Blackboard
Congratulations to FAMU Alum Diona Chenier U.S. Black Engineer’s GEM Outstanding Young Alumnus
Multi-Disciplined Engineer
Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems
During her seventh grade year, Diona Chenier's science teacher introduced her to a pre-college summer camp at Kettering University. Chenier applied for it and attended the program as well as similar camps over the next two summers. At Kettering, she learned what engineers do and how they improve people's lives by applying math, science and technology to human problems. While attending camps at Auburn University and Clemson University, she also got to see how engineers help make the world a better place by designing things that make life a little easier, safer or that protect the environment.
Chenier wanted to make a difference in the real world through engineering, so she earned a four-year academic scholarship to Florida A&M University (FAMU). During her undergraduate years she completed two internships. The first was at the NASA Kennedy Space Center, where she helped schedule various tasks prior to shuttle launches. The second was at the Federal Aviation Administration, where she was responsible for learning software systems and then creating technical and user manuals to aid traffic controllers. Chenier was also a teaching assistant before graduating with a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering in 2002. With the support of a GEM fellowship and a NASA Harriet G. Jenkins pre-doctoral fellowship, Chenier enrolled in graduate school at North Carolina State University that same year.
In 2004, Chenier graduated from North Carolina State University with a master's degree in Industrial Engineering. She was accepted to North Grumman's Early Career Professional Development program, which provides entry-level engineers with rotational assignments in a variety of departments. She served as a logistics engineer in support of F-16 antenna radar programs and within six months took on a challenging assignment of supporting a Navy program by forecasting acquisitions and sales. She analyzed reports for labor and material costs and provided financial support. She was also selected to participate in an18-month leadership training at Northrop Grumman, spending six months creating designs for a new $30 million night vision goggles manufacturing plant. Between 2005 and 2008, she was responsible for risk and cost analyses for circuit boards used to mechanically support and electrically connect components in commercially produced electronic devices. In 2008, she successfully led reviews of a million-dollar effort, which improved manufacturing and won impressive cost savings.
Currently, Chenier is responsible for maintaining schedules to support material shortages and resource scheduling conflicts in assemble and test, and she coordinates staff support in labs for radar and communication system tests. She is also in charge of overseeing the flow of hardware through antenna assembly, compact range testing, environmental testing and trouble shooting. She has co-authored four invention disclosures involving manufacturing process to fabricate antenna components.
In 2002, Chenier led members of her Institute of Industrial Engineering chapter to do handy jobs on a Habitat for Humanity home built for a single mom and her two children. She has also volunteered with Maryland MESA (Math, Engineering, Science and Achievement), and Junior Achievement of Central Maryland. From 2005 to 2009, she served as a mentor for WORTHY, a program that teams Northrop Grumman Corporation's Electronic Systems sector employees with Baltimore City high school students to help them achieve their dreams of pursuing technical careers. One of the mentees Chenier worked with between 2005 and 2007 graduated with a degree in engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 2011.
Related Links
