2024 Business Women Awards
INDUSTRY LEADER | TECHNICAL SERVICES: Shelley McInnis
Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport mission capability manager, customer advocate and tech program manager
FORTY YEARS IS A LONG TIME to stay with one employer, and is also a rare accomplishment nowadays.
But for Shelley McInnis, she wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
McInnis began her career at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport as a secretary while she was still a student at Middletown High School. Four decades later, at age 58, McInnis is now the mission capability manager, customer advocate and technical program manager at NUWC.
All that encompasses everything from research to software development to hardware procurement to testing to installation to life cycle support and maintenance.
NUWC is the U.S. Navy’s research, development, engineering and fleet support center for submarine warfare. It’s the largest U.S. Navy command in Rhode Island, with an operating budget of more than $1.5 billion and more than 6,000 civilian employees, contractors and military personnel.
“I really enjoy the work,” McInnis said. “There’s something different every day, something new to explore. I’m always interested in bettering myself.”
McInnis holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Rhode Island and a master’s degree in computer systems engineering from Northeastern University. McInnis says working at NUWC is an opportunity to contribute “a very small part” to the Navy and the defense of the country.
McInnis has several roles at NUWC involving the development of combat system trainers, which teach submarine crews in sophisticated environments that closely replicate what they will find on actual subs. The training systems are located in eight “schoolhouses,” with one in Guam and another in Australia.
At NUWC, McInnis collaborates with high-ranking training commanders in the Navy, systems engineers, industry partners, academics, funding sources in Washington, D.C., other training teams throughout the division and its partner, the Naval Surface Warfare Center. Her contributions enhance the training and readiness of the submarine fleet with innovative ideas and state-of-the-art technology.
McInnis is particularly proud of developing the submarine bridge trainer. The bridge is located at the top of the sail, or conning tower, and is used when the submarine is on the surface, such as entering or leaving port. The submarine bridge trainer developed by McInnis and her team is two stories high with 360-degree views.
“I was able to convince the admirals that we were in need of a more realistic training environment,” McInnis said. “It’s a commercial, off-the-shelf equivalent of a submarine bridge and control room … the idea is always to train submariners in as realistic a manner as possible.”
McInnis says she always needs to stay abreast with new incoming submarine technology and construction. “Complexity grows with every new [submarine] model, so we have to account for that,” she said.
Norma Lopez, NUWC’s combat systems trainer branch head, works with McInnis on the product leadership team for combat trainers. Lopez says the mission of the combat trainers, put simply, is to make sure crew members are ready when they get on an actual sub.
Lopez says McInnis is very good at briefing colleagues, engineers, software developers, contractors and Naval officers on details of submarine combat trainers. “She knows engineering and she’s very conscientious,” Lopez said.
What’s more, McInnis is a very good listener, according to Lopez.
“She can always put various situations into perspective,” Lopez said. “She thinks about everything before a decision is made.”
McInnis is a big believer in mentoring the people she works with. This goes back to her early days at NUWC, when the engineers she worked for showed her the ropes.
“I got a lot of encouragement from my bosses,” McInnis said. “One of the engineers asked me where I would like to be in five years, and I said, ‘In your seat.’ ”
Now McInnis wants to return the favor. Asked about her plans for the future, she said, “I’d like to mentor my replacement.”