Loretta Arellano
Biography
A dedicated leader whose volunteer efforts have spanned many IEEE major organizational units at all leadership levels, Loretta Arellano has shown remarkable initiative in identifying and developing opportunities to carry out the Institute’s mission of advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Balancing her professional career—where she was an expert in reliability, maintainability, and logistics at Raytheon Company—with her IEEE service, Arellano has inspired teams and promoted cooperation among IEEE organizational units. In 2013, she was instrumental in meeting the IEEE Member and Geographic Activities (MGA) Board’s goal of modernizing the volunteer experience. Recognizing a need to train promising volunteers, she proposed and created what is now known as the Volunteer Leadership Training Program (VoLT) to identify and develop leaders from the ranks of IEEE’s local organizational units. The program introduces aspiring leaders to leadership skills and all aspects of IEEE operations and involving each of IEEE’s major organizational units. Each VoLT trainee is assigned a mentor who shepherds the volunteer through a practical project designed to provide practical leadership experience. The volunteer participates in interactive webinars along with completion of a leadership project. The end result is a volunteer who is prepared to assume higher levels of responsibility in leading IEEE activities. For better efficiencies of staff and volunteer resources, Arellano also implemented a plan to integrate the MGA’s training activities into a single committee, providing a one-stop approach to volunteer training and leadership development. She mergedVoLT, the IEEE Center for Leadership Excellence (CLE), and the MGA Training Committee into one committee whose mission is to focus on all aspects of volunteer training. Among her many positions, she has served as Region 6 Director, Division 6 Director, and was President of the IEEE Reliability Society.
An IEEE Senior Member and an Institute for the Advancement of Engineering Fellow, Arellano is senior manager (retired) with Raytheon. She lives in Sun Valley, CA, USA.
