2006 Academy of Distinguished Alumni Announced
The Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering has announced the 2006 honorees of its Academy of Distinguished Alumni.
As a way of recognizing the accomplishments and careers of our outstanding alumni, the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering established the Academy of Distinguished Alumni in 2004. The Academy’s purpose is to recognize high-achieving mechanical engineers from among the UT Austin community and from the engineering community at large, to champion the mechanical engineering profession and to build a strong community and facilitate interactions among our students, faculty, alumni and corporate partners.
This year’s honorees include:
Shaunna Black
Honorary Mechanical Engineer
BSEd, The University of Texas at Austin, 1976
BSME, New Mexico State University, 1984
As founder and managing partner of New Worq, LLC, Shaunna Black enables business leaders to rapidly solve complicated problems. Her methodology delivers extraordinary performance, utilizing the power of diverse, multi-generational teams and metrics-driven systems. She has expertise in leadership and team development, technical and systems design, and production methodology in the technology, industrial, manufacturing and hospitality sectors. Shaunna has managed operations internationally in 25 countries, and her executive career has provided significant experience in strategy, global operations, technology, risk management and sustainability.
Shaunna is the granddaughter of immigrants, the oldest of five children, and the daughter of a nurse and a geophysicist, whose work in the oil industry moved them around the U.S.A. and overseas. After completing middle and most of high school in Australia, Shaunna returned to Texas and earned a Bachelor of Science in Education at UT Austin before teaching high school for 5 years. In 1981, Shaunna returned to school full-time and in 1984 graduated with a BSME, a two-year-old daughter, and a six-month-old son. Her daughter Erica graduated with a BS in mathematics from OU, and her two sons, Derek and Nathan, graduated from UT Austin with a BSME and MPA, respectively.
In 1985, she joined Texas Instruments in Dallas as a design engineer. In 1995, she was elected vice president, and over the next 14 years she led the following organizations: Worldwide Environmental, Safety and Health; Dallas Semiconductor Manufacturing; and Worldwide Facilities. Her leadership experience in these roles gave her in-depth knowledge of manufacturing operations, facilities design, construction, operations, sustainability, and facilities management worldwide. In 2009, Shaunna became president of Shaunna Black Inc. and served as Sr. VP of Manufacturing for Dongbu HiTek in Korea, where she lived in Seoul until 2012. She was the first woman to hold that position in the $20B Dongbu Group. In 2013, she joined Venture Pacific Group International as managing partner.
Shaunna has a passion for unleashing the potential of all people and has served on many boards, including the TI Foundation, High Tech High Heels, Design Connect Create, the Executive Advisory Board for the UT Austin Cockrell School of Engineering, the Alliance of Technology and Women, and the Institute of Excellence in Corporate Governance. She is co-chair of Elevate ME and has committed her talent, time and finances to increasing the diversity of students graduating with engineering degrees from UT Austin.
In her career, Shaunna has received many awards, including the Alliance of Technology and Women’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Pink’s Top 15 Women in Business, Women in Technology Hall of Fame, Maura Women Helping Women, Tech Titans Community Hero Award, Frank Bromilow Distinguished Lecturer, and Circle of Honor.
Gloria Driscoll
Outstanding Young Mechanical Engineer
BSME, The University of Texas at Austin, 1991
In 1987, Gloria Driscoll graduated from Little Cypress-Mauriceville High School in Orange, TX, and headed for UT Austin. While at UT, she was a four year recipient of an Endowed Presidential Scholarship; participated in the Engineering Honors program; held positions in ASME, Pi Tau Sigma, and Tau Beta Pi; was inducted into Mortar Board; sang with Women’s Chorus; and worked as an undergrad research assistant for Dr. John Howell. She also helped lay the groundwork for what would later become the Women in Engineering Program.
