EP 141: Exploring the Perspective of Global Members Living and Working in the US
In this SWE Diverse episode, Monica Harrison, the FY22 Chair of the SWE Membership Committee, and Dayna Johnson, the FY22 Society President Elect, discuss Global Membership with the lead of the Global Membership Work Group, Juliana Dagnese, and Larisa Schelkin, who is also from the Global Membership Work Group. Learn more about their background, roles, and unique perspective of being Global Members living and working in the US.
Monica Harrison
FY22 Chair of the SWE Membership Committee
Monica Harrison is an Expert R&D Engineer at Keysight Technologies. She works in III-V semiconductor reliability, failure analysis and process improvement. Monica’s technical leadership has been on an upward trajectory since joining the company in 2010. Monica is energized by tough technical problems and looks for ways to strategically address overarching issues affecting efficiency and effectiveness, while balancing risk versus reward.
Monica holds a BSEE from San Francisco State University, has over 15 years of industry experience and many years of SWE and community outreach, including as the FY20 Chair of SWE’s Integrated Marketing Advisory Board (IMAB), the FY21 President of the Golden Gate Section and the FY22 Chair of SWE’s Membership Committee.
Monica’s life experiences and the success she has achieved in her own STEM career drives her passion about STEM outreach in the community. She is an outspoken advocate for women and STEM education. Monica says that “an education in a STEM field can be a path to a better life; it opens up so many opportunities.” Monica lives in the California Bay Area with her husband and two teenage children.
Dayna Johnson, P.E.,
FY22 Society President Elect
Dayna Johnson, P.E., is the market intelligence leader for North America for Grid Solutions at GE Renewable Energy. She joined GE in 2012 as a commercial manager, leading large teams through the bidding process to develop proposals for high-voltage electrical substations. Prior to joining GE, she worked as a civil engineer, designing water and wastewater projects for rapidly growing communities in the Chicago suburbs.
She holds a B.S. in civil engineering and a Master of Engineering Management from Valparaiso University, and she is a licensed professional engineer, and LEED accredited professional.
Johnson has been an active member of SWE since joining as a collegiate member in 2000. She has served as Chicago Regional Section president and section representative and as Region H lieutenant governor and treasurer. She was previously the awards and recognition committee chair and WE11 local host
committee co-chair. Most recently, she has been engaged as a governance task force member and senator. She received the SWE Distinguished New Engineer Award in 2011.
Outside of SWE, Johnson is involved in her church and Toastmasters. She resides in the Chicagoland area with her husband, their two sons, and their dog. When she isn’t working with SWE, she enjoys traveling to warm locations with beaches far from Chicago, hiking, and home improvement projects.
Juliana Dagnese, Lead of the Global Membership Work Group
Juliana Dagnese currently works as a Quality Integration Engineer at John Deere Des Moines Works in Iowa, where her role is supporting the manufacturing quality needs for order fulfillment processes, supplier quality and product delivery process within Crop Care and Special Harvesting factories.
Juliana started her career with John Deere in Brazil in 2008 as a Part Time Student in the Supplier Quality Engineering team. From 2010 to 2016, she worked as quality engineer leading and managing multiple projects and processes including Welding, Machining, Paint and Assembly.
In 2017, Juliana moved to California, to pursue her education where she received a certificate for an International Trade and Commerce Program and Global Business Management in UCLA.
Late that year, she was recruited by John Deere in the US as a Supplier Quality Engineer where she outperformed her role and was invited to lead the execution and development of several new product Crop Care programs (Cotton, Sprayers and Tillage equipment) as a Weld Quality Engineer.
Besides living in Brazil and United States, Juliana also lived in Germany during her engineering school and during her master’s studies where she worked on research projects in cooperation with Lehrstuhl für Polymere Werkstoffe at University of Bayreuth and Stiffitung Institut für Werkstofftechnik at University of Bremen.
Juliana completed her engineer degree in Material Science Engineer in 2008 and graduated M.Sc. in Material Science and Metallurgical Engineering degree from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil in 2012.
Juliana had been a SWE advocate since 2011 when she first attended to the SWE conference in Chicago, IL. Right after, she started a SWE chapter at the John Deere Factory in Brazil. She has been an advocate of other women engineers and thanks to her commitment, the Brazil chapter has grown significantly. In 2019 she joined the SWE Membership Committee and since then she has been leading the Global Membership Work Group.
Larisa Schelkin, Global Membership Work Group
Larisa K. Schelkin is CEO & Founder, Global STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Education Center, Inc. 501(c) (3) nonprofit and President, Global STEM Education Consulting, LLC. Larisa is the author of the Global STEM Classroom® – globally connected teaching and learning model. She develops and runs collaborative global STEM programs with schools in Massachusetts and around the world. Prior to that Larisa held executive positions in academia and global STEM corporations (WPI, WIT, Tufts University; TYCO Electronics Global Corporation). Larisa a Fellow for Education Policy, Rennie Center for Educational Research and Policy & Institute for Education Leadership (IEL), Washington, DC (Class 2015); Larisa studied Global Education and On-line Teaching and Learning at Harvard University Graduate School of Education and Disruptive Innovation at Harvard Business School. She studied Science Diplomacy and Data Governance for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the UN Training and Research Institute. She is a UNITAR Global Diplomacy Initiative Fellow, Class 2021. Larisa is teaching short courses at UNITAR Global Diplomacy on UNEP Global Environmental Outlook, Global STEM Education and NASA GLOBE. She is a NASA GLOBE educator and NASA GLOBE partner since 2014. Larisa Schelkin holds BS and MS in Petroleum Engineering & MS in Computer Science. Prior to moving to Massachusetts, USA, she and her family lived in Russia, India, and Africa.
Join us at WE21!
The Membership Committee will be hosting a Global Membership Working Group Office Hour at WE21. Please join us!
Global Membership Working Group – Office Hour
Thursday – 10/21/2021
6:00 PM EST
The Global Membership Working Group is part of the Membership Committee. This office hour is an opportunity to learn more about SWE’s work to expand globally and find out ways that you, your Section, AG, and employer can partner.
Check out more SWE podcasts:
- How R&D Supports Inclusivity, Growth, and Opportunity for Women Engineers
- Un Cafecito With a Woman in STEM: Melanie Weber
- Combining Engineering and Research at the Air Force Research Laboratory
- Susan Uthayakumar on Challenging the Status Quo to Forge Your Own Career Path
- APAHM 2021 – SASE CEO Khánh Vu on Allyship for the AAPI Community
- Smita Tharoor on Addressing Unconscious Bias in Our Professional and Personal Lives
- SWE Research – The State of Women in Engineering 2021
