Corning Women Recognized for Outstanding Achievements in STEM

The Women of Color (WOC) STEM Digital Twin Experience (DTX) Conference recently recognized the 2023 Women of Color in STEM award winners during a recognition event in Detroit, Michigan. The annual three-day event honored the impactful achievements of diverse leaders in STEM and offered professional development and networking opportunities for attendees. This year's theme was "Waves of Change, Oceans of Opportunity."

Corning has participated in the Women of Color in STEM awards for more than 20 years. Since then, more than 90 Corning employees have been honored. This year, the annual Women of Color gala was attended by more than 1,000 STEM advocates across a variety of industries.

During the Saturday evening ceremony, Eric Musser, president and chief operating officer, presented the Professional Achievement Awards category, which recognizes recent and remarkable accomplishments that have ignited changes and served as an inspiration and forged new frontiers.

Within that category, Dr. Ashley Johnson-Long, Musser’s chief of staff, was recognized for her Professional Achievement in Industry. 

“[Ashley’s] advocacy includes serving on the leadership team for Corning’s former Black Growth Council and participating in programs that empower young women in their careers,” said Eric. “With her extensive experience, technical expertise, and commitment to diversity and community service, Dr. Ashley Johnson-Long continues to make a significant impact in engineering and technology.” 

Prior to her current role as chief of staff, Ashley served as the Perfect Die Program Manager and later Plant Engineering Manager of the Integrated Die Manufacturing Plant in Corning Environmental Technologies (CET). Ashley led her team to develop and deliver a portfolio of new die manufacturing techniques to increase capacity and improve capability to meet CET’s growing demand, and support of new products including GPF and FLORA. The improvement gains and new technology introductions in the die manufacturing process resulted in improved extrusion performance and die quality amounting to millions in cost savings for the Division. 

Ashley joined Corning in 2012 as a senior process control system engineer in MT&E. She led the MT&E Data Analytics Initiative for Corning. In this role, she drove the development of the MT&E Data Analytics Initiative 5-year corporate strategy including the development of a process flow covering data management, analysis, and control. Her team utilized multivariate approaches and tools to improve engineering efficiency and problem-solving effectiveness.

The Women of Color STEM DTX conference also hosted an awards ceremony on Friday afternoon where two other Corning women were recognized for their outstanding achievements. 

Claire was recognized as a Technology Rising Star for her success as a technical leader and for her significant accomplishments in quality control since she started with Corning in 2012. 

“I have had the pleasure of being Claire’s supervisor for the last five years. Claire is a technical leader with significant accomplishments who leads by example and is a promoter of Corning’s diverse and inclusive environment,” said Karen Maxwell, senior manager, Quality and Statistical Engineering. “During her time at Corning, Claire has been a key resource when launching the Pharmaceutical Technology’s business by creating a quality control framework - critical to vial manufacturing, has identified critical to quality attributes that contribute to Corning’s manufacturing strategy for high-volume facilities, and continually drives impact using statistics and data driven solutions.

Kimberly was recognized as a Technology All-Star for her success leading critical new product introductions, and equipment capacity and capability improvement projects. 

“It is a singular honor for me to nominate Kimberly for the Women of Color Technology All Star Award,” said Jonathan Levinson, director, Global Project Management, Optical Connectivity Solutions. “During more than 12 years I have worked with Kimberly, she has always ensured she has full technical understanding of the work she leads and leverages that knowledge to develop and enable her team to deliver technical, cost-effective solutions.” 

Dr. Mark Vaughn, director, STEM partnerships and early talent pipeline development, and a Women of Color STEM awards selection committee chair, described the women who were recognized as, “inspirational."

“The goal of the Women of Color in STEM Awards has continued to be as relevant as ever – recognizing extraordinary women from diverse backgrounds who have made significant contributions to STEM, while also working to attract and retain more women in scientific and technical careers.”