Gladys Juenger applies for membership

The Rotary Club of Three Creeks continues to attract new members, as Gladys Juenger has applied for membership!

Gladys is from the beautiful beach town of San Carlos, Mexico and the third of four siblings. She grew up playing competitive tennis and spent 14 years in an only-girls catholic school - no, she did not become a nun. From an early age, she was curious about how things around her worked and how these were built, so she became an engineer. She earned her BS in Industrial Engineering in Mexico.

She came to the USA to learn English as a second language, as the place where she grew up is a retirement place for Americans and Canadians, and she wanted to have conversations with her neighbors. She then moved to Tucson, AZ to pursue her graduate studies, and graduated (twice) from The University of Arizona. First, with a Master in Science in Mechanical Engineering (2014). In Summer 2015 she took a well deserved Eurotrip to Spain, France, Germany, and Switzerland. Then she graduated with a Master in Science in Engineering Management (2016). Gladys was an instructor at the University of Arizona for eight years; this experience ignited her passion for supporting students to reach their potential.

She moved to Lake Oswego in late 2017 for career purposes in the medical devices industry and to be close to family; well, the last did not last much, as her sister moved to California after one year she got here… buh-bye! She was a workaholic from 2017-2020 - so not much to share except boring engineering stuff but at least she grew in her career.

Fast forward... She hiked and backpacked almost every weekend in 2021. Her great accomplishment was to summit Mt. Bachelor. Then, her then boyfriend-turned hubby motivated her to pursue scuba diving and she earned her cert in Spring 2023 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

She recently moved to Vancouver when she married her better half, Todd Juenger, on October 30, 2023 in Kona, Hawaii. She took a sabbatical and has tried golfing a few times but still no spark for this sport - she decided then to be the golf cart driver while sipping wine watching her hubby play. In her sabbatical, she has sharpened her cooking skills, tried DIY crafts, gardening - killing at least a dozen of tropical plants, and hiked on weekdays (yei!). Also, attended hubby’s social events and conferences (love these if they serve good wine), and took a few engineering courses (as her brain was asking for challenging things). She is 100 percent ready to go back to being an engineer though.

She loves dogs but has a funny and talkative yellow crown Amazon parrot named Lulu that loves the taste of her husband's skin - Todd now has a beautiful scar in her back. Fortunately, Lulu has not experienced Todd’s great roasting skills and is still alive. Lulu has been with her for almost 20 years. Gladys’ happy place is nature; either the ocean or hiking/backpacking the beautiful Pacific Northwest. However, hubby prefers to sleep cozy, so car trips have replaced hiking, hotels instead of tents and beds instead of sleeping bags.

Gladys has accumulated 10-plus years of experience in the medical, alternative energy, SMT/PCBA and semiconductors industries, as Senior Process Manufacturing Engineer and Lean Mfg. Leader.  She won the Technology Rising Star at the 2021 Women of Color STEM Conference while working at Abbott and the 2022 Professional of the Year Award from the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) National, given to outstanding engineers who have made a difference among K-12 and university students through advocacy, support for STEM and mentoring in Oregon and Southern Washington.

Giving back is close to her heart. She has volunteered and served on the board of different non-profit organizations in her community. Since June 2023 she has volunteered at Meals on Wheel, Luepke Center in Vancouver, WA. In Spring 2022, Gladys volunteered her time and technical expertise for the OSU Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, as a judge in the Launch Academy Competition, OSU Next Great Startup, and InventOR Collegiate; programs hosted by Innovation X. She also volunteered for the 2022 Portland State University Cleantech Challenge. She was on the board of the Lake Oswego Transitional Shelter Ministry (LOTSM) from 2020-2022 to help families transition from homelessness to a dignified life. She served for two consecutive years (2021 & 2022) as the president of the SHPE Oregon Chapter, leading the chapter to win for the first time ever an award. Under her leadership they won the 2021 SHPE Blue Chip Award, given to chapters that are growing solidly and making an impact in their community, and the 2022 Chapter of the Year during the annual national SHPE conference in Orlando, Fla.