10-23-2022 W2W - Flipbook - Page 28
WHAT’S
NEW
Checking in with previous Women to Watch
Kavita Krishnaswamy, 2018
Roboticist, Ph.D. student, UMBC
Kavita Krishnaswamy designs and produces
robots that help people with severe disabilities
live more independent lives. Among her projects
are collaborations with SAKE Robotics, a California firm, to create an easily operable device a
caregiver can use to remotely reposition a disabled
person, and with Goecker Automation of Indiana to develop a voice- and eye-operated telepresence robot through which a user can pick up
and move objects in other rooms. Krishnaswamy
continues to deal with her own spinal muscular
atrophy, an incurable disorder that weakens most
of one’s muscles to the point of paralysis, though
a new medication has helped slow her decline as
she nears graduation next year. “I want people to
thrive through robotics,” she says.
— Jonathan Pitts
28 | 2022 | WOMEN TO WATCH
Carmera Thomas-Wilhite, 2020
Director, Urban Conservation Initiatives for
The Conservation Fund
Creating parks with purpose that benefit the
environment and underserved communities from
Baltimore to Atlanta has been Carmera Thomas-Wilhite’s focus since she left her position as the
Baltimore program manager for the Chesapeake
Bay Foundation in April 2021 to become director
of Urban Conservation Initiatives for The Conservation Fund. TCF brings together nonprofit and
community groups to create and upgrade trails
and green spaces like Garrett Park in Baltimore’s
Brooklyn neighborhood with various funding up
to $5 million or more. “We don’t just come in and
tell communities these solutions are best for you,
we follow the lead of the communities and their
vision,” the Crofton resident says. “It’s economic
development, climate resilience and environmental justice — with networking and partnership
building along the way.”
— Peter Jensen
Jenna Paukstis, 2018
Vice president, Communications Solutions
Business Unit of Northrop Grumman
Jenna Paukstis moved to San Diego in 2019
to oversee production of Northrop Grumman’s
communications and navigation systems for
the Lockheed-Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter,
a more than $110 million multi-role combat jet
created for use by the defense department. Eighteen months later, she became the head of production for advanced networking capabilities across
the entire company as the director of operations, a role in which she helps develop innovative communications systems for air, space, land
and undersea warfighting operations. A frequent
mentor to an increasingly diverse generation
of engineers, she says she advises them to “get
comfortable being uncomfortable” and embrace
risk.
— Jonathan Pitts