Susan Ronning
Chair
Susan Ronning, P.E., BSEE, MBA, a consultant with Federal Engineering ( www.fedeng.com), specializes in wireless voice and data communications systems for municipality, utility, and transportation users in day-to-day and emergency operations. Ms. Ronning's experience in IEEE includes holding positions in the Memphis and San Diego Sections, and was the student chapter chair at San Diego State University. She held conference committee leadership positions in SoutheastCon 2006 and San Diego's S-PAC '98.
Something interesting? Susan flew backseat in an F/A-18C Hornet while on active duty in the U.S. Navy.
Puesh Kumar
Vice Chair
Puesh Kumar received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Memphis in 2005. As a student he was the secretary of the IEEE University of Memphis chapter. Recently, he co-developed the IEEE SoutheastCon 2006 website and was the website competition chair. He currently works at Memphis Light, Gas & Water as a Power & Structures Engineer in the Substation and Transmission Engineering department.
Something interesting? In an effort to raise money for the IEEE student chapter he became involved in a controversial t-shirt scandal. If you want to know more, ask him in person!
Kristin Hensley
Secretary
Kristin (Britt) Hensley, BSEE, is the Transmission Planning Engineer in Planning and Systems Engineering at Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division. In her almost 5 years at the Division, Mrs. Hensley has also worked in Electric Distribution Engineering, creating engineering designs for the Downtown Electric Network.
While attending the University of Memphis, Mrs. Hensley served as the Student Chapter Secretary for 2 years, and collaborated with the Design Team for the Hardware Competition at SouthEast Conn held in Nashville in 2000.
Mason Favazza
Treasurer
Mason Favazza, PE, BSEE, is the Lead Planning Engineer in Planning and Systems Engineering at Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division. He has been employed by MLGW since May 1999. Mr. Favazza earned his BSEE in 1998 and his PE in 2004. Before serving as the Section Treasurer, he served as the Secretary in 2004 and the Publications Chair from 2001 to 2003.
He enjoys playing basketball and tennis and watching movies and TV.
Allan H. Long
Sr. Past Chair
Allan Long received a BSEE from the Memphis State University in 1980 and later added a Master’s degree in Industrial Systems Analysis and an MBA from the University. Allan joined Memphis Light, Gas, and Water Division in 1980 on its coal gasification project and has worked in a series of engineering positions since then. He is now Supervisor of Electric Distribution Engineering and is responsible for the overhead and underground electric distribution system, the downtown network system, and street light engineering for MLGW. Allan is a Professional Engineer and has served in a variety of local, regional, and national positions with IEEE, the Illuminating Engineering Society, the National Society of Professional Engineers, and the Engineers Club of Memphis. He was Chair of the Memphis Section for the past two years and General Chair for the very successful IEEE SoutheastCon 2006 technical conference held here last April. Outside of engineering activities, he is very active in the Downtown Neighborhood Association, U. S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, United States Power Squadrons, and American Red Cross. When he has time, his other interests include sailing, cooking, and art.
Renee Stoll
Intersociety Relations
Renee Stoll, P.E., is Lead Protection Engineer in Substation & Transmission Engineering at Memphis Light, Gas and Water. She has been involved with IEEE Memphis Section since 1990. In college at Ohio State, she was chairman of the IEEE student branch so that she could control where Friday night meetings were held.
Renee loves animals and has several pets, as well as two children.
Puesh Kumar
Newsletter Editor
Puesh Kumar received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Memphis in 2005. As a student he was the secretary of the IEEE University of Memphis chapter. Recently, he co-developed the IEEE SoutheastCon 2006 website and was the website competition chair. He currently works at Memphis Light, Gas & Water as a Power & Structures Engineer in the Substation and Transmission Engineering department.
Something interesting? In an effort to raise money for the IEEE student chapter he became involved in a controversial t-shirt scandal. If you want to know more, ask him in person!
Chris McCormick
Membership Development
Chris McCormick, PE, BSEE, is the Lead South District Engineer in Electric Distribution Engineering at Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division. He has been employed by MLGW since September 2002. Mr. McCormick earned his BSEE in 1995 from the University of Memphis and received his Professional Engineering license in Tennessee in 2000. Before coming to MLG&W, he worked for a Consulting/Construction firm here in Memphis for six years. In addition to Membership Development Chair, he has also served the Memphis Section as Electronic Communication Chair.
He is an avid basketball fan and season ticket holder of the University of Memphis Men's Basketball team.
John Ventura, PhD
Student Activities
John Ventura is an Assistant Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Christian Brothers University. He has been the Student Activities Chair for the past several years and looks forward to serving the Memphis Section’s students branches located at The University of Mississippi, University of Memphis, University of Tennessee at Martin, Arkansas State University, and Christian Brothers University as a liaison between the student branches and the Memphis Section of IEEE.
