Fly High in Your Career with ERGs @ Collins Aerospace

Roberta Schmidt is the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Project Manager for Talent Acquisition at Collins Aerospace. In her role, she partners with business leaders and members of the Human Resources community to ensure the organization is bringing in top talent from diverse and underrepresented populations in order to create an equitable and inclusive process for all. Her role allows her to combine her passion for social justice with her skills in talent acquisition operations. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and a Master’s degree in College Student Personnel.

Inspired by Erica Jong’s famous quote, “If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more”, Roberta has taken leaps into the unknown with career pivots that have each made her a stronger professional. Roberta brings to the table 15 years of insight into talent acquisition operations and client services, three years of human resources, and five of nonprofit administration.

Roberta and her wife live in Ohio, where they are moms to Frankie, a Cavapoo diva. In her spare time, she enjoys knitting, gardening, prepping for gardening, and experimenting with culinary arts.

Alejandro La Luz (él/he/him) works for the DE&I Community of Expertise (COE) as Sr. Manager, External DE&I Partnerships and ERG Enablement. Alejandro partners across Collins and RTX to deepen our prioritized external DE&I partnerships (i.e., SWE, NSBE, SHPE, Aperion Global, Disability:IN and DoD SkillBridge). He also works closely with Collins ERG Board Leaders around the world to help enable our thriving, global ERG community. Alejandro works remotely from Puerto Rico.

Alejandro joined Collins Aerospace in 2018 as Inventory Control Lead and brings over eight years of experience in the Engineering, Finance, Materials and Operational Excellence fields; while actively leading Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives at the Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico site. Alejandro holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico and a master’s degree in Business Administration from the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico.

Outside of work, Alejandro enjoys exercising and spending time with family – including his dogs (Nala & Rocky) – and friends. He loves to read about cars and technology and tries to travel as often as possible.

Virginia (Ginny) Quillen (she/her) is the Technical Project Manager for AGN Engineering and Implementations within the Networks and Connectivity Engineering (NCE) group of Collins Aerospace. She holds a Graduate Certificate in Organizational Leadership, an MBA, B.S. in Management, and the following Cisco Professional/Specialist Certifications: CCNP-Enterprise, CCS-ECore, CCS-EAII.

Evolving career anchors keep redefining her growth and sense of professional satisfaction. From human resources and different levels/business sectors of management, she transitioned to the freedom of failure, experimentation, and success in engineering. Each role introduces her to new experiences and ideas, allowing her to aggregate skills and create stronger work environments.

She brings the knowledge of production & operations (five years), college program management (five years), human resources (two years), engineering and troubleshooting (eight years), and project management (three years) to daily challenges.

Ginny lives in Florida with her youngest daughter Shay (they/them) and Shay's fiancé (also they/them). She recently inherited Nyla, a 16.6-pound Dilute Tortie cat affectionately known as Chunkster (now on a diet!). Recreationally, she enjoys trying/learning new things, swimming, diving, and creating stained/fused glass art and jewelry.

Corrie's career with Collins Aerospace began over 18 years ago when she joined as Senior System Engineer. She has served as Product Line Manager / Value Stream Manager for multiple programs in the Advanced Data Links portfolio in Mission Systems Communication/Navigation department.

Corrie has also enjoyed key roles inside Autonomous Mission Engineering Solutions.

Katie is a technical project manager, focused on cybersecurity and vulnerability management, with experience implementing secure-SDLC processes, Threat Modeling, SAST/DAST, vulnerability mitigation strategies and planning, CSOC, software development, system integration, and financial modeling.

Katie has successful experience with strategizing and leading cross-functional teams, business development, process improvement, and driving profitability. She's been with Collins Aerospace over ten years.