Prism Award

Tuyet-Hanh Schnell is a weapons control systems engineering product lead at Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems for its Aegis Japanese Program in Moorestown, New Jersey. She oversees the technical aspects, costs, and scheduling for the design, development, integration, and testing of software products for the Japanese navy. Schnell travels internationally to perform software installation, integration, and testing while training Japanese naval personnel. She also works with customers to educate naval officers and crews on operation, maintenance, and deployment of systems.

Schnell mentors and trains junior engineers to build their technical acumen and develop domain knowledge. She is an instructor for the Lockheed Martin Systems Engineering 101 course, and is an Agile coach, teaching workshops throughout the United States, guiding programs in initiating new teams, helping evaluate improvement opportunities, and briefing customers on Agile processes and practices.

In her more than 30 years with Lockheed Martin, Schnell has held numerous technical leadership roles, including technical director, integrated product team lead, responsible engineer, Scrum Master, and subject matter expert. In each role, she championed diverse candidate slates and interviewer panels for technical and leadership positions.

Schnell came to the United States as a refugee and embraces the fact that she is often the first or only woman in the room, and consistently leverages her position to empower other women. An active Society of Women Engineers member, Schnell is FY24 president of the SWE Southern New Jersey Section and serves on the SWE outreach committee, the SWENext committee, and the Asian Connections affinity group. She attends STEM outreach events in her community and volunteers more than 500 hours annually.

Her support has reaped numerous awards, including the Advocating Women in Engineering Award (2022), WE Local Engaged Advocate Award (2022), and WE Local Legacy Award (2021). She received a special recognition award at the Women of Color conference in 2022 and numerous Lockheed Martin internal awards throughout her career, including the company’s Evening of Stars Excellence in Inclusion Award and Evening of Excellence Team Award. Schnell has also been honored by the U.S. Navy Aegis technical representative with an Aegis Excellence Award for Outstanding Performance, and her biography is featured in Asian American Women in Science: An Asian American History Book for Kids (Rockbridge Press, 2022).

Schnell holds a B.S. in engineering with honors from the Stevens Institute of Technology and an M.S. in electrical engineering from Drexel University. She is a certified lean Six Sigma green belt, and an active member of both the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers and the National Management Association.

Locally, Schnell serves on the South Jersey District board of directors for Junior Achievement of New Jersey. She is a co-founder of the STEM Gems outreach program for young girls with Girls Inc. of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. She sings in the Lockheed Martin choir and serves as a cantor at her church. She lives with her engineer husband and their two children in New Jersey.