The career website Indeed recently published an article naming the common characteristics of a successful engineer. Not surprisingly, traits such as critical thinking, technical competence, problem solving, design knowledge, and math proficiency topped the list. With nearly two decades of experience as a product development engineer, Associate Director of Operations Bernadette Boudreaux checks all these boxes and more. But she has other skills up her sleeve as well.

Told once, “you are not just an engineer in your career but also engineer of the life you want for yourself,” Bernadette has a flair for eliciting laughs that has landed her regular appearances on a live TV and radio comedy sketch show, as well as gigs as a stand-up comedian. She also adds variety to her days by orchestrating the flow of fun as Master of Ceremonies for the weddings and events of family, friends, and local organizations, such as Delta Sigma Theta.

This enthusiasm and energy serves Bernadette well in the multilayered work she performs for the DLC, where she provides technical expertise for policy development and process improvement and manages operational contracts and policies related to application processing in the Solid-State Lighting, Horticultural Lighting, and Networked Lighting Controls programs. A former product development engineer in the automotive and lighting industries, Bernadette was introduced to the DLC while designing lighting products to meet its technical requirements. Since joining the DLC in 2018, Bernadette says she has come to appreciate the vast complexity and nuanced nature of the lighting industry with its diverse set of stakeholders.

Attracted to the DLC by a desire for a career that makes a positive impact on the environment, Bernadette credits the DLC’s focus on energy efficiency for making her “a proud environmental enthusiast…committed to being conscious of my ability to make changes in my work life, industry commitments, and personal life.”

A graduate of Howard University’s Mechanical Engineering program and Harvard University’s Women in Leadership Professionals course, Bernadette’s professional affiliations include membership in the Illuminating Engineering Society’s (IES) Testing Procedures Committee, IES Emerging Professionals Committee, IES Atlanta Chapter, and the California Energy Alliance Board of Directors. She’s also been a speaker at several industry conferences.

She is also an inaugural member of IES’ Diversity, Equity, Inclusions, and Respect Working Group, and volunteers with the Blacks Underrepresented in Lighting and Design (BUILDUP) Professionals Group, as well as serving as an Active Mentor to Young Women in STEM. Recently, Bernadette also took on a leadership role working with the US Department of Energy to convene and direct a new Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Respect (DEIR) in Lighting group.

When she isn’t streamlining DLC lighting policies, striving to enhance the lighting industry, making people laugh, or volunteering, Bernadette is apt to be planning her next trip. With more than 25 countries under her belt, she has hopes of visiting more than 100 nations around the globe – documenting them with patches displayed on her favorite travel jacket.