Women in Engineering

Please join us at the WIE event for networking, socializing, and light refreshments. This year’s speakers are Dr. Diana L. Loree and Ms. Stephanie A. Miller. Their short biographies are below.

Dr. Diana L. Loree

Dr. Diana L. Loree received her PhD in Electrical Engineering from Texas Tech University with a specialty in pulsed power in 1991. She has been employed by the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Directed Energy Directorate (AFRL/RD) (or its predecessor, Phillips Laboratory) for 30 years. Her initial work in the high power microwave division concentrated on developing hardware and investigating the application of high power microwaves (also called HPM) for suppression of enemy air defenses and high power millimeter waves for nonlethal counter-personnel applications. She was the key hardware lead and Technical Manager for the Active Denial Technology (ADT) program (shown on 60 Minutes, Modern Marvels, Future Weapons). The ADT program successfully demonstrated long range, less-than-lethal capability in realistic scenarios and is still being pursued by joint forums. After 16 years in HPM, she was promoted into doing strategic planning for AFRL/RD’s Precision Engagement Product Line whose portfolio included the tactical level laser system technologies research along with counter-electronic high power microwave thrusts. Dr. Loree was promoted to the directorate’s Assistant Chief Scientist in 2011 working as part of the front office to provide scientific oversight, assessment, and guidance to the directorate’s >$200M/yr portfolio. Dr. Loree competitively won the position as Air Force Representative to the Joint Directed Energy Transition Office (DE JTO) in October of 2017 and except for returning to AFRL/RD from Jan-June of 2018 to be the Acting Chief Scientist, she continued in that position until May of 2022. There she is awarding $10’sM in efforts across academia/industry/services, overseeing and monitoring those contracts, and aiding in the joint strategic vision and planning for that office. In May of 2022, she left DE JTO to become the Branch Chief for Laser Effects, Modeling & Simulation in AFRL’s Laser Division (AFRL/RDLE). That branch contains high power laser work spanning from mathematical/basic physics modeling to engagement modeling and also material/target laser vulnerability research.

Dr. Loree is a Senior Member of IEEE, a Life Member of the Air Force Association, and a Member of the Directed Energy Professional Society where she just rotated off the Board of Directors after six years. She is also a member of the Texas Tech University Electrical and Computer Engineering Industrial Advisor Board.

Ms. Stephanie A. Miller

Ms. Stephanie Miller is an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Directed Energy Professional Society (DEPS) Fellow. She currently serves as the Chief of the Bioeffects Division, 711th Human Performance Wing, AFRL charting the course of directed energy bioeffects research. She was the principal investigator for the bioeffects efforts that directly led to the transition of the Active Denial System, a non-lethal directed energy counter-personnel weapon, from laboratory system, to Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration, and to fielding with an operational unit. In 2010, she was detailed to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Research & Engineering) where she served as Assistant Director, Human Systems Integration, in the Human Performance, Training, and BioSystems Directorate managing a $2.4B research portfolio. Before assuming her post as Division Chief, Ms. Miller was the Technical Advisor for AFRL’s Plans & Programs Directorate. She was hand-selected to create the Directed Energy Weapons Flight Plan for the Air Force. Her other leadership roles include chair of the Bioeffects subarea for the OSD Directed Energy and Non-lethal Weapons Community of Interest and subject matter support to the OSD Directed Energy Executive Research Council. She was also elected to serve on the prestigious Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Committee on Man and Radiation from 2007 through 2011 as well as the DEPS Board of Directors and Board of Scientific and Engineering Advisors.