Roberta Banaszak Gleiter has served the Society of Women Engineers in many capacities from President of the local Los Angeles Section and Director of the Sonora Region up to national Awards & Recognition Chair, national Vice President of Student Services finally national President of the Society.
Roberta is the FY99-00 Vice-Chair of the American Association of Engineering Societies and the FY00 National Engineering Exploring Steering Committee (Boy Scouts of America). Roberta has served the National Science Foundation on a Federal Advisory Committee and as a panelist evaluating engineering research grant proposals.
In 1999 she represented U.S. women engineers at an International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists in Tokyo, Japan, and testified before a Congressional Commission about women in engineering. Roberta has been invited by the White House and the National Academy of Engineering to discuss issues related to women in the workplace. She was a participant in the Summit on Women in Engineering in Washington, D.C., and is frequently a keynote speaker for various conferences and organizations such as ASME.
In addition to being a Fellow in the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering, Roberta is a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager. She is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, International Council on Systems Engineering, and ASME. Earlier in her career, Roberta was a member of AIAA, the Joint Army, Navy, NASA, Air Force Propulsion Committee, and a member of ASTM. She is the author of publications in program management, systems safety, and propellant hardware systems development.
Roberta is a Project Engineer/Technical Manager at The Aerospace Corporation in Los Angeles. She is responsible for spacecraft engineering projects on the SBIRS High satellite program. She received an Aerospace Group Achievement Award for her work on DoD/NASA hardware contracts.
Roberta was named an Aerospace Corporation Woman of the Year; and recognized with a YWCA Leadership Award and Chi Omega National Woman of Achievement Award. Roberta is married to an aeronautical engineering alumnus from Purdue and has one daughter, two sons, and two grandchildren. She is a tennis enthusiast and enjoys playing classical piano.
- B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University
- M.S. in Systems Management/Technical Systems from the University of Southern California
