SWE-OC Professional Development Conference:
"Powerful Connections Across Business, Community and Self" 

Every year, the Society of Women Engineers Orange County Section (SWE-OC) hosts a Professional Development Conference (PDC) geared towards helping members of our community and professionals of all industries further their career through learning and networking. This year’s conference theme, “Powerful Connections Across Business, Community and Self” highlights the need that each of us has for developing through meeting, engaging, and learning from each other. All are welcome, whether you are a seasoned professional, seeking new opportunities, just entering the job market, or a current collegiate.

​Date: Saturday, April 8th, 2023
Time: 9am - 5pm
Registration: FY23 PDC EventBrite

​Conference Agenda & Program will be published closer to the conference date.

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Check out the impressive lineup of speakers coming to this year's event!

Cailyn Bugbee (Keynote Speaker)
Medtronic, Senior Engineering Manager

Cailyn leads the Medtronic Neurovascular Released Product Engineering team which supports multiple manufacturing sites around the world and implements various design changes to improve Medtronic NV products.  She holds a BS/MS in Biomedical Engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with more than 12 years of experience and has held technical and leadership roles throughout her career at Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic.  These roles spanned multiple fields including Supply Chain, Quality, New Product Development R&D, and most recently Released Product Engineering at Medtronic Neurovascular.

In addition to her technical leadership, Cailyn is passionate about creating an inclusive culture and has been a leader on the Women in Science & Engineering (WISE) Corporate Team for the past 3 years and is the Neurovascular SWE.net Chapter Executive Sponsor.

​When she’s not working, Cailyn is a competitive adult swimmer and loves to travel!

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Dr. Amanie Abdelmessih
California Baptist University, Professor of Mechanical Engineering
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Dr. Amanie Abdelmessih is a professor of Mechanical Engineering at California Baptist University. She started her career in industry, then joined academia.  She taught 16 years at Saint Martin’s University where she founded and directed the Thermal Engineering Laboratory. In Fall of 2012, she started the MS program before moving to California Baptist University.

Dr. Abdelmessih taught over 20 different undergraduate and graduate courses mostly in the Thermal Engineering area.  She performed research in: high temperature calibrations, developed a natural/forced laminar internal flow correlation, computations of temperature gradients in the human eye, and miniature HVAC from bench top apparatus to wearable ones using different technologies: vapor compression, absorption, Peltier. Fifty undergraduate students co-authored refereed articles with her.

Dr. Abdelmessih performed research at NASA, Argonne National Laboratory, and PNNL, receiving five certificates of recognition for her research contributions at NASA.  She received the 2001 Outstanding Faculty Award from the Monks of Saint Martin’s Abbey, the 2005 Academic Engineer of the Year from Puget Sound Engineering Council, WA, the 2009 Distinguished Engineering Educator from SWE, the 2022 EPPD Woman Engineer from ASME, in addition to numerous other recognitions.

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Moriah Bisewski
Fletcher Yoder, Patent Agent

Moriah Bisewski is a patent agent at Fletcher Yoder Intellectual Property Law Firm, with nearly six years experience in helping engineers protect their ideas with patents. After years of getting negative feedback from engineers about others' presentations, she decided it was time for a disruption in what is typically presented in a patent law presentation. Today, she helps professionals contextualize patent prosecution through presenting concrete examples of pitfalls and best practices from her experience in the industry to better understand whether they should do-it-yourself. 

Moriah holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston and is currently pursuing her Juris Doctor (JD) degree at the University of Houston Law Center. Her area of technological knowledge includes: semiconductor fabrication; memory devices; industrial control and automation systems; display devices; distributed computing systems; field programmable gate array applications and software; relays and power distribution circuits, and a wide variety of other electrical and mechanical arts. ​

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Mariel Cisneros
Northrop Grumman Corporation, Senior Program Manager

Mariel Cisneros is a Senior Program Manager leading architecture analysis for the research and advanced design as part of the Aeronautics sector at the Northrop Grumman Corporation. In this role Mariel oversees all the architecture and model-based systems engineering products across six different projects ranging from advanced weapons to unmanned air systems to advanced networked missions. Mariel brings diverse experiences to her role from prior experiences on both air and space programs such as advanced strike, maritime ISR, and military satellite communications to guide the strategic vision for the future of the Aeronautics projects. Mariel holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering technology from California State University, Long Beach, and a master’s degree in architecture-enterprise based systems engineering from the University of California, San Diego.

