IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2021 - 29

more than you do, who are smarter than
you, who make you look good, " she says.
This takes having the vision and being
able to get the people who will help you to
execute. That's what happened with Nunes
and Big Green Innovations in 2007, a program
she launched at IBM to use information
technology to solve environmental
problems. It all started with an opportunity-another
light-bulb moment-during
a water-monitoring research project
on which IBM was collaborating. " There
was a research project with reams of data
coming from all of the sensors that were
monitoring the river. We realized there
was a growing need to analyze and manage
high volumes of data related to water
systems, including private (business) and
municipal systems, " Nunes says.
And they did. Early on, the group developed
a partnership with the Nature Conservancy
to perform water basin management
and modeling in Brazil. In Ireland,
they collaborated with the Marine Institute
managing Galway Bay, working to understand
the water, tides, and aqua systems as
well as the food, boating, and fishing issues
in the bay. They partnered with well-known
water management companies to build and
support the IT side of the initiatives.
This became the basis for a new business
focusing on municipal water needs,
and in 2009, Nunes was named one of
the " Women Taking the Lead to Save Our
Planet. " Nunes served as vice president
of the Big Green Innovations group until
2010. At that time, she made one last
move before retirement when she became
vice president of Global Government and
Smarter Cities Strategy and Solutions,
a group focused on creating solutions
for governments and cities, " focused on
improving efficiency, saving money, and
bringing greater value to constituents. "
A Mentor and Volunteer
Nunes retired from IBM in 2012. In February
2019, she opened her mail to discover
that she was one of 104 candidates
from around the world who had been
elected to the National Academy of EngiToday,
Nunes volunteers with the Cape Cod Foundation, a community foundation
that provides student scholarships and nonprofit community grants totaling
approximately US$6 million a year. (Source: Greg Anderson.)
neering. " It totally blew me off my feet, "
she says. She attended the induction ceremony
in the fall of 2019.
In recent years, the National Academy
of Engineering has increased its focus
on supporting women by bringing more
women into the academy and making
sure that they are considered fairly. Today,
Nunes helps with that by sitting on
the review committee for nominations,
where the people nominated are " all so
phenomenal " that even Nunes admits she
has had " imposter syndrome moments. "
Today, Nunes volunteers with the Cape
Cod Foundation, a community foundation
that provides student scholarships
and nonprofit community grants totaling
approximately US$6 million a year.
She served as chair of the board for a
number of years and is now chair of the
Falmouth Town Fund, which has a particular
focus on raising and distributing
money in Falmouth, Massachusetts.
The focus is on supporting health and
human services, environmental initiatives,
arts and culture, and education and
youth services. At the annual grant review
in January, US$100,000 was awarded
to more than two dozen nonprofit organizations
around Falmouth.
Recently, she and the board have been
looking at the challenges the COVID-19
pandemic has brought to the community.
These challenges include homelessness,
mental health treatment, and substance
abuse, and the focus has been on nonprofits
working on these issues. Another
US$100,000 was awarded in June 2021 to
nonprofits working on these issues.
DECEMBER 2021
Through her volunteer work in town,
Nunes has found herself in the company
of three young women, all high school juniors
who plan to study mechanical, aerospace,
and biomedical engineering. She
has put them in touch with other engineers,
encouraging them to find mentors,
and informing them about the social networks
and professional organizations that
exist on campuses for women engineers.
She has been talking to them about getting
outside of their own comfort zones.
It is important to Nunes to mentor
young women and minorities. Her main
message is always that " there are other
people who have been through it and have
found it difficult-but you can do it. " She
knows it is important to give students the
encouragement they need to stick with
it. She sees how students today want to
tackle the challenges the world faces, and
she knows that engineering is the way to
do that.
" Water, energy, food insecurity,
cybersecurity, infrastructure, environmental,
and social justice issues.
These are all aspects of engineering
that are both challenging and fascinating
and offer opportunities for engineers
to have significant impact on
our world. Just about every area you
can touch, you can use engineering
skills, " she says. " It's a great career. "
-Katianne Williams is a
freelance writer specializing
in the technology field.
IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE
29
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2021

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