Christopher Chiavario
Webmaster
Christopher Chiavario graduated Dec ’05 from The University of Memphis with degrees in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Mathematical Sciences. During college, Chris served as the student chapter’s chair and headed up the robotics and website design (3rd place) for SECON05. In his last semester, he was part of the SECON06 conference committee and helped develop the SECON06 website and registration system. Currently, Chris works as an Electrical Engineer for Luminetx in their R&D Department. He is also part of the Herff College of Engineering Alumni Board and is an Eagle Scout from Collierville, Tennessee Troop 50.
So you want to know something interesting about Chris? Chris plays a game called Xwing vs. Tie Fighter for a club called United Pilots Alliance (UPA). He used to be the SL of Reaper Squadron and was part of Automation Systems Development for generation 3 of the UPA website back in 2002.
Steve Brown
Chair, Power Engineering / Industry Applications
Steven D. Brown, P.E., (stevendbrown@ieee.org), Lead Substation Engineer with Memphis Light, Gas and Water, is involved in design of electric substations 161 kV and below and specification, selection, and application of substation power apparatus. Mr. Brown has previously served as chairman of the Memphis IEEE IAS/PES Chapter and is a member of the IEEE PES Substations Committee.
Allan H. Long
Vice Chair, Power Engineering / Industry Applications
Allan Long received a BSEE from the Memphis State University in 1980 and later added a Master’s degree in Industrial Systems Analysis and an MBA from the University. Allan joined Memphis Light, Gas, and Water Division in 1980 on its coal gasification project and has worked in a series of engineering positions since then. He is now Supervisor of Electric Distribution Engineering and is responsible for the overhead and underground electric distribution system, the downtown network system, and street light engineering for MLGW. Allan is a Professional Engineer and has served in a variety of local, regional, and national positions with IEEE, the Illuminating Engineering Society, the National Society of Professional Engineers, and the Engineers Club of Memphis. He was Chair of the Memphis Section for the past two years and General Chair for the very successful IEEE SoutheastCon 2006 technical conference held here last April. Outside of engineering activities, he is very active in the Downtown Neighborhood Association, U. S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, United States Power Squadrons, and American Red Cross. When he has time, his other interests include sailing, cooking, and art.
Zuyao Shan, PhD
Chair, Engineering in Medicine and Biology
Zuyao Shan received the B.S., M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Southeast University, Nanjing, and Institute of Chemistry, The Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS), Beijing, China, in 1995 and 1998, respectively. He obtained his Ph.D. in Applied Biomedical Engineering in 2003 from a joint program by Cleveland State University and The Cleveland Clinic Foundation. In 2003, he joined the faculty of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and now working as an assistant member in Division of Translation Imaging Research. His research interests are medical image computing and molecular imaging, include computer aided diagnosis and computational modeling of human structures.
zuyao.shan@stjude.org - St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Amy de Jongh Curry, PhD
Vice Chair, Engineering in Medicine and Biology
Amy de Jongh Curry, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at The University of Memphis. Her areas of interest include cardiac electrophysiology, computational modeling, and enhancing engineering education through incorporating technology into the classroom and challenge-based instructional methods.
Dr. Curry served as Chair of the EMBS Memphis chapter 2005-2006.
Alan Proffitt, PhD
Chair, Computer Engineering / Sciences
Dr. Proffitt is an Assistant Professor at the University of Memphis, where he teaches in the Engineering Technology Department. His work experience includes work at Caterpillar, Arkansas Tech University, Lockheed, and the US Army. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Arkansas, and continues to represent IEEE as a program evaluator for TAC of ABET. Dr. Proffitt is a senior member of IEEE and ISA in addition to being a member of ASEE, the Army Engineer Association and the Reserve Officers Association. As a Colonel in the Army Reserve, Dr. Proffitt completed an additional 25 years of service after his initial active duty tour. He is a graduate of Command and General Staff College, and is qualified as an Engineer Officer, Military Intelligence Officer, and Chemical Officer.
Hongjun Song, PhD
Vice Chair, Computer Engineering / Sciences
Hongjun Song received a B.S. degree and a M.S. degree in Computer Science from the Xidian University in China in 1988 and a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from The University of Memphis in 1998. He joined Pattern Recognition and AI Research Laboratory at the Xidian University in 1988 as a research assistant professor, where he led several projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation. He joined Capital Software (a Hong Kong based computer software company) in 1991 as a director of the R&D division. Hongjun joined FedEx in September 1997. He is currently a System Architect Advisor in FedEx Enterprise Architecture Design division. Dr. Song is an Adjunct Professor and a border member of the Industrial Advisory Committee in the Computer Science Department at the University of Memphis. He also teaches several undergraduate and graduate level courses in Computer Science. He has been a Senior Member of the IEEE since 1999.
hsong@fedex.com - Federal Express - The University of Memphis