Meet the Engineers Behind “Engineering a Legacy of Diversity”
The team decided to portray alumni from different Duke engineering majors and backgrounds to show the wide array of engineers at Duke and their successes. From left top to right bottom on the mural: Stacy Gardner (‘91, Biomedical/Electrical Engineering), Kenneth Chestnut (‘68, Civil Engineering), Manlio Valdes (‘88, Electrical Engineering), Deborah Liu (‘98, Civil Engineering), and Valecia Maclin (‘92, Mechanical Engineering).
Meet the engineers featured in the mural!
Valecia Maclin (B.S. Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science)
Valecia Maclin leads the Microsoft Strategic Cloud Solutions with thought leadership for global cloud solutions for governments.
Maclin joined the technology leader, Microsoft Corp, in 2018 as the General Manager of Engineering, Customer Security, and Trust, where she was responsible for advancing customers’ trust in Microsoft products and services including providing engineering solutions to Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit, Law Enforcement and National Security Programs, Government Security Program, and corporate-wide security development lifecycle governance.
Prior to Microsoft, Maclin spent nearly two decades with the Raytheon Co. in leadership positions that included directing large mission critical programs in cybersecurity and national security in support of multiple intelligence agencies; the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; U.S. Department of Defense; and several federal civilian agencies. Maclin also held prior positions with Lockheed Martin Corp. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering and material science from Duke University; a Master of Science degree in the management of technology from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business; and multiple professional certifications including PMP, CISSP, ISSMP, GSLC, ITIL, and Agile SCRUM Master.
Maclin is a board director on the Advancing Minorities in Engineering (AMiE), the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering Board of Visitors, an external advisor to the Gates Foundation; and former board director of the DoD Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification – Accreditation Board (CMMC-AB), Software Assurance Forum for Excellence in Code (SAFECode) and the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCSA). Maclin is a transformative leader who is passionate about building the next generation of technology leaders investing her personal time in STEM initiatives, as well as diversity and inclusion in technology.
Deborah Liu (B.S. Civil Engineering)
https://pratt.duke.edu/about/news/deborah-liu-talk
Deb Liu is the President and CEO of Ancestry. With over 19 years in the tech industry, she has been named one of Business Insider’s most powerful female engineers and one of PaymentsSource’s most influential women in payments. She was previously a senior executive at Facebook, where she created and led Facebook Marketplace, a platform for millions of people to buy from and sell to one another. She also led the development of Facebook’s first mobile ad product for apps and its mobile ad network, in addition to building the company’s games business and payments platform, which includes Facebook Pay. Prior to Facebook, she spent several years in product roles at PayPal and eBay, where she led integration between the two products. She serves on theboard of Intuit and Ancestry and is a seed investor and advisor to several startups. She also holds several payments- and commerce-related patents.
Actively involved in promoting diversity in tech, Deb founded Women In Product, a nonprofit with over 30,000 members, with the goal of connecting and supporting women in the product management field. She is a member of the Committee of 100, a group of prominent Chinese Americans, and was named an A100 by Gold House, an honor recognizing impactful Asian Americans.
Deb received a BS in Civil Engineering from Duke University and an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Each week, she posts her thoughts in Perspectives, her Substack newsletter. She lives in California with her husband and three children, and enjoys chronicling their family adventures in her Mommy School comic strip.
Manlio Valdes (B.S. Electrical Engineering)
Manlio Valdes is the Vice President of Product Management and Marketing for Trane Commercial in North America. In this role, Manlio leads a cross-functional organization consisting of product management, pricing, applications engineering, marketing and strategic relationships to develop the right portfolio of safe, efficient and reliable Trane branded products. Manlio joined Ingersoll Rand in 1988 as a product specialist in the Air Solutions group. Since then, he has held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility and key leadership roles. During his tenure, he has held assignments in Venezuela, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Belgium and the United States. In his most recent previous role, as president of the Compressed Air Systems and Services business at Ingersoll Rand, Manlio led the team to more than 50 percent improvements in quality and customer satisfaction. Prior to this role, he was the president of the Europe, Middle East, India and Africa region for Ingersoll
Rand’s Climate Solutions sector, leading the Trane Commercial and Thermo King businesses within the region.
