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Sylvia Acevedo

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Sylvia Acevedo
Born1956 or 1957 (age 67–68)[1][2]
South Dakota, U.S.[3]
Alma materNew Mexico State University (B.S.)
Stanford University (M.S.)
TitleFormer CEO, Girl Scouts of the USA
PredecessorAnna Maria Chávez
SuccessorJudith Batty (interim)
Websitesylviaacevedo.org

Sylvia Acevedo (born 1956–1957) is an American engineer and businesswoman. She was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Girl Scouts of the USA from 2016 to 2020. A systems engineer by education, she began her career at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she was on the Voyager 2 team.[4][5] She has held executive roles at Apple, Dell, and Autodesk.[6] In 2018, Acevedo was included in a Forbes list of "America's Top 50 Women In Tech".[7] She was a founder, with three others of REBA Technology, an infiniband company that was sold and also the Founder and CEO of CommuniCard.[8] As CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA, Acevedo led the organization's largest release of badges, over 100 badges in STEM and Outdoors over three years.[9]

Early life and education

Sylvia Acevedo was born[10] near Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota where her father was serving as an officer in the military. Her family moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico. She joined the Girl Scouts at age seven. [11][10] She was active in the local Brownie troop, where she was encouraged to pursue her scientific interests in school. Acevedo collected newspaper articles about the space program and built Estes model rockets from a paper-and-plastic kits.[10]

In 1979 she earned a B.S. in industrial engineering from New Mexico State University. The National GEM Consortium awarded Acevedo with the GEM Fellowship to fund her graduate school studies at Stanford University.[12] She was one of the first Hispanic students at Stanford University to earn a M.S. in systems engineering.[13] In her memoir, "Path to the Stars," Acevedo revealed that it was stargazing on her first Brownies Girl Scout trip that ignited her interest in science.[7][12]

Sylvia Acevedo public speaking

Career

Acevedo joined IBM in 1980 as an engineer while studying at Stanford University.[14] She was on the Solar Polar Solar Probe (SPSP) and Voyager 2 teams at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.[12] She joined Apple in 1988 overseeing the Asia-Pacific region. Acevedo held other executive roles at Autodesk, Dell, REBA Technologies, and Tandem Ungermann-Bass.[15]

Acevedo founded Austin, Texas–based CommuniCard.[16] She was awarded the Business Award by The Aguila Awards Foundation in 2005.[17] In 2009, Acevedo joined the Girl Scouts of the USA national board of directors. President Barack Obama appointed Acevedo to the Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics in 2011.[18]

Acevedo was a national board member of the Girl Scout of the USA from 2009 to 2016. Acevedo is a former board member of the Hispanic Scholarship Consortium, Con Mi Madre and the Trinity School. Acevedo served on the founding executive board of the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders.[19] In July 2016 she was appointed interim CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA.

Acevedo was appointed permanent CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA in May 2017. Under her tenure, the Girl Scouts introduced over 100 badges in Outdoors and STEM badges in areas such as robotics, coding, engineering, and cybersecurity.[9]

In a Crain’s New York interview, Acevedo said, “Girl Scouts has always been an important part of my life, helping me as a young girl to develop the skills to become a leader,” Acevedo said in a statement. “My focus [at GSUSA] has been to raise the profile of the Girl Scout movement and mission, with the targeted aim to grow membership.”[9]

In 2018 she was listed on Forbes’ "America's Top 50 Women In Tech".[20] In 2018, Fast Company named Acevedo one of its “100 Most Creative People in Business”. Acevedo was awarded the 2019 Hispanic Heritage Award For Leadership.[21] In 2019, InStyle named Acevedo in The Badass 50: Meet the Women Who are Changing the World.[22]

Acevedo stepped down as CEO of the Girl Scouts on August 10, 2020.[23]

Acevedo joined the board of directors of Qualcomm in November, 2020 and serves on its Governance Committee.[24] In January 2022, she was named a member of the board of directors for Credo, an innovative company developing secure, high-speed connectivity solutions.[25] She joined the board of directors of Quark.ai, a generative AI startup, in 2023.[26]

Significant publications

2018: Clarion Books, Path To the Stars, My journey from Girl Scouts to Rocket Scientist, an aspirational middle school memoir. Sylvia Acevedo [27][28]

