Five Northrop Grumman Employees Receive Top Awards at 2014 Black Engineer of the Year Conference

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) employees Art Lofton, Robyn De Wees, Calvin Pennamon, Gerard Spivey and Gregory West received top awards at the annual Black Engineer of the Year Award (BEYA) STEM Global Competitiveness Conference held Feb. 6-8 in Washington, D.C. BEYA acknowledges excellence in accomplishments in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. An additional 15 Northrop Grumman employees were recognized as BEYA Modern-Day Technology Leaders at the conference.

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The employees were recognized for their dedication to community service, educational leadership and outstanding technical and professional contributions, among other achievements.

Lofton, the sector vice president of Global Quality at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, received the Industry Career Achievement award. He is responsible for the complete scope of quality including mission assurance, process excellence, design excellence, supplier quality, continuous improvement and safety assurance. He has served as sector vice president and chief information officer of Enterprise Shared Services, deputy program manager for the Long Range Strike program, and the director of Operations Rapid Development and Production Processes. Lofton earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

De Wees received the Corporate Promotion of Education award and is a director of Mission Assurance for Northrop Grumman Information Systems. She has held various leadership roles in program and technical management, process development and is a Six Sigma Black Belt. She works with organizations to improve STEM opportunities for underprivileged and underrepresented youth and adults, and is active in Northrop Grumman employee resource groups such as Women in Northrop Grumman and the African-American Task Group. De Wees earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from The Catholic University of America.

Pennamon received a Special Recognition award. He has management and lead engineering responsibilities for operations in support of the Air Force Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) for Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems. Prior to joining Northrop Grumman, he served in the Air Force where he oversaw strategic and theater missile launch detection using SBIRS. Pennamon earned bachelor's degrees from Clemson University in Biological Science and from Regis University in computer science.

Spivey, a cyber software engineer in Northrop Grumman Information Systems, received a Special Recognition award. He is the principal investigator for research in support of testing and categorizing high-speed ingress and filtering technologies. Spivey earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Howard University.

West received a Special Recognition award and is a chief engineer for Northrop Grumman Electronics Systems. He manages an array of test programs for surveillance systems, and land and self-protection systems in Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems. He has held various technical, managerial and leadership positions in the defense and space industry. West has supported the development of engineers in Northrop Grumman through mentoring, and worked on STEM initiatives with high school and middle school students, including helping create a STEM program at Howard University. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Howard University, and master's degrees from Loyola College in electrical engineering and from Johns Hopkins University in technical and organization management.

The 15 Northrop Grumman employees who were honored as BEYA Modern-Day Technology Leaders are: Shawnette Adams, Amani Foster, Eboni Fotang, Michele Fox, Charles Garrett, Vincent Hodges, Kent Ishigooka, Gowri Kannan, Arthur Okotete, Simonetta O'Riordan-Adjah, Rina Patel, Brad Swardson, William Thomas, Zachary Van Note and Richard Vitek.

Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in unmanned systems, cyber, C4ISR, and logistics and modernization to government and commercial customers worldwide. Please visit www.northropgrumman.com for more information.

SOURCE Northrop Grumman Corporation