 Thank you very much for this incredible honor. I am excited and grateful that the university took note of my career and decided to add me to the list of amazing engineers that have been conferred the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Title. I have been truly blessed with a wonderful and unexpected career and my time at Purdue gave me the foundation to navigate and succeed in countless unplanned opportunities. There are many people who supported and guided me along the way and I'd like to take just a moment to publicly recognize a few of those very important people. First of course is my husband Matt who has been my rock and counselor since we met at a NASA internship while I was attending Purdue. Thank goodness we both accepted those internships instead of others we were offered. I also want to thank my children who are all watching today and have graciously cheered me on in every step of my career even when some jobs took me away from home more than we all would have liked. And finally I must thank my mom Carol who is literally the reason I could go to Purdue and who showed me how to be brave even when life throws us curveballs. My incredible family is the center of my life and they inspire me every day to do my best in all things. Beyond thanking my family which one can never do enough this award has given me the opportunity to reflect on my time at Purdue and the key moments there that shaped my future. I recall several hours sitting in my women in engineering seminar questioning if an engineering career was really for me. I knew I enjoyed math and science and I was surviving my classes better than most though that second physics class still gives me an occasional nightmare but at that time I didn't really know if engineering was for me. I regularly questioned if I could even have a successful engineering career and the family that I knew I wanted at some point. It was in those seminars and in my other engineering classes surrounded by the incredible support of countless Aero department leaders who truly cared about my development like professors Gustafson Schneider and Longusky that I developed not only a strong technical foundation but the courage and resilience to lean in throughout my career. After graduation and serving as a naval officer and nuclear power school instructor I followed my Air Force spouse around the country and adopted a Bloom where you're planted career where the engineering foundations and adaptability that I learned at Purdue continued to serve me well. With the world famous Purdue engineering stamp serving as the calling card that opened doors to each new job with premier companies like Lockheed Martin Northrop Grumman and modern technology solutions I was able to become a leader in a variety of aerospace engineering disciplines after gaining this invaluable experience in the private sector I returned to my original calling service to my country now as a government civilian leader in the Department of Defense in this role I have been blessed with amazing opportunities to shape the future of defense technology in direct support of our women and men in uniform around the world and now today I have the honor of leading the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program arguably the most significant acquisition program for not only the U.S. Department of Defense but a growing list of international partners and allies it is important fulfilling and challenging work with incredible people in support of our national defense and international relations not to mention it's just a really cool job and in such there is not a day that goes by that I don't still rely on the tangible and intangible skills that I learned at Purdue and I hope that my experience in some small way can serve as a model to others that are questioning is engineering for me the answer is likely a resounding yes thank you again to the university administration and staff and members of the engineering department who saw fit to recognize the connection between my Boilermaker heritage and my professional career it is an extraordinary honor to be recognized by the institution that helped me chart my course in life I am grateful for the additional creativity and effort required to host this virtual event and truly humbled to be counted among the long and impressive history of distinguished graduates thank you again and go Purdue