Kelly Aust (B.S. construction engineering management ’10), Project Manager, Skanska: Aust oversees the execution of multimillion-dollar building projects for a broad range of Skanska clients, including Crestline Elementary School, Clark College STEM Building, PDX Concourse E Extension, and Oregon Health & Science University. She works to ensure that these projects are delivered in a timely and cost-effective manner.
Aust is a strong advocate for the construction industry, working with a variety of associations on activities geared at attracting young people, with a focus on diversity and inclusion. In 2018, Aust was awarded a Rising Star Award from the National Association of Women in Construction. She is a charter member of the Skanska Women’s Network Northwest Chapter and is heavily involved with NAWIC, Oregon Tradeswomen Inc., and ACE Mentors.
Aust was inducted into the Council of Outstanding Early Career Engineers in 2019.
Sharada Bose: (B.S. computer science ’84, M.S. ’88), Founding Member, Way.com and Startup Advisor: After 24 years in various roles/products at Hewlett-Packard, Bose shifted her career to startups. As a founding member and chief operating officer of Way.com, she helped the company grow 10 times larger in four years. Her experience spans technology, operations, business development and growth strategies, including securing funding. Bose has seeded and grown global organizations and led high-performance teams through change, development, and economic downturns. More recently, Bose spends a good amount of her time advising startups.
Bose received the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Alumni Award from Oregon State in 2020. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the OSU Alumni Association. She keeps herself closely associated with her department by serving on the Industry Advisory Board for the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Additionally, Bose serves on several nonprofit boards. Bose is passionate about social causes, including empowerment of women and elimination of racism.
Bose was inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Engineers in 2017.
Heidi Wolfe (B.S. mechanical engineering ’06), Senior Director, Digital Engineering Transformation, L3Harris Technologies: Wolfe was set to begin a graduate program in biomechanics at the University of California, Davis, when she abruptly changed course and moved to South Carolina. Hired through an employment agency, her first job after graduation was providing administrative support to Global Aeronautica, a newly formed joint venture supporting the Boeing 787 global supply chain. Within a month, she was working as a manufacturing engineer. She was also tasked with writing operating procedures for other employees in her organization and for the factory floor, which was assembling fuselage sections of the first 787 production aircraft.
Wolfe moved to Boeing as a structural design engineer on the 787 Program; while in this role, she completed a two-year international assignment in Italy and a Master of Science in program management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Wolfe currently leads the Digital Engineering Transformation organization at L3Harris Technologies, a Fortune 500 Aerospace and Defense company, where she partners with IT to bring new tools and processes to an engineering workforce of 20,000 employees.
Wolfe was inducted into the Council of Outstanding Early Career Engineers in 2018.