Delia Contreras is vice president of engineering and functional excellence at Honeywell. She is responsible for the reorganization of engineering functions to maximize the value of Honeywell and third-party resources for project execution, to improve efficiency while driving culture change from a process-focused environment to a results-oriented organization. Previously, she served as global vice president of engineering and capital systems with Ecolab and in multiple leadership positions within Dow, including a three-year expatriate posting in Malaysia. 

Contreras has made significant contributions to her employers and society, both in the engineering field and in the development of younger professionals, engineers, and leaders through mentoring, particularly of women and members of other marginalized groups. She has received industry awards, including the 2006 Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Award, the HENAAC Conference Professional Achievement Award, and the 2022 STEP Award for women in manufacturing from the Manufacturing Institute.

Notwithstanding her technical and leadership achievements, Contreras is most proud of the positive influence she has had on numerous individuals throughout her career. She has had a profound impact on women engineers through her leadership positions and extensive mentoring activities. While leading and influencing large global teams, Contreras has mentored many people, primarily women and Hispanic and Asian individuals, helping them grow both professionally and personally. She has been generous with her time, often mentoring during weekends. Many of her mentees have received promotions and advanced to high-level positions within their companies.

Contreras is a co-author of several technical and leadership papers and has been a keynote speaker or presenter at multiple industry events. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, she has written weekly emails with leadership messages to inspire others to improve themselves professionally and personally. The audience for these messages has grown to more than 150 recipients across various companies, departments, and geographies. 

Contreras has also volunteered her time as a board member of several divisions of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Texas City Independent School District, as well as the boards of employee networks for women and Hispanic team members at several companies.

Born into a low-income Colombian family, Contreras helped her family out of poverty by pursuing her dream and becoming an engineer. With hard work and personal and family sacrifices, she became the first in her family to attend high school. She then attended the Universidad Industrial de Santander, where she consistently ranked in the top 5% of her class. After graduating with a B.S. in chemical engineering, Contreras joined Colombian oil company Ecopetrol. She was selected from thousands of applicants for about 30 entry-level jobs.

Contreras has been married for 34 years to a fellow chemical engineer whom she met at her first job. She also enjoys reading, writing, traveling, cooking, and hiking.