Donna M. King (1989)
Donna King is a senior business leader for a team of program managers supporting NASA and Department of Defense engineering services contracts. She has supported teams that worked on early design and analysis for the Mars Rover as well as the integration and test of the instrument system on the James Webb Space Telescope. Donna is proud of the success she has achieved as a leader and values her relationships with her employees.
Donna was commissioned an Ensign in the U.S. Navy Reserve in 1989 and taught officers at the Naval Nuclear Power School. After completing her master’s degree in engineering, she joined the crew on the USS Monongahela and qualified as a Surface Warfare Officer and Officer of the Deck during two Mediterranean deployments and exercises in Guantanamo Bay and Puerto Rico. She received the Navy Achievement Medal, Meritorious Unit Commendation and Battle “E” Award, in addition to other service awards, before she resigned her commission in 1996.
While earning her MBA at Vanderbilt University in 2003, she received a Committee of 200 scholarship.
Donna volunteers as a program manager helping the Engineering Department at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, an HBCU, make use of existing lab equipment with the goal of the lab operating as a NASA or government contractor. She is also a volunteer at her parish and with the Little Sisters of the Poor and participates in various outreach programs that help feed those in need.
“At Seton Hill, we were treated with equality,” Donna said. “While it did not occur to me then that as a woman I would face barriers in the workplace, Seton Hill gave me the confidence to overcome these barriers and make a point of removing them for others.”