Monday, January 27, 2020
6:30 p.m.
McMurtry Auditorium, Dunan Hall
Reception in Martel Hall following panel
Join top female industry leaders as they discuss the additional demands and challenges of being a woman in an engineering leadership position. Hear about how to be an effective leader, the double standards they have faced, and advice for both men and women on how to break down gender barriers.
MEET THE PANEL
Wanda Gass ’78
President, Design Connect Create
Retired Fellow at Texas Instruments
Wanda Gass worked for Texas Instruments for 31 years where she was elected TI Fellow and IEEE Fellow. In 2012 she became Director of summer camps for young women and in February 2014 became President of Design Connect Create. Wanda received her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rice University and M.S. in Biomedical Engineering From Duke University.
Cassandra McZeal, ’99
Computational & Data Sciences Manager, ExxonMobil
Cassandra McZeal is the Computational and Data Sciences Manager for the Upstream Integrated Solutions. She joined ExxonMobil in 2000 and co-developed optimization software for oil and gas investment portfolio planning and management. From 2010 to 2012 she led the Visualization & Workflow Integration team responsible for the in-house visualization engine and geoscience/engineering integration software platform. From 2011 to 2013, she worked as a skill area advisor for Computational and Applied Mathematics. In 2013, she was named Computational Methods Architect. From 2013 to 2016, she was the Computational Methods Supervisor.
Cassandra holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Southwestern University and a Master’s and PhD in Computational and Applied Mathematics from Rice University. She is a native Houstonian and lives in the city with her two daughters, Madelyn and Lena.
Suzanne Plummer, ’89
Corporate Vice President, Advanced Micro Devices
Suzanne Plummer is a Corporate Vice President of Design Engineering at AMD. In this role, she is responsible for the design of AMD discrete GPU products, including the newest Radeon products based on the RDNA Architecture. She leads a team of over 800 full-time engineers and contractors in China, Canada and the United States.
Since joining AMD in 2002, Plummer has led several design teams behind AMD’s most innovative technologies, including the low power x86 microprocessor used in the world’s first APU and the x86 microprocessor powering all of AMD’s game console wins. Plummer also directed the teams that designed the Zen and Zen 2 architectures – which power AMD’s new microprocessors and drove the company’s re-entry into the high-performance x86 market. In addition to her work in x86 processor development, she was the Engineering Lead and interface for all products developed for Microsoft in the Semi-custom business unit.
Plummer was the lead for the AMD Austin site for two years and is the Executive Sponsor for the AMD Pride organization, supporting AMD’s LGBTQ community. She has been involved in the AMD Women’s Forum and with AMD’s Learning and Development Organization, helping to design and lead technical leadership training classes. Plummer has a BSEE from Rice University and has worked in the semiconductor industry for 30 years.
Kate Hallaway ’04
Project Manager, Brown & Gay Engineers
Kate Hallaway has over a decade of experience as an engineering professional managing and designing complex urban civil infrastructure and construction projects in the greater Houston area and around the state of Texas. This has included coordinating with a variety of federal, state and local government agencies along with several public and private utility companies. Throughout her career, Kate has served on a variety of corporate committees promoting professional development, continuing education and standards of practice. Outside of work, Kate has volunteered in multiple organizations for her alma mater Rice University and organizations that promote distance running for fitness and health.