Members wrote and edited the Journal of the Society of Women Engineers and the SWE Newsletter during the organization’s first 25 years, but the task became untenable for volunteers as the Society’s news — and newsletter — ballooned in the 1970s. Hired in 1976, Editor Barbara Krohn transformed the newsletter into U.S. Woman Engineer in 1980, a magazine with larger page counts and themed issues. With Krohn’s departure in late 1983, the newly formed editorial advisory board, volunteer guest editors, and several short-term managing editors worked to expand the magazine’s technical content, but the process created a lack of cohesion between issues and a steep learning curve for the rotating roster of volunteers.
Hoping to secure someone who could bring continuity, stimulating content, and visual appeal to the magazine, the Society hired Anne Perusek as a freelance managing editor in November 1987. After receiving the January/February 1988 issue in the mail, Past President BK Krenzer noted in a Jan. 29 letter that the issue “abounds with evidence of an excellent new editor.” Perusek retired at the conclusion of this Fall 2023 issue, after 35 years shepherding what has become the award-winning SWE Magazine. The Society welcomed its next “excellent new editor,” Laurie Shuster, in July.
