Honeywell Contributes $70K to LFM
to Increase Diversity, Support Plant Tour, NCML
By Lois Slavin, ESD Communications Director
August 20, 2004
For the second year in a row, the Honeywell Corporation’s Honeywell Foundation has generously contributed $70 thousand to the Leaders for Manufacturing (LFM) program. Prentis Wilson, LFM ’00 and Director of Global Business Materials at Honeywell, was once again instrumental in spearheading this effort.
Pictured above, from left to right: Lenore-Gail Staton (OME), Dr. Don Rosenfield (LFM), Joe DeSarla and Toni Albers (Honeywell), Dr. Bill Peters (ISN), and Professor Wesley Harris (Aero/Astro).
Honeywell’s gift is designated to support LFM’s efforts in several areas, including attendance at national conferences, such as the Society for Women Engineers and the National Society of Black Engineers, to promote the program to women and minorities; scholarships for women and minorities, support for the National Coalition of Manufacturing Leadership (NCML); and the LFM plant tours.
On July 12, 2004, LFM and several other MIT organizations who also received donations from Honeywell held a luncheon to express their thanks to Honeywell representatives. Honeywell attendees included Joe DeSarla, Executive Vice President, Integrated Supply Chain, and Toni Albers, LFM’ 00 and Planning & Inventory Manager, Regional & General Avionics. MIT attendees were Don Rosenfield, Senior Lecturer and Director of the LFM Fellows Program; Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Department Head Wesley Harris; Dr. Bill Peters, Executive Director of the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology (ISN); and Gail-Lenora Staton, Administrative Officer representing MIT’s Office of Minority Education (OME). MIT’s Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) also received Honeywell donations.
There was a strong sense of appreciation from all of the MIT constituencies.
“Honeywell has been one of LFM’s strongest supporters,” said Rosenfield. “The company has always shown commitment at the highest levels of the organization and they have provided our students and our faculty a wealth of opportunities in a variety of areas.”
Said Harris: "Honeywell continues to be a significant stakeholder among the aerospace industry partners with the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The company provides sage counsel, encouragement, and support that enables our department to maintain excellence in our undergraduate, graduate, and outreach programs."
“It is with great pleasure that the Office Minority Education thanks the International Honeywell Foundation for their generous gift,” said Leo Osgood, Associate Dean and Director of OME. “Their commitment and participation in our efforts to further the implementation of diversity initiatives in educating underrepresented minority students at the Institute is gratefully acknowledged. We look forward to many more years of collaborative innovation,”
"Honeywell is a valued industrial participant in the ISN. We look forward to a continuing relationship with Honeywell in the years ahead," added Dr. Bill Peters, Executive Director, ISN.
"Honeywell as a valued member of the ILP has shown an interest in a number of technology areas on campus,” said ILP’s Chuck Hugo. “I believe that the interchange between faculty and Honeywell personnel has been beneficial to both parties and will prove to be even more so in the future."
Honeywell acknowledged that it appreciates its relationship with MIT. "Honeywell is delighted to be able to contribute to the continued growth and success of MIT programs such as LFM, the Industrial Liaison Program, the Institute for Solider Nanotechnology, the Industrial Advisory Council for Minority Education, and the Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics,” said Honeywell’s Albers. “The value of these programs can be seen and felt every day within Honeywell as we cultivate these relationships and develop through the knowledge and value derived therein."