| Math Options Presenters and Panel Members |
2007 Math Option Presenters and Panel Members
Autumn Bayles is the Chief Information Officer of Tasty Baking Company, one of the country's leading bakers of snack cakes, pies, cookies and donuts. Prior to joining Tasty Baking Company, Autumn was a principal consultant with IBM Business Consulting Services, previously PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) Consulting. Autumn also served as Director of Consulting for Destiny WebSolutions, and as a technology management consultant for Safeguard Scientifics. Autumn received her bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University, and her MBA degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Autumn is affiliated with many local organizations such as the Union League of Philadelphia and serves on the boards of the PA Economy League, Girl Scouts of SE PA, Society of Information Management, and The Forum of Executive Women.
Nikisha Bent has a B.S. in Chemistry from Benedict College. She joined Rohm & Haas in September 2003. Nikisha current position is as a scientist conducting architectural and functional coatings research. She is also involved in product development and synthesis support. Her personal interests include traveling, reading, outdoor activities and happily for us, volunteering.
Laura P. Clark, DVM “Dr. Laura” has been practicing veterinary medicine for fifteen years. She began at the Atlanta Humane Society, where she co-directed the Small Animal Medical Clinic, caring for—and subsequently finding homes for—a variety of homeless and abandoned animals. She has worked in a medical emergency practice at the Atlanta Zoo and provided veterinary care to the carriage horses for the city of Atlanta. Laura is now the attending veterinarian and the senior site manager for one of the Johnson & Johnson family of companies. She is a single Mom raising two daughters ages 14 and 12 and has two dogs. Laura is a truly dedicated and enthusiastic board member of the Math Options Advisory Committee, as well as an amazing and popular panelist and presenter!
Kerri Marie Conner, CPA has been employed with Anita T. Conner and Associates P.C. since May 1996, where she is one of the leading auditors at the firm. In her position she also consults with clients on setting up and maintaining accounting systems, establishing internal controls, employee compensations and other tax matters. Kerri has a B.B.A. in Accounting from Howard University in Washington, D.C. and has completed all parts of the Uniform Certified Public Accounting Examination. Kerri is also an adjunct professor here and she is very active in many professional and local community organizations. Kerri serves as president of the George E. Thorne Development Center whose mission is to empower youth by providing them the tools they need to control their own destiny!
Dana Dittus B.S. MT/HT (ASCP) received her B.S. from Widener University and has been a Medical Technologist for 30 years. Dana is currently the Director of Business Development at Polysciences in Warrington, PA. Formerly, she was the Anatomic Pathology Manager at Abington Memorial Hospital. Where she handled the human specimens from the operating, labor and delivery rooms. Dana was also responsible for creating the slides for the diagnostics of cancer. Dana teaches several Continuing Education courses and shows so much enthusiasm for learning!
Lisa Donahue Since 1991, Lisa Donahue has been an Environmental Scientist with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Mid-Atlantic Regional office in Philadelphia. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from La Salle University and a Master’s degree in Environmental Education from Arcadia University. Lisa is currently working for the Environmental Protection Agency in the Safe Drinking Water Act Branch in the Water Protection Division. In 2004, she’s been quite busy with Lead in Drinking Water in the District of Columbia and other locales. Previously, she has worked in the air pollution, environmental education and pesticides programs.
Petra Gill earned a B.S. in Ceramic Engineering and a Masters Degree in Materials Engineering and her MBA from Penn State University. She formerly worked for eight years at the PQ Corporation a chemical manufacturer where she started as a technician, moved up to research and development and then in marketing. Petra is currently a Sales Representative for the Brenntag Corporation North East. She admits to having a very full house with a husband, two sons 12 & 7, a cockatiel, a dog, a rabbit, fish and CHICKENS! Petra conducts a very popular and entertaining workshop presenter for Math Options and seems to have boundless energy too.
year and sincerely hope she agrees to join us in years to come!
Shelly Huttenlock graduated from Penn State as an industrial engineering major. Immediately following graduation, she joined Accenture, one of the largest management and information technology-consulting firms. She has been there for five years, working with several clients to build and implement solutions to improve their businesses. These solutions include an application to more efficiently handle long-distance customers for a telephone company, and a web application, which allows a customer to schedule electricity across the country. She is also the daughter of Betsy Huttenlock Gensamer, a math lecturer here on campus and founding member of Math Options!
Kathleen Jenkins was born and raised in Philadelphia and graduated from Temple University. As an aerospace engineer she has worked at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, since 1990. She is the test and verification manager for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the Next Generation Telescope, and the Stereo Observatory. Prior to that she worked for the Department of Defense. Her jobs have taken her throughout the world—to places like Amsterdam and Japan. She has also worked with children in summer programs at the Franklin Institute. .She has joined our Advisory Committee and travels here every year to be part of this program.
Joyce S. John is a very popular biology instructor here on our campus and has been teaching biology for over 25 years. She initially came to the U.S. on the Fulbright US-India Women’s College’s Teaching Exchange Program. Joyce has been a Math Options presenter since it began
in 1990!
