Illumination Sessions: Lighting the Pathway to Success
Armour College of Engineering students are invited to attend Illumination Sessions: Lighting the Pathway to Success, an event co-hosted by Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Institutional Advancement, Career Services and Campus Life. The event will feature Armour College of Engineering alumna and current Chief Engineering for North American and Global Midsize Trucks at General Motors, Anita Burke. If you would like to attend, please RSVP here.
Speaker Bio
Anita Burke is Vehicle Chief Engineer for North American and Global Midsize Pickup Trucks at General Motors. She oversees all engineering aspects of midsize pickup truck development at GM, covering models such as the Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon and the all-new Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 in the U.S.
Her global responsibilities include the Chevrolet Colorado/S10 pickup and the Chevrolet Trailblazer SUV.
Pickups developed by Burke’s team have won major industry awards, including recognition in back-to-back years for the 2015 and 2016 Chevrolet Colorado models as Motor Trend “Truck of the Year.”
Altogether, Burke leads the engineering development of trucks sold in more than 90 countries throughout the world.
Burke played a significant role in reigniting the dormant midsize truck program at General Motors, against many voices of opposition in the industry. Since the launch of the Colorado and Canyon in 2014, GM has sold more than 400,000 midsize trucks in the U.S., alone, and these vehicles have brought new customers to both Chevy and GMC, spurring growth in major markets such as Los Angeles that have been historically challenging territory for the company.
“I feel like a proud parent of the revitalized midsize truck program at GM, and take a great deal of pride in enriching our customers’ lives throughout the world. I also love presiding over a team of some of the smartest and most passionate engineers in the business. This is my dream job, and it’s been a career highlight to both nurture and be challenged by some of the top talent in the automotive world as we help to make GM the most complete truck company in the industry.”
Burke is a 26-year veteran of General Motors, currently based at GM’s Vehicle Engineering Center in Warren, Michigan. She previously served overseas as Vehicle Chief Engineer for Midsize Pickup Trucks and Director for Global Aftersales Engineering, both roles based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Her additional international assignments include a three-year tour as the Engineering Group Manager for Body Structure Design at General Motors de Mexico.
Burke has also managed Vehicle Performance for crossovers and midsize trucks at the Milford Proving Ground and was Lead Development Engineer for the 2008-2011 model year Hummer H2 and 2010 model year light duty pickup programs.
She is a recipient of the 2017 Rodica Baranescu Award for Technical and Leadership Excellence from the Society of Automotive Engineers. Burke has been a member of SAE since 1993 and sat on the SAE Women Engineers Committee from 2002 to 2009.
Burke holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Honors, from the Illinois Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Dearborn.
A native of Skokie, Illinois, Burke is a first-generation Irish American. Outside of work, she has traveled extensively for pleasure through North, South and Central America, Europe and Southeast Asia. She also sponsors at-risk high school students as part of the Visitation Scholarship Program in Chicago. Burke resides in both Bloomfield Hills and Traverse City, Michigan.
Co-hosted by Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Institutional Advancement, Career Services & Campus Life