Katelyn Kirsch has a bachelor's degree in Metallurgical Engineering from South Dakota Mines and a master’s degree in Project Management from Strayer University. Her time in the industry began at Huron Casting Corporate Services as a metallurgical engineer. Through her work experiences, Katelyn has gained technical knowledge across many disciplines: various processes for making steel in a continuous casting mill and shell casting foundry; heat treating for components from different industries, particularly automotive; and multi-industry metallurgical inspections. She has developed strong skills in the lab including handling testing production samples, failure analysis and material characterization, and Production Part Approval Processes, such as PFMEA development.

At Federal Screw Works (FSW), Katelyn was the metallurgical lab supervisor, a metallurgical lab in the automotive industry. In this position, she managed the metallurgical lab and developed new heat treat lines and established processes and testing standards. In the lab, Katelyn was an exceptional leader: She strived for excellence in her work, product development, and education of the lab technicians and others involved in the projects. One example of this was how Katelyn achieved a very difficult heat treat process on a specific part that the original manufacturer could not achieve. To do this, Katelyn used software and research development to achieve this heat treat process that was previously considered impossible. This was a giant leap in the successful development of the part and elimination of a high scraping issue on a certain set of parts the company had taken on.

Moving from her leadership position at FSW to join Moeller Aerospace, Katelyn is on track to assume the leadership of a new metallurgical lab in development, followed by the planning of all equipment being installed to begin the validation and certification of the testing process. She will also be a forefront technical leader in the vertical integration of the company. Her current role at Moeller Aerospace is quality engineer, however, her projects will include the establishing of heat treating and other operations in the coming years.