New Leadership in ECE ILLINOIS Alumni Board of Directors

The ECE ILLINOIS Alumni Board has welcomed three new board members and two current board members have transitioned into new leadership roles. 

The board’s overall purpose is to link alumni with the department’s leadership and to support the department’s strategy. 

New ECE ILLINOIS Alumni Board members include Yemaya Bordain (PhD ’15), Anne Woo (BSEE ’01, MS ’03, PhD ’08), and Stephen Wurth (BSEE ’03). 

Yemaya Bordain became the first African-American female to graduate with a PhD in electrical engineering from ECE ILLINOIS in 2015.  To complete her PhD, Bordain worked in nanotechnology, focusing on atomic force microscopy.  Bordain currently works with IoT Global Group Sales at Intel Corporation (Chandler, AZ).

 Anne Woo is an Electronics Engineering Director at Lockheed Martin (Los Angeles, CA) under the Spacecraft & Missile Engineering Org. She formerly worked at Raytheon as a Senior Manager and Chief Engineer in programs under the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Systems Area. Her interests include developing product roadmaps as well as solving big picture problems while understanding the impact of technical details.

Stephen Wurth is Senior Legal Counsel at Qualcomm (San Diego, CA).

He previously worked as Senior Intellectual Property  Counsel at Motorola Mobility.  He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School.

The ECE ILLINOIS Alumni Board will be led by incoming Board President Aran Hegarty (BSEE ’90) and President-elect Sharon Hwang (BSEE ’90).  Hegarty is currently President of Hegarty Research LLC in McLean, VA. Sharon Hwang is a partner at McAndrews, Held & Malloy in Chicago, IL.

Alumni Board members help support and strengthen the ties between alumni, the student body, and the department. While supporting the vision and strategic direction of the department, the alumni board participates in fundraising initiatives that will lead to enriching the student experience.

Alumni Board members also play a critical role in the selection of recipients for the department’s alumni awards, as well as interact with students on and off-campus during departmental events. The ECE Alumni Board meets on campus two times a year. 

The board will meet next September 13, 2019, during the 50^th ECE ILLINOIS Alumni Awards Weekend.  The weekend will include a 2019 alumni awardee panel, welcome reception, alumni board meeting and the distinguished ECE ILLINOIS alumni awards banquet. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Nikki Slack, Alumni and Donor Relations Coordinator, at nslack@illinois.edu .