Dr. Joan B. Woodard is Executive Vice President and Deputy Laboratories Director for Nuclear Weapons at Sandia National Laboratories. Sandia’s role is to provide engineering support and design to the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, provide our customers with research, development, and testing services, and manufacture specialized non-nuclear products and components for national defense and security applications. The laboratories enable safe and secure deterrence through science, engineering, and management excellence. Prior to her current assignment, Dr. Woodard served as Executive Vice President and Deputy Director, responsible for Sandia’s programs, operations, staff and facilities; developing policy and assuring implementation; and strategic planning. Her Sandia history began in 1974, and she rose through the ranks to become the Director of the Environmental Programs Center and the Director of the Product Realization Weapon Components Center; Vice President of the Energy & Environment Division and Vice President of the Energy Information and Infrastructure Technologies Division. Joan has been elected to the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and has served on numerous external panels and boards, including the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, the National Academy of Sciences’ Study on Science and Technology for Countering Terrorism, the Secretary of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Council, the Congressional Commission on Electromagnetic Pulse, and the Intelligence Science Board. Joan has received many honors, including the Upward Mobility Award from the Society of Women Engineers, and was named as “One of Twenty Women to Watch in the New Millennium” by the Albuquerque Journal. She also received the Spirit of Achievement Award from National Jewish Hospital.