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 Jeffrey DeVore
Certified Professional Co-active Life Coach

Jeff DeVore, resident of Anaheim and member of the Anaheim Senior Center, is a practicing Certified Professional Co-active Life Coach, a retired chiropractor, and a retired Christian minister. Jeff is also a member of Toastmasters Club 417, part of the international communications and leadership organization.

Born in 1951 in Arcadia Valley, southeast Missouri, to parents who were both chiropractors, Jeff was curious. His family had its quirks. Meal times were civil, but undercurrents denoted secrets with silence about things, such as a rarely-mentioned family member, social mores, and acceptable behaviors. Jeff practiced keeping thoughts and feelings inside. 

Jeff married a young lady whom he met at the University of Hawaii (somebody has to go to school there; Jeff made the sacrifice), and the couple had three children. When Jeff chose to be true to himself and come out as a gay man, he and his wife were divorced but chose to remain friends and cooperated in helping their kids move forward with their lives.

As a life coach, Jeff provides professional coaching skills for people who want to move to their next stage of life with momentum, deepened learning, and results. Each person is deemed creative, resourceful and whole.

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Sagrario DeFord
Northrop Grumman Corporation, Human Resources Manager

Sagrario is an HR Manager at the Northrop Grumman Corporation for the Payload and Ground Systems Division within the Space Systems Sector of NGC. Sagrario’s HR career has spanned multiple industries including hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing and now Aerospace. As a trusted coach and advisor, she partners with leaders on talent development, DE&I initiatives, employee engagement and retention, and compensation to drive strategic growth. Born and raised in East Los Angeles, her family emphasized the value of education which led Sagrario to earn degrees in Management Science and Spanish Literature from UC San Diego and a Master’s in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University. She is also the co-founder of the Mujeres of NG, an initiative empowering Latina Leadership across all sectors of Northrop Grumman.

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Silvia Osuna
Northrop Grumman Corporation, Business Unit Mission Assurance Director

Silvia Osuna is a Business Unit Mission Assurance Director at the Northrop Grumman Corporation within the Strategic Space Systems Division, where she leads the AIM Mission Assurance team to ensure the products we deliver meet program quality standards and commitments.  

Silvia has space and electronics experience with Northrop Grumman across multiple sites and sectors, and within the Manufacturing, Quality and Mission Assurance organizations. Most recently, Silvia held the role of Mission Assurance lead for the various space programs including the James Webb Space Telescope. She previously held the roles of department manager for Integration, Test and Launch and Electronics Quality.

Silvia earned a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo and holds a master’s degree in Systems Engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology. Silvia is a DE&I champion and the product owner for the trailblazing Mujeres of NG Enterprise Leadership Development initiative.

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Reina Villanueva
Northrop Grumman Corporation, Senior Principal Engineer

Reina Villanueva is a Senior Principal Engineer at the Northrop Grumman Corporation within the Strategic Space Systems Division, where she serves as part of the Systems Engineering Technical Operations group supporting the Functional Homeroom.

Reina started at Northrop Grumman as a Systems Engineer for protected satellite communications program AEHF and then moved into Project Management for University Relations & Recruiting for the Aeronautics Sector Engineering organization also supporting STEM initiatives, before returning to the Space Sector Strategic Space Systems Division.

Reina earned a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and holds a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles. She has served in various leadership roles within the Employee Resource Group, Adelante, is one of the cofounders of the Mujeres Initiative, and was the lead for the inaugural cohort of the Mujeres Circles program. ​

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Charlotte Wagner, P.E.
Clean Energy and Building Solutions - West Operations, Vice President

Charlotte Wagner, PE, is the VP, Building Solutions and Clean Energy, West at NV5 in Irvine, CA. She plans, organizes, directs, and controls all major functions of the West operating unit of Building Solutions including operations, finance, and business development. The team provides energy efficiency consulting services. Develops retro-commissioning and building services nationally. Leading several acquisitions of NV5 into a cohesive clean energy offering. Founded and led several organizations within SWE, including Section Vitality (later renamed Leadership Coaching), Late Career & Retiree Affinity Group, and is the first committee chair of the new Affinity Group Committee, Chief Member (chief.com), a private network for women executive leaders.

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Natalie White
Amazon Web Services, Solutions Architect

Natalie White earned a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Math from Texas Christian University and had a 15-year career as a software developer before becoming a Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS). Her prior experience in the telecommunications, e-commerce payments, and pharmacy industries help her build trust with the healthcare and life science customers she supports today. She is active in the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Amazon Women in Engineering (AWE), and the Girl Scouts of Orange County.