Alexis McKittrick, PhD has worked as an environmental engineer with the EPA, and currently works as a research staff member in the Science and Technology Policy Institute at the Institute for Defense Analyses. She was a recipient of the Emerging Leader Award from the Society of Women Engineers in 2019. Here’s more from Georgia Tech:

After earning her PhD from Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, McKittrick worked for Praxair (now merged with Linde), an international gases business, where she led a variety research projects and programs before moving into a government relations role.

Then she moved to a role as an environmental engineer for the EPA’s Climate Change Division, leading the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program’s petroleum and natural gas and semiconductor industry efforts, among other duties.

“I hadn’t fully caught the “policy bug” until after I joined the EPA,” McKittrick says. “Now I’m hooked on using my career to ensure we use the best data and science to inform policy decisions.”

A native of Pasadena, Maryland, she earned her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) just prior to attending Georgia Tech for her graduate studies. While at UMBC, McKittrick was a Meyerhoff scholar.

Advised at Tech by Professor William Koros, McKittrick says she was attracted to the ChBE program by seeing the school’s professors working in a broad range of areas.

“There were lots of professors doing applied research, and I didn’t see that at other schools I was considering,” says McKittrick, who met her husband, Michael (ChBE PhD 2005, now in R&D for the U.S. Department of Energy), during their studies at Tech. “I wanted to see how my research could be used in the world, and I was able to do that at Tech.”

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Happy Ada Lovelace Day! Today, in honor of Ada Lovelace, the world celebrates all of the accomplishments of women in science, art, design, technology, engineering, and math. Each year, Adafruit highlights a number of women who are pioneering their fields and inspiring women of all ages to make their voices heard. Today we will be sharing the stories of women that we think are modern day “Adas” alongside historical women that have made impacts in science and math.