Cheryl O’Brien
Dr. Cheryl O’Brien worked for over 30 years at the Idaho National Laboratory in engineering and management for Westinghouse, Lockheed-Martin, Bechtel, and Battelle subsidiaries. As one of few women in senior management she directed Engineering Programs including criticality and nuclear safety, engineering design, and structural analysis. Her management career included bringing green building design and clean energy advocacy to the Laboratory as one of the first LEEDTM Accredited Professionals in Idaho. With a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Civil Engineering her technical expertise is natural hazard structural analysis. She was invited to speak on natural disaster testing in Tokyo and Gold Coast, and planned international conferences and led technical sessions in Manchester, Prague, Helsinki, and Mumbai. Post career, she completed a Doctor of Arts degree in Political Science with a focus on state legislative adoption of nuclear energy policy and understanding attitudes and risk perception. She is now working part-time as an Associate Director for a non-profit organization advancing women in business.