Alumni Spotlight: Carolyn Pura '77, '79

Carolyn earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering at UC Davis in 1977 and ’79, respectively. She spent three decades as an engineering manager at Sandia National Laboratories, before departing in 2006 to become a nonprofit organization management consultant and contractor. During her time at Sandia, she helped develop the Department of Homeland Security’s nuclear countermeasures program, set the direction of verification measures while on assignment with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and worked in Washington, D.C., to support arms control negotiations, nonproliferation and treaty development. She also helped create groundbreaking verification technologies that remain in global use to this day. She continues to consult for the DOE’s Office of Dismantlement and Transparency, and she helped found Little Flock Children’s Homes, a nonprofit that opened an orphanage in Chennai, India.