The countdown to the 27th annual Women of Color (WOC) STEM Conference has begun. This year’s Career Achievement Award winners, such as Donna L. Merriman and Phi-Anh (Ann) Lutz, have such compelling stories. Read on.
Donna L. Merriman’s career spans 30 years supporting the U.S. Department of Defense, federal organizations, and international partners. Recently, she joined the Federal Executive Board of Metropolitan New Jersey to engage leaders across the state in the process of improving emergency preparedness, security and employee safety, human capital readiness, and community relations.
According to a Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) commander, Merriman “excels at developing people, building coalitions, and solving complicated problems under the most difficult conditions.”
After earning degrees from Lafayette College, Long Island University, and the New York Institute of Technology, she quickly rose to top positions within DCMA. As a young engineer, Merriman provided technical support on major weapon systems. Currently, she provides contract oversight of approximately $75 billion in government acquisitions.
Some of the programs she manages include aircraft defensive electronic countermeasure and command, control, and communication systems, and NASA systems and components.
Phi-Anh (Ann) Lutz is a systems security engineer in the U.S. Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center. As an engineering cadet, Lutz spent 300 days on diesel- and steam-powered U.S.-flagged ships before beginning her career as a flight test engineer for the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Other achievements include earning a U.S. Patent for her team’s electromagnetic, sliding space environment protection satellite door design. Currently, she supports 13 programs at the Nuclear Weapons Center.
As flight commander, her 117-member team achieved a 95.8 percent quality assurance rate for 500 aircraft maintenance inspections.
“Her proven leadership and technical achievements make her a very valued addition to the Engineering Directorate,” noted a deputy director of engineering and technical management at the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center.
During deployments, Lutz resolved 65,299 security measures in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan, and conducted missions “outside the wire” training and advising Afghan National Security Forces.
Lutz managed $144 million in systems on an $800 million White House-directed program, ensuring 100 percent warfighter capability. Now, she leads a $1 million artificial intelligence project identifying hazardous materials in Air Force weapons systems, significantly reducing processing time from years to minutes. Lutz also mentored high school students and volunteers with elementary school students, showing them the wonders of STEM.