After receiving her BSME with Honors in 1991, Gloria started as a Packaging Engineer in Hair Care Package Development at Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati. She worked in multi-functional groups to launch new product and package initiatives for Pantene and Vidal Sassoon. In 1995, she transferred into the Cosmetics Division in Baltimore, Maryland. As a senior R&D engineer, she worked on new products and package initiatives for Cover Girl and Max Factor. She later moved into Products Research, where she conducted product and package consumer research to guide the direction of new product development. She also developed legal claim support required for print and TV advertisements. While at P&G, she served as P&G’s UT engineering campus recruiter and sat on the ME External Advisory Council for several years.
In 1998, Gloria and her husband, Justin, left P&G and moved to Austin so that Justin could earn his MBA at UT’s McCombs School of Business. Gloria worked at Simpler-Webb, a small network consulting and software company started by friends from her UT days. As their Technical Sales and Marketing Director, Gloria focused on in-house software products and consulting services designed to migrate businesses to Microsoft Exchange. In 2000, after Justin graduated and their daughter Julia was born, Gloria continued working for them part-time, remotely. After several years, Simpler-Webb merged with HEIT and was eventually bought by Computer Services, Inc. in 2011. Gloria continues to work part-time as a technical sales and marketing consultant with one of the founders of Simpler-Webb.
When Julia and son Carson, born in 2005, started elementary school, Gloria decided to focus on volunteering at their schools and in her community. Through the years, she has spent hundreds of hours utilizing her engineering mindset and project management skills as a Girl Scouts leader, Boy Scout adult leader, Nutmeg National Charity League (NCL) Webmaster, and board member of various PTAs. Because she believes it is important to engage children in science and engineering, she led the effort to revamp her local elementary school’s Math Night and Mystery Night (forensic science), and develop the school’s first STEAM night (science, technology, engineering, art, and math). She also used her project management and an engineering approach to successfully migrate her NCL chapter’s website and database to a new system, and then create training materials that are still used for incoming members. She continues to be a technical resource not only for her chapter, but also for other chapters in the area.
In 2010, Gloria and Justin decided to create the Justin R. and Gloria H. Driscoll Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Mechanical Engineering with hopes that more ME students would seize the endless opportunities the department offers so that after graduation, they can seek ways to make the world a better place in the future, in their own unique way.
Marvin Odum
Distinguished Mechanical Engineer
BSME, The University of Texas at Austin, 1982
MBA, University of Houston, 1994
Marvin Odum, a native Texan, is the third generation in his family in the energy business – and proud of it. After studying liberal arts at Washington & Lee University for two years, Marvin returned home to UT Austin to focus on mechanical engineering. Nearing graduation in 1982, his first interview was with Shell Oil Company. A job offer was extended and he accepted. This was his one and only professional job interview.
Marvin began his career with Shell in New Orleans working as a reservoir engineer. His 34 years with Shell took him to all corners of the world in a variety of technical and managerial roles. He contends that the energy business is ‘intensely interesting’ because it is highly technical, a driver of global economies, deeply intertwined with geopolitics, and involves some of the best people in the world.
Marvin retired in 2016 as the chairman/president of Shell Oil Company (since 2008) and executive committee director (Americas) for Royal Dutch Shell, plc. After joining Shell in 1982, he held a variety of management positions in technical and commercial operations across multiple business areas, including executive vice president for exploration and production in the Americas and director of Shell Americas Gas and Power. He was also CEO of Intergen (a global power generation business) in 2004-2005. These roles allowed him to develop deep expertise in many aspects of the oil and gas business as well as renewable energies. He spent considerable time working with governments and civil society leaders on the transitioning macro energy system, and the political, economic and societal implications of the choices to be made.
Marvin served on the American Petroleum Institute Executive Committee and Board from 2008-2016. In September 2017, Marvin was asked by Houston’s Mayor Turner to lead the recovery efforts for Hurricane Harvey. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; board member of the National Urban League; Dean’s Council member of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government; proud member of the Engineering Advisory Board for UT Austin; and Board of Visitors member of both the University of Houston and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Marvin and Mariloli were married in 1984 and have three children: Lauren, Marvin IV and Taylor. They are also blessed to have one grandchild, so far.
