SWE - Fall 2007 - (Page 14) FY08 Society of Women Engineers Board of Directors when the section received the Best Section Award in Region C in 1992. She has served as Region A governor; coordinator of two national-level awards; Golden Gate Section representative; Houston Area Section president, vice president and treasurer; and the national convention publicity chair in 1998. She was recognized as the SWE Emerging Leader in Quality, SWE Distinguished New Engineer, UH Outstanding Young Alumna, and the Houston Young Engineer of the Year. Her sister, Semahat Demir, Ph.D., is currently the SWE director of external affairs. Siddika Demir and her husband Emre Velipasaoglu, Ph.D., enjoy dancing, reading and traveling. neering, in engineering management, and in IT project management. As a PMI and IBM-certified executive project manager, she provides leadership in the areas of Web hosting program management, Web on demand transformation services strategy for IBM divisions, complex financial investment and planning, and works with the chief information offices to expand current services for the various divisions at competitive costs. Brody holds a B.S. in chemistry from St. Joseph’s University. Nora C. Lin, Director of Regions Nora C. Lin is a senior life member of SWE and has served at the local, regional, and national levels in the positions of Region H governor, section vitality task force chair, leadership coach, SWEChicago Regional Section president, vice president and treasurer. She also works closely with and supports nearby SWE collegiate sections. Four years ago, she initiated the creation of a corporatewide Northrop Grumman SWE group and was the first chair of the group. She is pleased to see within her company an increase in SWE membership and participation at the SWE national conference. Lin has worked for more than 20 years in the defense industry and has been an employee of Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems – Defensive Systems Division for 13 years. She started her career as an associated scientific programmer and later became a technical lead/manager in software engineering and led engineering teams with various sizes to develop relational database applications and realtime software for several military programs. In 2002, she became manager of supportability engineering. Lin earned her B.S. degree in physics in Taiwan and completed her M.S. degree in physics from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. She and her husband have two daughters. She enjoys cooking, entertaining, and watching TV and movies. She has been involved in the children’s ministry at her church for more than 15 years. Semahat Demir, Ph.D., Director of External Affairs Dr. Semahat Demir’s background includes 18 years in academic research, a decade teaching in academia, plus two years in the medical industry, and three in research-funding administration in the federal government. Currently, she is the program director for biomedical engineering at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Demir is an honorary research professor, School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, Drexel University and an adjunct professor of the Joint Biomedical Engineering Program in Memphis, Tenn. Before joining NSF, Dr. Demir was a professor of biomedical engineering at the Joint Biomedical Engineering Program of University of Memphis and University of Tennessee Health Science Center. She also held joint appointments in the department of physiology and biophysics and neuroscience center. She was also a visiting professor at Istanbul Technical University, Bogazici University (former Robert College) and Isik University in Turkey. Dr. Demir received her B.S. in electronics engineering from Istanbul Technical University, master’s degree in biomedical engineering from Bosphorous University, and second master’s and doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from Rice University. She did her postdoctoral training in the biomedical engineering department at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Demir participates in numerous technical and professional societies and has held many board positions. This is Dr. Demir’s second year serving as director of external affairs. Her previous SWE activities included chair of the international outreach taskforce; coordinator of Rodney D. Chipp Memorial Award; counselor for the University of Memphis Collegiate Section; and chair of the women in academia committee. She received SWE’s 2005 Emerging Leader in Academia Award, and the Distinguished New Engineer Award in 2003. Natalie Thompson, Special Director of Diversity and Inclusion Natalie Thompson leads the global leadership and diversity efforts for the Operations, Technology, Finance and Services divisions of Goldman, Sachs & Co. She joined the firm in 2000 and oversaw the diversity initiatives for the Technology Division before moving to her current global role. Currently she oversees the development of strategic people processes for her divisions including, retention, development and promotion. In addition, she sits on the steering committee for the Goldman Sachs firm-wide Black Network. Prior to joining the firm, Thompson worked several years with various non-profit organizations. She has six years of experience in the public sector having worked for The City of New York as special assistant to the deputy commissioner for the Department of Citywide Administrative Services in the Giuliani administration. During that time her role included overseeing The Urban Fellows, Government Scholars and Citywide Summer Internship Programs and the Institute for Public Service. Thompson earned a master’s of Public Administration in Advanced Management and Finance from Columbia University and a B.A. in psy- Bernice E. Brody, Director of Professional Development This is Bernice Brody’s second year serving as the director of professional development. Brody previously was chair of the public policy/government relations task force and director of Region F. A SWE member since 1990, Brody has held various section positions, including president, treasurer, and section representative for the Mid-Hudson Section. Currently an executive project manager with IBM Global Services, centrally supporting worldwide Web hosting programs and services for all of the IBM divisions, Brody has over 27 years of experience in manufacturing and development engi- 14 SWE FALL 2007
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