After graduation, Betty Carrell was the first woman mechanical engineer hired at Sandia/California National Laboratories and remained so for the next five years, among 350 engineers. She then took a leave from her work at Sandia to raise a family, during which time she served two terms on the Livermore Board of Education. She returned to Sandia in 1984. Among a variety of engineering assignments, including work on vibration fixtures, solar-thermal technology, and environmental testing, she is especially proud of the environmental management work she accomplished while on loan to the U.S. Department of Energy near Washington DC in 1992-94. After retirement from Sandia in 1998, Betty was recognized in the California House of Representatives as a true female pioneer. Her two children, a son and a daughter, are both mechanical engineers.
Degrees
- B.S. Mechanical Engineering, 1959