Laguna knew from a very young age that she had a passion for manufacturing. When she was around eight years old, while on a tour of a manufacturing plant, she was fascinated, and remembers asking her parents, “What do I have to study, for this to be my job?”
Laguna is an MPD (Material Process Delivery) Leader at Procter & Gamble, working from the ground up on development of a new manufacturing plant, the Greenfield Manufacturing Plant Start-Up, which is the largest capital investment in the company’s history. Despite the technical challenges of the process, Laguna said she is excited to be a part of defining the culture of a manufacturing plant for the next 100 years. She manages a team that qualifies the making processes, formulas, and materials for products that are made at the new plant, including Dawn, Bounce, and Swiffer. As the final qualification before products are shipped to market, and partnering closely with the company’s design engineering team, Laguna and her team establish the new standards, training, and work processes. Prior positions at P&G included Process Engineer and Line Leader (Line Manager) in Kansas City.
As a MechSE student at Illinois, she was very involved in ASME, and also engaged in campus-level service including as a tour guide and as a lead Engineering 100 ELA (Engineering Learning Assistant). Laguna was also part of Team Tech for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). The team collaborated with Abbott to create packaging for a consumer product, an experience that helped her understand how consumer needs can help drive business. She said it was empowering to be part of an all-female team of competent and articulate engineers.
Laguna said her MechSE classes taught her how to handle the everyday rigors and challenges of her job, but her extracurricular activities taught her how to demonstrate and communicate the work she does, which is a skill she feels makes her more effective in her professional life. Laguna said she received a well-rounded education, and was given the tools to be successful in any industry because she was exposed to so many different topics. “I left Illinois as a more confident individual because of the time I spent struggling, laughing, sharing, conquering. I was lucky to have a network of people with similar goals and interests.”