As an introduction, I am an engineer who has worked in the wire harness industry throughout my 23-year career.  Being the daughter of a very traditional Italian immigrant, I had little exposure to professional vocations but I am fortunate to have nonetheless graduated with not only a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering, but also a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from Youngstown State University.  In addition to commercial management positions, my background includes both product and process engineering, and encompasses positions working at a large, public corporation (GM/Delphi Packard Electric Systems) as well as at a smaller, privately-held company, St. Clair Technologies.  Most recently, my partners and I have since embarked on an entrepreneurial journey having created a female-owned, Women’s Business Enterprise Council-certified, engineering, warehousing, and manufacturing business that specializes in wire harness production.  Also awaiting Women-Owned Small Business certification, the vision at Jana Diversity Solutions is to be the best supplier our customers have, not only their best diverse supplier.

Likely a result of the combination of being an engineer, raising 3 young ladies of elementary school age, and simply having read of the negatively changing status of the United States in terms of technological and economical leadership, I am passionate about encouraging female students to attend and persist in engineering studies.  According to a 2005 report written by committees for the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine, the “scientific and technical building blocks of our economic leadership are eroding at a time when many other nations are gathering strength (Augustine, et al., 2005).  Per the follow-up report published in 2010, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited, the unanimous viewpoint of the committee members is that “the outlook for America to compete for quality jobs has further deteriorated over the past five years.” (Augustine, et al., 2010).   While the United States needs to attract more students to engineering to enhance our global competitiveness and technological advantage, the emphasis should be heightened for females as engineering is still considered as “a profession where minorities and women remain underrepresented” (Clough, 2005).

My intent for future editions of Wire Harness News is to highlight successful engineering females working in the wire harness industry.  The articles should serve to expose positive female role models and utilize their successes to ultimately attract more females to the engineering field, and more specifically to wire harness engineering career paths.  My request is that the predominantly male and also female readership will take the time to read the articles and share the content with their daughters, or other family members and friends.  I also hope that amateur engineers may further recognize opportunities available in the world of wire harnesses and persist in it.   If you (or the proverbial “someone you know”) are a positive, female role model in a leadership position in the wire harness industry, I ask you to contact me at melissa.femia@janadiversity.com as I would like to highlight your story as a ‘power woman’ in wire harnessing in an upcoming article.

References

Augustine, N. R. Barrett, C., Cassell, G., Grasmick, N., Holliday, C., Hackson, S., & Murray, C. (2005). Rising above the gathering storm: Energizing and employing America for a brighter economic future. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine.

Augustine, N. R., Barrett, C., Cassell, G., Grasmick, N., Holliday, C., Hackson, S., & Murray, C. (2010). Rising above the gathering storm, revisited: Rapidly approaching category 5. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine.

Clough, G. W. (2004). The Engineer of 2020: Visions of engineering in the new century. National Academy of Engineering, Washington, DC.

Melissa A. Femia is the President and a shareholder of MATH Solutions LLC, dba Jana Diversity Solutions.  J*Di is a female-owned engineering, logistics, and wire harness manufacturing company based in Arizona.

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