Karla K. Romereim Receives the Society of Women Engineers' Distinguished New Engineer Award; Karla Romereim recognized at SWE's annual conference for demonstrating outstanding technical performance in the first 10 years of her engineering career.

CHICAGO -- The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) today announced Karla Romereim one of the recipients of the 2005 Distinguished New Engineer Award for outstanding accomplishments and contributions as a new engineer while maintaining high levels of enthusiasm, energy, and dedication to work/life balance and the Society of Women Engineers.

Romereim is a lead design engineer for Spirit AeroSystems, Inc.--a partner and former division of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. In this position, Karla is currently working on Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner program. Romereim serves on a team to create the early definition and configuration of a new airplane using new fabrication and assembly techniques and technologies. In conjunction with this project, the team is creating new company policies and procedures for the project as well. In addition, Romereim leads the Spirit AeroSystem team to define environmental control systems of the 787.

"Romereim brings excitement and passion to product design," says Ronna Robertson, president of the Society of Women Engineers. "In her short career, she has shown that engineers can have an impact on our daily lives in incredible ways."

Romereim began her career at The Boeing Company in 1997 as structural design engineer on the Next-Generation 737 program. In this position, Romereim was tasked with designing components for floor structure with emphasis on fit, form, and function. After a short time, management recognized her technical skills and she was given additional responsibilities.

In 2000, Romereim showed her leadership and technical skills as a founding member of the Twin Aisle Design for Manufacturing (TADFM) group. This group proactively investigated opportunities to redesign existing 767, 777 and 747 airplane structures. In this group, Romereim took on additional responsibilities beyond her role as structural engineer. Because of her exemplary work, Romereim was appointed lead engineer of this group for the duration of the project. Under her leadership, the job was completed on time and within budget.

"Karla is a tremendous engineer and an excellent resource to the 787 Dreamliner Program," says Zachary Dunn, Section 41 product definition manager, Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. "She demonstrates dedication, excellent skills and abilities, and excels in our working together team environment."

Romereim has been extremely involved in SWE activities as a student and professional member. She first became involved in SWE while a student at The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. After relocating to the Wichita Section, Romereim became actively involved with the section and became section president in 2000. Since that time she has continually held a variety of offices including secretary, newsletter editor, and Webmaster.

Romereim earned her B.S. in mechanical engineering from The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and her M.B.A. from Baker University.

The Distinguished New Engineer Award honors women engineers who have been actively engaged in engineering, demonstrated outstanding technical performance, and have had no more than 10 years of cumulative engineering experience as of December 31 of the past year. Each advanced engineering degree obtained on a full-time basis counts as one year of experience.

The Distinguished New Engineer Award will be formally presented Friday night, November 4, 2005, at SWE's National Conference Awards Banquet in Anaheim, Calif. The National Conference, "Women Engineers Leading Global Diversity," is being held at the Anaheim Convention Center, November 3-5, Anaheim. The more than 3,000 attendees include professionals from every discipline of the engineering profession and a large number of engineering students and educators. The 2006 Conference is scheduled for October 11-14 in Kansas City, Mo.

About SWE

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE), founded in 1950, is a not-for-profit educational and service organization. SWE is the driving force that establishes engineering as a highly desirable career aspiration for women. SWE empowers women to succeed and advance in those aspirations and receive the recognition and credit for their life-changing contributions and achievements as engineers and leaders. For more information about the Society please visit www.swe.org or call [phone].