Duy-Loan T. Le: My Role Model

Duy Loan Le came to America in 1975 when she was 12-years old. Living in a new country with no father and a family of 9, mostly women and children doesn’t stop her from working hard and striking for the best. In 1979, Duy Loan graduated from Alief Hastings High School as a Valedictorian at age 16. In 1982, Duy-Loan received her BSEE from University of Texas with High Honor and not long after, she obtained her MBA from University of Houston while working full time as a memory design engineer at Texas Instruments, a Fortune 100 company and a leader in Digital Signal Processor and Analog. In 1989, Duy Loan was promoted to design manager and to program manager in 1994. Up to this date, Duy-Loan holds 18 patents and 10 pending applications. More astonishingly, in 2002, Duy Loan is became the first Asian-American and the first woman to get elected as a TI Senior Fellow (similar to a VP position in management) and she continues to be the only female elective senior fellow working along with the other 4 male elective senior fellows at Texas Instruments. Duy Loan has been featured in IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) SPECTRUM, Asian Enterprise trade journals and numerous local and international newspapers. She also received Top 20 Houston Women in Technology Award for Year 2000 from the Association of Women in Computing.

In her speech at the 2010 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, Duy Loan states that the challenge that we face nowadays at work is the collaboration across the boundary. According to her, in order to succeed in life, we must collaborate with others, but the first person we must collaborate is ourselves and the first boundary that we must cross is the person limitations that life brings us or we self-imposed sometimes. Using her personal experience, how a little 12 year old immigrant with no father, no money, no place to live, and no English speaking ability could become the first and only female senior fellow in TI, Duy-Loan wants to tell women across the globe that we should be confident to chase after our own dreams. One of her goal to close the disparity between men and women participation in technology is to have another female senior fellow in TI in the next 8 years or so.

Not only is a great contributor at TI, Duy-Loan also is a great contributor in the community. Her services to the community include:

• Director of Mona Foundation, promoting education for children and supporting social economic development in 10 countries
• Founding member & Advisory Board Director for Sunflower Mission, bringing educational assistance to children in Vietnam
• Founding member & Honorary Board Director for Science National Honor Society, promoting math and science at high schools
• Director of Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund National Board (APIASF)
• College of Engineering Foundation Advisory Council (EFAC) for The University of Texas College of Engineering
• University of Texas (UT) Commission 125 (by President invitation): shaping UT.s future for the next 25 years
• Houston Independent School District (HISD) Asian Strategic Partnership Advisory Board

Duy Loan is my role model not because she came from the same country and speaks the same native language like me, it is because of her courage and talent. She teaches me to believe in my ability and gives me the courage to strike higher in life.

References:
Duy-Loan T. Le. Retrieved from http://www.sciencenhs.org/le.html
Mrs. Duy-Loan T. Le. Retrieved from http://www.sunflowermission.org/Bio/Advisor/Duy_Loan
Who We Are: Duy-Loan T. Le. Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. Retrieved from http://anitaborg.org/about/who-we-are/duy-loan-t-le/
Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. Podcast retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/abiwt#p/c/1/PsEvCbjpvc4