In 1974, Charmaine Wisniewski Sullivan graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a BS with High Honors in Engineering Physics. She went on to receive an MBA in International Marketing and went to work for Procter and Gamble (P&G) after graduation. Now, she’s giving back to her Alma Mater by working to support the Women in Engineering (WIE) program. Charmaine was one of a very few women who studied engineering during her freshman year in 1970. Little did she know that her degree would lead to a diverse career that would take her around the world.
Charmaine’s experience encouraging women to consider engineering as a career started in 1973 when she and her roommate, Linda Aberle, BS Aerospace Engineering ‘75 were asked by Associate Dean Wakeland to develop a conference for Illinois female high school students to spark interest in engineering. They were sent to a Society of Women Engineers (SWE) conference in New Hampshire to share their ideas and meet with some of the top women in engineering at the time. Many of these same elite women engineers would be featured speakers at the high school conference later that year. Because of all the work the UIUC SWE student section put into the conference, they received the SWE Best Student Section at the 1974 SWE National Conference. Charmaine stayed involved with national SWE at that time and served as Region G Section Representative for a few years. She also presented papers about attracting women into engineering at the 1975 International Conference of Women Engineers & Scientists in Krakow Poland.
During her time at Grainger Engineering, Charmaine maintained her status as a James Scholar. One of the Honors projects she completed involved collecting data on interstellar matter. She even got her name cited in the Astrophysical Journal. Her original vision was to have a career in astrophysics, so this was a good fit. She did two sessions in the Co-op program with the CIA in Washington DC, analyzing radar tracking data. In 1974, Charmaine was honored as a Knight of St. Patrick, “...an annual award given by the College of Engineering to approximately 10-15 students who represent leadership, excellence in character, and exceptional contribution to the College of Engineering and its students”.
Even though Charmaine had the offer of a graduate assistantship in astrophysics, her career took a very different turn after she met a P&G representative at the SWE conference in New Hampshire. This led Charmaine down a very different path of corporate research and development in the consumer products business. She was one of the very first women managers at the P&G Chicago plant. It was during this time she felt inspired to begin her MBA at the University of Chicago with a focus on International Marketing. After two years at the plant, she transferred to Research & Development in Cincinnati. This move took her into what turned out to be her passion areas – international business, women’s care, and creativity/innovation. After a stint in Food R&D working on Duncan Hines and Pringles, she spent time working on Latin America cleaning products before moving to the International Technology Coordination Division. Working on women’s care products, she helped roll out Always feminine products around the world. Research and development in women’s care was severely underfunded at the time, and this is what inspired her to take on the category. During this time, Charmaine worked half time out of Geneva, Switzerland and was responsible for feminine care product development in Greece, Ireland, Scandinavia, and Asia Pacific, as well as being the leader of the World Development Team for Always products.
Following assignments with P&G included working on international health care products, then moving into corporate and overseeing trends for the company. In her work on trends, Charmaine got to work with the Institute for the Future (IFTF) and found another passion area – helping teams develop strategic plans. Also, during this time, she attended the Creative Problem Solving Institute which sparked her interest in creativity and innovation. All of this led to being trained in facilitation techniques and working with a few other liked-minded associates to set up an internal set of facilitators at P&G. Charmaine also was trained to do in-depth consumer research using Jungian dream analysis. This leads to a much deeper understanding of consumers which can help guide product development of new products.
After retiring, Charmaine knew that she enjoyed being at the front end of innovation and working with teams on strategic visioning. This led her to start her own company, WIN-ovation Works. Her first project helped guide product development with research in Russia, China, Germany, Brazil, and Morocco. Charmaine has personally done research in 30 countries, most of it focused on Women’s Care. She has worked with startups, community groups, and even one of Ohio’s largest public school systems. She continued her professional education by getting certified in LEGO Serious Play, a technique for creative problem solving and strategic planning, and NeuroColor, a personality assessment based on brain science.
Charmaine has recently begun working with Women in Engineering on fundraising efforts to help further the organization's development. She also hopes to support WIE in growing a stronger brand identity and identifying ways they can support women engineering students.
After her successful time at Illinois and the amazing accomplishments throughout her career, Charmaine shared several life lessons that she wishes she knew back when she was a student: stay curious, make connections, set intentions, and know what gives you energy.
Nowadays, Charmaine still enjoys traveling with her husband of 44 years, Steve. She has been to 65 countries and has trips planned for the next couple of years to add even more to that number. Together they make award-winning wine with a group to share with family and friends. Charmaine and Steve have one son, Sean, who has a PhD in Materials Science & Engineering. Charmaine may not have followed a purely scientific route with her engineering physics degree. She has passed that torch to Sean who formed his own company, memQ, that is a part of the Illinois/Chicago quantum ecosystem. Sean is working with the IQMP (Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park) which is being built on the old South Works steel mill property – a place where Charmaine’s father and grandfathers all worked. Perhaps that’s a story for another day.