Nathaniel Shapiro
Mechanical Engineering Hall of Fame
BSME, The University of Texas at Austin, 1957
Nathaniel (Nat) Shapiro earned his BS in mechanical engineering from The University of Texas at Austin in 1957. After graduating from UT, his first job was with Dow Chemical in Freeport, Texas. In his seven years with Dow, Nat was transferred to Houston and then Chicago. His years with Dow were all associated with engineering and business. When Nat left Dow, he was employed by a contractor with whom he had worked through Dow.
After years of experience, he decided to create his own engineering sales business, where he worked with several domestic and large European firms. During this time, his wife Betty was also cultivating her business in property management, in which they combined their enterprises. Their combined businesses grew in real estate investment and property management. They acquired properties in Austin, Houston, Galveston, Dallas, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Georgia and Louisiana. They grew to an enterprise of as many as 200 employees. Nat notes that their offices always had burnt orange carpeting.
The Shapiros decided to wind down their real estate and property management business, and in 1986 Nat became the project manager for the creation of the George Observatory, built in Brazos Bend State Park, in Brazoria County. In 1990 the result was the opening of the largest telescope and observatory open to public viewing in the southern half of the United States.
The Shapiros spent three years of their lives building the George Observatory. They were later honored for their contributions to this wonderful facility by having their bare feet cast in concrete at the Houston Museum of Natural Science main building at Herman Park in Houston.
Nat was always a strong supporter of The University of Texas at Austin, the College of Engineering (now the Cockrell School of Engineering), and the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The Shapiros made a point of joining many of the departmental events and were important members of the ME family.
Warren Waggoner
Distinguished Mechanical Engineer
BSME, The University of Texas at Austin, 1974
As a freshman student at The University of Texas at Austin from Paris, Texas, a rural, northeast Texas town, and studying mechanical engineering, Warren Waggoner immediately found himself struggling to build up his mathematics and science skills to compete with students from larger, better-resourced urban Texas high schools. Although overcoming this academic deficiency enhanced his personal drive, this hardship created an interest in establishing a scholarship in Mechanical Engineering. His UT Austin education taught him to think critically and creatively and provided a fantastic grounding for him both professionally and in his subsequent community service and support of the Cockrell School of Engineering.
After earning a mechanical engineering degree from UT Austin in 1974, Warren joined Exxon Company, USA’s Production Department in New Orleans as a reservoir engineer. After several drilling, reservoir and production engineering assignments in New Orleans, Houston and Corpus Christi, he made a career change within Exxon to Information Systems, supervising an engineering applications development section. Subsequent management assignments included Computing Centers in New Orleans and Houston before managing Exxon Mobil Corporation’s Global Data Center in Houston. His ExxonMobil career has really been two distinct careers: one in engineering, both technical and managerial assignments in the Production Department; and an Information Systems management career, highlighting that a mechanical engineering degree from The University of Texas at Austin prepares you to be successful in various career paths.
When selected as a 1999 UT Engineering Graduation Commencement speaker, he told his young audience, “With your degree from UT’s College of Engineering [now the Cockrell School of Engineering], you will have the privilege, the authority, and quite frankly, the responsibility to determine the quality of engineering education your successors will obtain,” and that earning a degree from this nationally-recognized engineering college continues to increase in value. As a Distinguished Alumnus, he has an obligation to be an example, and allow his success to become an inspiration for a mechanical engineering student who may need encouragement and direction. As an enabler, in July 2010, he and his wife (a UT graduate, too!) established the Warren R. and Yvonne B. Waggoner Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Mechanical Engineering.
During the period from 1997 to 2010, Warren served as ExxonMobil’s UT engineering recruiting team captain, and under his leadership, the firm consistently ranked among the top ten employers of UT engineering students by hiring 273 full-time UT engineering graduates, which included 86 mechanical engineers. Warren served on the Department of Mechanical Engineering External Advisory Committee as chairman (2004-05) and as a member (1998-2005, 2010-12), is a Life Member of Friends of Alec and Texas Ex-Students, and is a licensed Professional Engineer in Texas.