origlio Beverage. She currently serves as the Scholarship Chair for the Philadelphia SWE Chapter. Sandahl hopes to reach aspiring engineers and help women achieve technical degrees by awarding scholarships to students in the Philadelphia area. Some other activities she also enjoys are playing disc golf competitively, traveling, lacrosse and league kickball.


Elyse Bealer - Science Fair Coordinator



Elyse joined SWE during her sophomore year at Rice University where she majored in Chemical Engineering. She graduated with her B.S. in 2006 and relocated to the Philadelphia area. She is currently working for Merck and Co., Inc. as a development engineer. Elyse enjoys working on developing novel vaccines and sterile liquid products.


Diana Madden - Webmaster, Historian, Drexel Counselor



Diana has been actively involved in SWE since 2000. In 2004 she received her BS in Electrical Engineering with a concentration in Power and minor in Mathematics from Drexel University. While attending Drexel University, she devoted her time as Website Coordinator for two years and then served two consecutive terms as President coordinating all section operations. Currently, Diana is the Philadelphia Webmaster, Historian and Drexel Counselor. Diana is also Webmaster for Region E. In 2009, she won the Oustanding Counselor Award. She is a self taught webmaster, loves cats, and in her spare time she works on her genealogy research.


Alisha Trocciola - Villanova Counselor



Alisha Trocciola has been a member of SWE since her freshman year at Villanova University in 2001. She served as the section President during her senior year. Upon graduation from Villanova in 2005 with a BS in chemical engineering and minor in chemisty, Alisha began working for GlaxoSmithKline located in Conshohocken, PA. Alisha works as a process engineer at GSK Biopharmaceuticals manufacturing facility.


MaryAnn Skehan - Widener Counselor





Barbara Faust - Certificate of Merit