2016: Harcourt Mifflin Houghton, Critical Growth Needs for English Learner Preschoolers, Sylvia Acevedo [29]

2016: UCLA White paper: Realizing the Economic Advantages of a Multilingual Workforce, Dr. Patricia Gandara, Sylvia Acevedo [30]

References

  1. ^ Weber, Lauren (October 30, 2019). "Meet the Rocket Scientist Propelling Girl Scouts Into Digital Age" – via www.wsj.com.
  2. ^ Wolfe, Alexandra (October 5, 2018). "An Engineer's Bid to Modernize the Girl Scouts" – via www.wsj.com.
  3. ^ "Girl Scout CEO Sylvia Acevedo". Federal Communications Commission. October 2, 2019.
  4. ^ "How I became a rocket scientist and Girl Scouts CEO: Sylvia Acevedo". USA TODAY College. 2017-04-27. Retrieved 2017-07-02.
  5. ^ Kavilanz, Parija (2017-05-19). "Meet Sylvia Acevedo, the rocket scientist in charge of the Girl Scouts". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2017-07-02.
  6. ^ Gillies, Trent (2017-04-08). "Girl Scouts acting CEO explains why the charity is more than the sum of its cookies". CNBC. Retrieved 2017-07-02.
  7. ^ a b "Sylvia Acevedo". Forbes.
  8. ^ "HSF: HSF Stories Detail". www.hsf.net. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  9. ^ a b c "Notable Women in Technology - Sylvia Acevedo". Crain's New York Business. 2019-05-01. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  10. ^ a b c Wolfe, Alexandra (2018-10-05). "An Engineer's Bid to Modernize the Girl Scouts". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  11. ^ Mejia, Zameena (2017-08-03). "How Girl Scouts CEO Sylvia Acevedo plans to promote STEM education". CNBC. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  12. ^ a b c Acevedo, Sylvia (2018). Path to the Stars. Clarion Books. p. 292. ISBN 978-0-358-20693-4.
  13. ^ "Girl Scouts offer new badges for science, technology, engineering and math". NBC News. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  14. ^ Feloni, Myelle Lansat, Richard. "A rocket scientist-turned-CEO proved her boss wrong early in her career by booking a ticket to Latin America — and got herself a promotion". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-06-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ "HSF: HSF Stories Detail". www.hsf.net. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  16. ^ Gillies, Trent (2017-04-08). "Girl Scouts acting CEO explains why the charity is more than the sum of its cookies". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  17. ^ "UTSA president honored as Texas role model by Aguila Awards Foundation". www.utsa.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  18. ^ "President Obama Announces Members of the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics | U.S. Department of Education". www.ed.gov. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  19. ^ engr_media. "National Hispanic-Serving Institution Engineering Spotlight | College of Engineering | New Mexico State University". Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  20. ^ "Sylvia Acevedo". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  21. ^ "2019 Hispanic Heritage Awards: How To Watch". Billboard. 2019-10-09. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  22. ^ "The Badass 50: Meet the Women Who Are Changing the World". InStyle. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  23. ^ "First black woman named interim CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA". WTOC-TVaccessdate=October 14, 2024. August 11, 2020.
  24. ^ "Qualcomm's Board of Directors Appoints Sylvia Acevedo and Greg Johnson to Board". aithority.com. 2020-11-23. Retrieved 2022-11-27.
  25. ^ Credo (2022-01-04). "Credo Appoints Lip-Bu Tan as Chairman and Bolsters Board with the Addition of Industry Veterans Sylvia Acevedo and Manpreet Khaira". Credo. Retrieved 2023-12-01.
  26. ^ "Quark.ai Appoints Sylvia Acevedo to Board of Directors". Yahoo Finance. 2023-07-18. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  27. ^ "Sylvia Acevedo's Inspirational Path to the Stars Memoir". moonbridgebooks.com. September 10, 2018. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  28. ^ Path to the Stars By Sylvia Acevedo Published by Clarion Books 2018 isbn 978-0-358-20693-4
  29. ^ "Critical Growth Needs for English Learner Preschoolers" (PDF). Harcourt. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  30. ^ Realizing the Economic Advantages of a Multilingual Workforce' Dr. Patricia Gandara, Sylvia Acevedo, Retrieved 8/10/20
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