UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The 2024 David Ford McFarland Award Lecture for Achievement in Metallurgy will be held at 3:05 p.m. Thursday, April 11, in 111 Wartik Laboratory on Penn State's University Park campus. Melissa Marshall, vice president of global audit, risk and controls at Westinghouse Electric Co., will deliver the lecture, “How MatSE prepared me for a career that I love (outside of MatSE).”
A reception featuring light refreshments will precede the lecture from 1:45 to 2:45 p.m. in the Steidle Building Atrium, providing an opportunity to meet the speaker and engage in informal conversations.
Marshall’s lecture will highlight how her journey as an undergraduate student studying materials science and engineering at Penn State started in one direction, and then took some unexpected turns that led her on the path to become a vice president accountable for the global internal audit, enterprise risk management, and global financial controls programs at Westinghouse.
In her current role, Marshall is responsible for rebuilding and transforming the internal audit team into a strategic business partner. In addition, the enterprise risk management team focuses on promoting a risk-aware culture and increasing enterprise value by facilitating risk-informed decision making. In 2020, Marshall created the Finance Leadership Development Program (FLDP) to develop leadership skills and build finance and strategic acumen for recent undergraduates beginning their careers at Westinghouse.
Previously at Westinghouse, Marshall was the vice president and chief compliance and risk officer and oversaw global trade compliance and enterprise risk management while building the global ethics and compliance function. Before that, she managed the new plant commercial offer process as the director of commercial planning. Her first role at Westinghouse was the manager of the enterprise risk management program, where she developed the program and processes to identify and mitigate large, enterprise-wide risks. Prior to Westinghouse, Marshall was an internal auditor and senior team lead at Alcoa and a consultant at Deloitte Consulting.
Marshall earned her bachelor of science degree with honors in materials science and engineering and a minor in economics from Penn State. She has an MBA from Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. Also, she earned a graduate certificate in strategic decision and risk management from Stanford University. Marshall is a licensed certified public accountant in Pennsylvania and received her certified internal auditor and qualification in internal audit leadership certifications.
Marshall is an active Penn State volunteer. Since 2016, she has been a member of the External Advisory Board for Schreyer Honors College and was a member of the Schreyer Alumni Society Board from 2010 to 2016. She was honored by the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences as a 125th Anniversary Fellow in 2022.
The 2024 David Ford McFarland Award for Achievement in Metallurgy will be presented to Marshall during the lecture. The award was established in 1948 by the Penn State Chapter of the American Society for Metals (now ASM International) to honor graduates of Penn State who have honorably distinguished themselves in some field of metallurgy. The award was named in honor of David Ford McFarland — former professor and department head.