Phi-Anh "Ann" Lutz, a system security engineer with the U.S. Air Force and the winner of a 2022 WOC STEM career achievement award, was featured as a guest on the Midweek with WOC show on Wednesday.
During the show, Lutz shared that receiving the award was an honor as a U.S. military veteran, and she expressed her appreciation by presenting a token of gratitude to her award presenter, U.S. Army Brigadier General Antoinette Gant.
She was also pleased to meet other award winners from the military, defense agencies and other women engineers.
Lutz offered advice to future recipients of the WOC STEM award, encouraging them to make the most of the conference and the learning opportunities it provides.
Lutz also mentioned her involvement in career day events, where she connected with other engineers from New Mexico and emphasized the value of participating in volunteer opportunities, such as designing satellite doors and learning about the patent process.
Additionally, she took a moment to remember those who were lost during the 9/11 attacks.
A 1995 U.S. Merchant Marine Academy graduate, Phi-Anh Bui gained valuable experience by sailing for 300 days as an engineer candidate on various U.S. flagships before starting her career as a flight test engineer for the Air Force Research Laboratory.
She also holds a patent for her team's electromagnetic sliding space environmental protection satellite doors design.
Lutz's deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan provided her with real-world warfighting perspectives, and she demonstrated exceptional leadership as a flight commander, achieving a 95.8 percent quality assurance pass rate for 500 aircraft maintenance inspections.
During her deployments, Lutz addressed and resolved 65,299 security measures in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan, in addition to conducting training and advising missions for the Afghan National Security Forces.
She also managed a substantial budget and systems in a White House-directed program, ensuring 100 percent warfighter capability.
Currently, Lutz leads an artificial intelligence (AI) project focused on identifying hazardous materials in Air Force weapons systems, which has significantly reduced processing time from years to minutes.
She also mentors high school students and volunteers with elementary school students to foster their interest in STEM.
In her 2022 acceptance speech, Lutz expressed her gratitude for the recognition among women engineers and the support of supervisors and coworkers, highlighting her educational background and sharing fond memories of her high school dance coach, Sheryl Olecheck, onetime team director of a girls dance group and former captain/choreographer for an NFL cheerleaders team.
Olecheck played a significant role in Lutz's life.
Even when Lutz had to miss dance camp to attend a pre-college engineering summer course, she was promoted to co-captain.
Lutz dedicated her WOC STEM award to Olecheck, her parents, who were Vietnamese migrants, and her daughter.