Melissa Merlau Johnson earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2001 from Northwestern University following undergraduate inception and has recently joined our Advisory Board. She has also agreed to become a mentor to any interested young ladies.work at the College of Charleston, SC. She is a senior scientist at Rohm and Haas in Spring House, PA where she develops new polymers for use in a variety of products like paint, adhesives, detergents and cosmetics. Melissa is the author of six scientific publicationsand one patent. In her spare time she is a competitive swimmer and amateur painter. She enjoys reading, traveling, and relaxing with family and friends.
Alicia Kempf graduated from the University of Delaware with a degree in Computer Science. She is a software engineer in Helen Muth’s Department of Control Systems Engineering at Honeywell, Inc.
Dr. Rebecca Mercuri credits Penn State’s Abington campus for providing her with the strong foundation in computer science that later helped her earn a Ph.D. from the engineering school of the University of Pennsylvania. Her career has included consumer electronics design work at RCA’s David Sarnoff Research Center, telecommunications projects at AT&T’s Bell Laboratories, contract consulting for Merck, the U.S. Army, and the Federal Aviation Administration, and fellowships at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Currently, Rebecca’s efforts focus on legal and public policy technology projects at Notable Software, Inc.and she is a contributing editor for the Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery where she also authors their quarterly Security Watch column.
Lisa Morris is a faculty member in the Administration of Justice Program here at Penn State Abington. For the past thirteen years, besides being a favorite among the students, she has been involved with many campus activities, committees, clubs, and organizations. She has taught seventeen different courses in criminal justice and has a major interest in international criminal justice. Lisa has been with Math Options almost since it’s inception and has knowledge, bounds of energy and enthusiasm to share with the students. She is also an amazing Mom to the cutest little fellow named Ty.
Helen Muth is currently the director of a 120-person hardware and software engineering department at Honeywell in Fort Washington, PA. She started her career at Honeywell in October 1984 after graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a BS in Electrical Engineering. Ms, Muth has worked within Honeywell on products that range from small recorders and controllers to large distributed control systems. She first became a manager in 1998 and most recently advanced to director in 2003. Born in Kingston, Jamaica but raised primarily on the US East coast, from Florida to New York she is married to a Physics teacher and has two
children in middle school and 2 cats.
Stacie Peterson is a hazardous waste inspector and case developer at the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) in Philadelphia, PA. Prior to doing hazardous waste work, Ms. Peterson worked in drinking water enforcement at the US EPA. From January 2003 – August 2005, Ms. Peterson also served as the Regional and National Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Chairs at the US EPA, in which her responsibilities included encouraging young women to pursue careers in science and technology. She has been with EPA for 5 years. Prior to coming to EPA, she worked for an environmental consulting firm as an air quality specialist. Stacie received both her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Environmental Engineering at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Rajashree Seetamraju graduated in Physics from Nagpur University (India). She is currently working as Systems Engineer with Helen Muth and Alicia Kempf in the Department of Control Systems Engineering at Honeywell Inc.
Francine Siconolfi, a Penn State graduate, is an enthusiastic and supportive Math Options Advisory Board member and also a board member for the University’s Information Sciences and Technology (IST) degree program. She is currently a research manager with Aetna Information Services. Prior to joining Aetna, Francine was a senior technology manager and consultant, offering expertise in software applications and development, and in systems architecture. She has made significant contributions to the business goals of various firms by applying technology in the areas of financial services, insurance, banking, and marketing. Francine is a strong supporter of Math Options and a very active committee member here at Penn State Abington as well as an exciting presenter!
Paulina Sockolow graduated with a liberal arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania and has an MBA from Wharton in decision sciences and health care administration. She has fifteen years of experience in information technology and currently works as an IT project leader at her alma mater, Penn. In this position, she is responsible for software system selection and implementation.
Barbara Spause is a Project Specialist with Aetna, Inc. In her position she enrolls healthcare providers on electronic remittance advice and electronic funds transfer. Barbara is joining us for the second year and this year se will serve as a panel member.
Commander Linda R. Wackerman is a pilot for the United States Navy and for American Airlines. She is stationed at Willow Grove Air Base and resides nearby with her husband and children. Linda has been a favorite panel member and presenter with Math Options for several years now. We have heard that the story of her journey, her career and presentation is truly fascinating and even with her busy schedule always makes time for Math Options!
Lisa Zitomer graduated from Penn State with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering, and minors in environmental engineering and engineering leadership and development. While in college she held leadership positions in various organizations; she was logistics coordinator of the Engineering Orientation Committee and vice president of Engineering Leadership and Development Unlimited. Lisa previously worked as an environmental engineer for an engineering planning and design-consulting firm. She is currently an associate for Municipal Financial Services Group, LLC in Annapolis, Maryland and working towards her master’s degree in Environmental Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Lisa has been a wonderful presenter for several years and makes her Mom, Patricia Zitomer from our Continuing Education Department, very proud.