Advocating Women in Engineering Award

Nayiby Alvarez

Johnson & Johnson

For having a deep commitment to developing diverse talent; for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; and for mentoring women in STEM disciplines at all levels of their career journeys.

Nayiby Alvarez is the director of the customer experience engineering group for the Enterprise Quality Organization at Johnson & Johnson. She is responsible for implementing a sustainable customer experience model using data analytics to understand how customer feedback about the products the company manufactures globally could be used to determine how to make improvements to better meet customer needs.

Prior to this role, Alvarez led the research and development (R&D) process development and commercialization team at Johnson & Johnson Vision (JJV), whose task was to develop innovative methods for manufacturing contact lenses. Their work ultimately resulted in the launch of various Acuvue brand products. Alvarez joined Johnson & Johnson in 1999 as a process engineer and is a named inventor on seven U.S. patents.

Throughout her career, Alvarez has advanced diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives particularly for women and women of color across JJV and with community partners and educational institutions. She led the R&D internship program focused on understanding the needs of the organization and the role of DEI within the organization. She identified a recruitment strategy and developed an early-in-career talent pipeline to increase the diversity of candidates.

Alvarez is actively engaged in ensuring girls and women of all ages can pursue STEM careers. She was selected to lead the Johnson & Johnson University WiSTEM2D (Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Manufacturing, and Design) program. Partnering with 10 Florida universities, including the JJV Jacksonville, Florida, campus, the program promotes the value of DEI and helps women advance in their careers. Her leadership has connected the program with more than 2,000 women pursuing STEM majors in college seeking career advice, job preparation, and mentoring. As a result of her involvement with the WiSTEM2D, she served on the JJV Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council, which sought to attract diverse and talented professionals at different stages of their career.

Because of the encouragement and mentoring she received at an early age, she has sought opportunities to do the same for other girls. A member of the Society of Women Engineers, she helped to revitalize the SWE Florida First Coast Section after a period of inactivity. Alvarez participates in the PACE Center for Girls, a nonprofit organization that provides academic, counseling, and social services for underserved girls in grades 6–12. She has mentored girls with an expressed interest in STEM and supported them through high school. She created a curriculum covering goal setting, basic life skills training, and STEM careers.

Alvarez, of Saint Johns, Florida, is the daughter of Cuban immigrant parents and the first in her family to graduate college. She holds a B.S. in chemistry from Florida International University in Miami and a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Florida. She is married and has two daughters who also love STEM. She enjoys crafting, watching her daughters play sports, and going to the beach.