Manlio holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Duke University and a Master’s in Business Administration degree from Florida International University. He currently serves on the Board of Visitors at Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University.
In 2013, Manlio earned the Ingersoll Rand Chairman’s Award for Leadership, the company’s most prestigious leadership award.
Manlio and his wife, Alene, reside in Mooresville, North Carolina, and have two grown children.
Kenneth Chestnut (B.S. Civil Engineering)
https://pratt.duke.edu/about/news/kenneth-chestnut
Kenneth S. Chestnut, Sr. is the recipient of the 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award from Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering. He is the retired President and Chief Executive Officer of IBG Construction Services LLC (“IBG”) based in Atlanta, GA, which he founded in 1998. Under his leadership, IBG grew its revenues, expanded its core business activities geographically, and positioned IBG as an industry leader in the area of Sustainability. Kenneth was also a principal with the affiliated Real Estate firm, The Integral Group. Kenneth was in the construction industry for over 45 years and managed projects in San Francisco, Texas, Louisville, and Atlanta, including high-profile projects designed by renowned architects, I. M. Pei and John Portman. Kenneth had a successful track record with extensive experience in multi-family housing, education, transportation, industrial, healthcare, commercial, R&D labs, criminal justice facilities, Olympic Games venues, and major infrastructure. He also has an extensive track record with public-private partnerships in the industry.
Kenneth is a proud graduate of Duke University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering in 1968. He is a Viet Nam Veteran and previously served on Pratt School of Engineering’s Board of Visitors for several years.
Current civic and community boards:
- OLLI at Duke University Board of Advisors, Member
- North Carolina Coastal Federation, Board Vice President
- Oglethorpe University, Trustee Emeritus
- 100 Black Men of Coastal North Carolina, Member
- Williston Middle School, Mentor
- University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Cameron Business School, Mentor
- Spaulding Family Association and Foundation Board Member
- St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Senior Warden
Some past civic and community boards:
- Wilmington Housing Authority, Board Chair
- Ocean City Beach Citizens Council, President
- Metro Atlanta Boys and Girls Club Board
Stacey Gardner (B.S. Biomedical and Electrical Engineering)
Dr. Stacy Klein-Gardner received a BSE in biomedical and electrical engineering from Duke University in 1991. She then earned her M.S. from Drexel University in 1993 and her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Vanderbilt University in 1996.
Dr. Klein-Gardner served as the founding Director of the Center for STEM Education for Girls at the Harpeth Hall School in Nashville, TN. As a biomedical engineering professor, Stacy led NSF-funded programs such as Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) for nine years. She served as the Associate Dean for Outreach in the Vanderbilt School of Engineering from 2007-2010.
Stacy now serves as an Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University, where she is the co-PI and co-Director on the NSF-funded Engineering for US All (e4usa) project. e4usa seeks to demystify and democratize engineering through a one-year introduction to engineering high school course. As the grant portion of the e4usa project comes to its completion, Stacy has become the Executive Director of e4usa, a nonprofit company. She also serves as the Lead Engineer and Director of Partnerships of Youth Engineering Solutions (YES) Middle School.
Dr. Klein-Gardner is an active alumna of Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, where she serves as Chair of the Board of Visitors (2022-2024). She is a founding member of the Women’s Impact Network for Duke University and its Leadership Council. In 2012 she received the Distinguished Service Award from Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. Dr. Klein-Gardner serves on the Drexel School of Biomedical Engineering, Science & Health System’s Executive Advisory Council. Dr. Klein-Gardner is also active in the American Society for Engineering Education, serving as the chair of the society’s Board of Directors’ Committee on P12 Engineering Education from 2017-2020. She is a Fellow of the society.
Stacy is married to Matt and they have a middle-school age son, Andrew.