Celebrating AANHPI Month
In honor of WTS Philadelphia's 45th anniversary, our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee is highlighting 45 female transportation pioneers, leaders and rising stars throughout the year. These 45 women in transportation have made an impact, continue to make us proud, and demonstrate the inextricable link between women and the success of our industry. Join us in celebrating these six of the 45 women!
May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage (AANHPI) Month!
Established through a Joint Resolution in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter, as “Asian Pacific Americans” Month, the month was later expanded to “Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month” by President Obama in 2009, and to its present, “Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month” by President Biden in 2021. We recognize and honor the great contributions of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders to our industry. Our ED&I Committee would like to take a moment to highlight some outstanding pioneers in transportation and the organizations that uplift them. These six amazing women are numbers 22 through 27 on our list of 45 women for the 45th anniversary of WTS Philadelphia!
Dr. Kalpana Chawla was an Indian American aerospace engineer and astronaut, with both instructor and commercial pilot licenses. This exceptionally talented woman logged over 30 days in space during her tenure as an astronaut. Dr. Chawla was lost too soon when returning from a mission, the Columbia Shuttle STS-107 disintegrated upon re-entry into the atmosphere.
Dianne Chong was the 10th Asian American woman to be accepted into the National Academy of Engineers at her induction in 2017, earning her election for “advances in process and production technologies for composites in large commercial aerospace vehicles”. She is a retired Vice President of Boeing, with her work there focused on material engineering. Chong was the first woman president of ASM, and a former President of ABET.
Mimi Aung, an electrical engineer, spent various parts of her childhood in Myanmar, Malaysia, and the US before finding herself at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL). While at JPL, she acted as manager of the ingenuity project, which saw the first controlled extraterrestrial flight, occurring for 39 seconds on Mars in 2021. In 2022 she was inducted into the NAE.
Dr. Swati Mohan an Indian American aerospace engineer is also a member of the NASA JPL group. She has been on the Mars Rover project since 2013. As the project’s guidance and controls lead, while serving her role of monitoring the 2021 rover descent to the surface, she also acted as narrator for the public viewing of the monumental achievement.
Margaret Wu is a Taiwanese American scientist, chemical engineer, and inventor that helped to revolutionize the automotive industry through her expansive contributions to the field of synthetic lubricants. She has been inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame and NAE.
Josephine Santiago-Bond is a Filipino American electrical/systems engineer and Chief of the advanced engineering development branch of NASA. Being with NASA since 2004 Josephine has had her hand in many projects, including more than one lunar mission.