Role and Company

Master Process Pro, John Deere

Expertise

20 years experience in manufacturing & construction

Location

Moline, IL

About Ronica

I earned my B.S. in psychology in August 1995. During my last semester, I sought support for determining what career would best fit me. Engineering was prominent on the list, so I visited The University of Iowa College of Engineering. I was accepted and started my mechanical engineering education in August 1995 at the age of 28. I met my husband at the engineering college at the beginning of our junior year. He is a disable veteran (US Navy) and was a non-traditional student, like me. He graduated in May 1999, we got married on 9/11/1999, and then I graduated in May 2000. While he finished his senior year, I worked full time as an applications engineer for a dynamic analysis software company.
Upon graduation, I started working at John Deere as a test engineer for small grain headers. I talked to the design analysis team leader about my interest in dynamic analysis. 18 months later, I was invited to learn computational fluid dynamics (CFD). I jumped at the chance. I had just finished my first class toward my M.S. in mechanical engineering and
our son was almost 1 year old. I performed CFD analysis for 3 years on harvesting combines, and then I transferred to our Construction & Forestry Division (C&FD) in December 2004. At the same time, we adopted our youngest son, who is only 10 weeks younger than his brother. I continued to perform CFD analysis on all construction and forestry equipment, including military applications. I finished my M.S. in M.E. in August 2007 as my sons were beginning first grade. I had the opportunity to transfer to the John Deere cylinder factory in December 2008 as a quality project/program manager. In April 2012, I transferred into a program/portfolio manager position for software as part of an Enterprise group. In October 2014, I moved to Waterloo, Iowa, and became an Electronics COE (Center of Excellence), which is project/program management for all software and electronics on my large tractor program. In October 2016, I became a production line supervisor for 9000 Series tractor transmissions. And in February 2018, I moved into my current position.
My husband is a big reason I signed up as a Mentor. I am thankful for all the sacrifices he has made and each of our veterans have made to ensure our freedom.
I am honored to be able to support our veterans in any way I can.