NEWPORT – Three Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport team members, Jessica Perez Torres, Sravanthi “Sree” Bodana, and Norma Lopez each won Career Communications Group Women of Color magazine STEM achievement awards, NUWC Division Newport announced.
Portsmouth resident Perez Torres is an engineer for the division’s Sensors and Sonar Systems Department, an engineer for the Systems Analysis and Passive Systems Engineering Branch. She won the award in the Technology Rising Star category, according to NUWC. Torres guides a team of 20 engineers and scientists, “supporting the introduction of the large aperture array to the fleet, from design requirements to delivery, as well as future concept array designs for Virginia-class Block VI submarines,” according to a press release.
In the Technology All-Star category, awards were announced for Bodana, of Tiverton, and Lopez, of Portsmouth.
Bodana is head of the Information Systems and Data Analytics Branch in Division Newport’s Undersea Warfare Platforms & Payload Integration Department, according to NUWC. In her role, she supervises and provides technical directions to over 20 employees, impacting areas such as data analytics, model-based systems engineering and Tomahawk configuration management and logistics, NUWC said.
Bodana is also credited with working to improve equitable treatment for all over the course of her career. “This is most visible in her service on the Naval Sea Systems Command Executive Director’s Inclusion and Engagement Council, serving as the special emphasis program manager for American Indian and Alaskan Natives at Division Newport and her recruiting efforts at the 2019 Women of Color STEM Conference,” among other efforts, according to the press release.
Lopez leads engineers and scientists that make up the Combat Systems Trainers Branch in the Undersea Warfare Combat Systems Department, which provides software engineering activities that support trainers. Called an avid mentor and volunteer by NUWC, Lopez was recognized with the Division Newport Excellence in Support of Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity Award in 2016.
According to NUWC Division Newport – a shore command of the U.S. Navy – Torres, Bodana and Lopez will be honored Oct. 8-10 at the 2020 Women of Color STEM Conference in Detroit, MI.
Susan Shalhoub is a PBN contributing writer.
