While Diana leads Symbol Training Institute by providing hands-on training and job placement through her institution, she strongly advocates for women's equality in manufacturing by promoting the profession to women. In fact, Diana founded and is currently president of Manufacturing Next, a 501c3 organization that was created to promote manufacturing careers to women and youth. She also serves as the current co-chapter president of Women in Manufacturing (WiM) Illinois chapter and oversees spearheading the growth of that organization.

Since Symbol's emergence in 2005, Diana's persistence has helped place thousands of Symbol's graduates into high paying, high demand jobs and has expanded the course curriculum to better serve the manufacturing industry. In 2013, through Diana’s efforts, Symbol was designated a Manufacturing Sector Center for all of Cook County. Symbol has also been the No. 1 ranked National Institute of Metalworking Skills (NIMS) credentialing provider in the nation.

Diana has served as a panelist on several manufacturing workforce development conferences and has won several industry awards. “I am proud that I am helping to keep the manufacturing industry strong and combating the skilled labor shortage by providing a consistent and reliable pipeline of certified and credentialed machinists (Symbol alumni) for the U.S. manufacturing industry,” she says.

To read about other Production Machining 2018 Emerging Leaders, click here.