Emerging Trends in Systems Engineering Leadership : Practical Research from Women Leaders

Dr. Alice F. Squires was born an engineer at heart and remembers buying her first chemistry set which she thought was a great toy at the Toys ‘R Us. But she did not know much about being an engineer until her father brought her to work one day to meet with professional women in STEM areas to help her decide what to major in for her college degree. This is when she officially began to pursue engineering in the eyes of the world, and she has never looked back. She has served in professional technical and leadership roles for nearly 40 years and recently served as the Wendell J. Satre Distinguished Professor of the Engineering and Technology Management program at Washington State University. Dr. Squires is Founder of the INCOSE Empowering Women Leaders in Systems Engineering (EWLSE) initiative and serves as a Director on the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Systems Engineering Division and Corporate Member Council (CMC) boards. Alice was a key contributing member of the ASEE Diversity Committee awarded the 2016 Women in Engineering Pro-Active Network Strategic Partner Award, and the Body of Knowledge and Curriculum to Advance Systems Engineering (BKCASE) team awarded the 2012 Product of the Year Award by INCOSE. In the past few years, Alice authored Book 21 “Dandelion Wishes: A World Where We Collaborate as Equals” for the IEEE-USA Women in Engineering series. She co-authored “Chapter 5: Merging Literature and Voices from the Field: Women in Industrial and Systems Engineering Reflect on Choice, Persistence and Outlook in Engineering” published by CRC Press as part of “Emerging Frontiers in Industrial and Systems Engineering: Success Through Collaboration”. She served as theme co-editor for the inaugural INCOSE Insight edition of “Diversity in Systems Engineering” which was awarded Outstanding Theme Editor award by INCOSE.

Marilee J. Wheaton was encouraged to pursue an engineering degree and career from a chance conversation with a Professor during a Semester at Sea around the world program.  That experience confirmed for Marilee the importance of mentoring which she has pursued with a passion in her own career. Marilee is currently a Systems Engineering Fellow at The Aerospace Corporation, a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) headquartered in El Segundo, California. In this role, she is responsible for providing technical leadership and building capability across the corporation to include enterprise systems engineering, digital engineering, systems architecting, and model-based systems engineering. Her previous assignment was as the executive director and general manager of The Aerospace Institute which coordinated all education, training, and staff development activities at the corporation. Wheaton has held several executive level technical leadership positions at Aerospace, including general manager of the Systems Engineering Division (SED) and general manager of the Computer Systems Division. From 1999 to 2002, Wheaton was a director with TRW Systems providing leadership for cost estimation, metrics, and quantitative management goals. Wheaton holds a B.A. in mathematics and a B.A. in Spanish from California Lutheran University both magna cum laude. She earned an M.S. in systems engineering from the University of Southern California (USC) and is a graduate of the UCLA Anderson School Executive Program in Management. Wheaton is currently a Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC) Fellow, completing her PhD at USC in the Systems Architecting and Engineering Program. A member of INCOSE since 2002, she was selected as an INCOSE Fellow in 2009 for her contributions as a practitioner and to engineering education and received one of the INCOSE Outstanding Service Awards in 2018. Wheaton also received the INCOSE Foundation Kossiakoff Award for best systems engineering research in 2018. Serving as the current President for INCOSE, she is also one of the leaders in the Empowering Women Leaders in Systems Engineering (EWLSE) working group. She has held leadership roles for the Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER) to include the Technical Program Committee and Conference Management. Wheaton was a co-editor of the CSER proceedings volume entitled Disciplinary Convergence in Systems Engineering Research which was published by Springer in 2018, and is the co-editor for the 2020 CSER volume which is also being published by Springer. She is the co-author of a book chapter in the Springer 2010 publication of Holistic Engineering Education: Beyond Technology. Wheaton is also a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and is an active member of the organization’s technical committees on economics and systems engineering. A Fellow and Life Member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and a past President of the Los Angeles Chapter, Wheaton has taken on high-profile leadership positions for SWE both locally and nationally. She is also a Senior Member of IEEE, and an active member of the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC) Society. She is the recipient of several awards for her contributions to these Societies including Distinguished New Engineer, Distinguished Service, and Advocating for Women in Engineering national awards from SWE. Wheaton currently serves as a member of the Advisory Board for the California State University Northridge (CSUN) Bonita J. Campbell Endowment for Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) and on the CSUN College of Engineering and Computer Science Industrial Advisory Board. Wheaton received a 2016 Volunteer Service Award from CSUN. Wheaton also served as adjunct faculty for over a decade in the Systems Architecting and Engineering Program at USC Viterbi.   

Heather J. Feli came to engineering to shape the world and make the world a better place. These continue to be the driving forces behind her career today.  Heather is the Product Engineering Leader in Ensign-Bickford Aerospace & Defense’s Electronics Center of Excellence.  Her career spans 19 years in the aerospace and defense industry working in a variety of roles; Propellant Design Engineer on the Space Shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Motors, Systems Engineer, Project Engineer, Program Manager, Senior Development Engineer, and now in operations leading Electronics Manufacturing Engineers. Heather’s speaking engagements include panel moderator for INCOSE International Symposium (2020) “Everything You want to know about Technical Leadership but are Afraid to Ask”; STEMfems (2019) teaching hands-on rocket science and positive female role modeling for middle school girls; Panelist at the 2016 INCOSE International Symposium on Empowering Women as Leaders in Systems Engineering; and teaching Rocket Science for Sixth Graders (2016) Mr. Hall’s 6th grade class at Reed Intermediate school.  In 2008 her “outstanding contributions to the Nation in advancing space science and technology for the benefit of humankind” were recognized for her work on the Space Shuttle Booster Separation Motors (BSMs) with a Rotary Stellar Award nomination. In 2009 she received a Program Manager’s Flight Commendation for her dedicated support of the successful Ares I-X flight. In 2016 her outstanding leadership working on the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) was recognized by Lockheed Martin with an opportunity to visit White Sands Missile Test Range to witness a Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missile test. Heather was inducted into the INCOSE’s Technical Leadership Institute (TLI) in 2020. She is a co-author of an INCOSE International Symposium 2020 paper titled “Experiments in Leading Through Influence: Reflections from a Group of Emerging Technical Leaders”. Heather leads Ensign-Bickford’s campus engagement team for her alma mater Clarkson University.  She is co-creator of Clarkson University’s annual oktoBAJAfest; a unique exhibition race for mini baja vehicles.