Executive Board

Executive Board (FY21)

Allison Knouse - President

Allison Knouse is a Vulnerability Engineer at Sikorsky Aircraft, a Lockheed Martin Company. In this role, Allison is responsible for leading the vulnerability effort for one of the Army’s survivability technology development programs, as well as, for the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft program. Allison has worked at Sikorsky Aircraft for 8 years, starting as an Airframe Design Engineer and transitioning to her current role in 2017. Allison holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State University, and an MBA from Worcester Polytechnic University. Allison has been a SWE member since her collegiate days and was her schools Section President for FY13. After graduating and moving out to Connecticut in 2013, Allison quickly joined SWE CT. Allison has been involved in a number of outreach events, both through the SWE CT Section as well as through the Professional Development Network (PDN) Employee Resource Group at Sikorsky Aircraft. As the Programming and Events Chair for the PDN, Allison has had the privilege of working closely with the Sterling House Community Center in Stratford, as well as helping with many STEM related events at Sikorsky Aircraft, including Camp Sikorsky, Family Day, and National Manufacturing Day. Allison is also a member of the Lockheed Martin (LM) SWE Action Committee and has represented Sikorsky at four WE National Conferences, both as a session speaker and recruiter. Allison was the SWE CT Scholarship Committee Chair for FY20 and the SWE CT Section President for FY21.

Rochelle Shidler - Vice President

Rochelle Shidler completed her BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University, and a MS in Organizational Leadership from Quinnipiac University. She began her full time career in 2012 as a Manufacturing Engineer on the Final Assembly line for Black Hawk helicopters at Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford, Connecticut. From there, Rochelle transitioned to become Sikorsky’s Engineering and Technology Achieving Enterprise Excellence Leader. In this role, she was responsible for the oversight of all continuous improvement initiatives for over 3,000 engineering employees. Most recently, Rochelle was a Project Engineer & Technical Assistant within the Engineering Performance & Affordability organization at Sikorsky, A Lockheed Martin Company. She is currently is the Engineering Leadership Development Program (ELDP) Manager for the Sikorsky line of business within Lockheed Martin’s Rotary & Mission Systems business area. In this role, she provides mentoring and tools for early career engineers to develop into our next generation of technical leaders. Rochelle is currently a Sikorsky STEM Council representative and was the former Co-Chair for Sikorsky’s Professional Development Network (PDN) Employee Resource Group. Through PDN sponsorship, she helped design and build a 5k run obstacle for the Sterling House Community Center’s largest fundraiser to date. Rochelle is an active SWE member and held board positions for the SWE Connecticut (CT) professional section including Section Representative, Alternate Section Representative, and Vice President. As a SWE professional, Rochelle has participated in local University career panels, K-12th grade (STEM) activities, and represented Sikorsky at eight WE Local & Society Conferences.

Leanna Lester- Treasurer

Leanna Lester received her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2010. After graduating, she went to work for Schlumberger Ltd. as a Wireline Field Engineer. In her 6 years at Schlumberger she worked all over the world including assignments in Canada, Norway and Equatorial Guinea. Leanna has been working for Eversource Gas for 5 years now and is currently a Project Engineer working in the System Planning Department. In her current role she is responsible for designing and updating the gas distribution model to ensure proper gas flows and pressures to help provide uninterrupted gas service to customers in Connecticut. Her previous responsibilities in the company involved gas main design work, replacement program design and governmental reporting. She is also the Leak Asset Team lead at Eversource and is an active company representative of DPAC (Distribution Public Awareness Council). Leanna started out as a general member of SWE CT but got more involved when she was asked to be the Webmaster in FY19. After enjoying a year of being more involved she ran for Treasurer for FY20. Leanna has enjoyed her time volunteering on the Executive Board and looks forward to continued years of involvement.

Stephanie Gillespie - Secretary

Stephanie Gillespie is the Associate Dean for the Tagliatela College of Engineering at the University of New Haven. She received her PhD in electrical and computer engineering from Georgia Tech. During her time as a Lecturer, she specialized in teaching first year engineering and service-learning courses, especially considering the integration of makerspaces and entrepreneurship in the engineering curriculum. As a SWE member of over 10 years, she has served multiple leadership roles in collegiate sections (UMiami SWE President), professional sections (SWE-Phoenix Treasurer and Vice President), and at Society-level committees (Finance Committee Chair, Program Development Grants Committee Chair, and currently Women in Academia Chair). She enjoys sharing the value of SWE with both current members and those that she meets professionally, and is often found volunteering at STEM events in the local community. In her free time she enjoys training for triathlons and completing DIY projects around her condo.

Emily Ng- Social Media Chair

Kristen Sensabaugh- Scholarship Committee Chair

TBD- Outreach Committee Chair