​Kris Acosta, Senator

​Kris Acosta is a Program Manager at Northrop Grumman Corporation (NGC), working on the capture and development of advanced space systems capabilities.  She joined NGC in 2003 and has worked in a variety of positions from systems engineering, global supply chain, program operations, and program management in the areas of unmanned systems, manned aircraft, directed energy, and space systems.  Prior to joining NGC, she worked at Boeing for eight years as a Thermal Protection Systems engineer developing advanced insulation systems for reusable launch vehicles.
Acosta holds a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Masters in Architecture-based Enterprise Systems Engineering from the University of California, San Diego.
Acosta joined SWE in 2013 and served SWE Los Angeles as the Professional Development Conference Chair for four years.  Acosta has been active in the Curriculum Committee since 2015 and was the FY20 Curriculum Chair.  She has worked with SWE to develop the SWENext Community Award to encourage high school students to pursue STEM careers that NGC has sponsored since 2016.  In 2018, Acosta received the Prism award.  She is a member of Women in Defense Greater Los Angeles Chapter and was the 2019 President.