Alyssa Roque

Engineering Project Manager I
Fresenius Medical Care

I love working with people and processes, and manufacturing is the crossroads of both. You cannot work in a vacuum; you must engage and bring out the best of others to work through projects and challenges. I see the impact of our work in production and that is rewarding.

Alyssa joined Fresenius in Feb 2017, straight out of the Navy and completely new to the civilian workplace, but she quickly learned the workings of a large medical device company and has already made significant contributions to improving products and processes.

In her first year with the company, Alyssa implemented a more efficient process to generate, review and close out non-conformances, leading to a reduction in their number and duration. Alyssa has led the implementation and sustainment of the continuous improvement program within her product line, which has resulted in an efficiency increase of over 30 percent within nine months. Her efforts have also helped reduce process fallouts by 25 percent, resulting in a savings of almost $1 million.

Having faced significant challenges during her career as a young female naval officer, Alyssa is determined to support other women in male-dominated organizations. She was a key team member in organizing the recent Fresenius Women’s Summit, which welcomed more than seventy participants from plants and sites across North America. Alyssa organized every detail and led valuable conversations during which she shared her stories of pain, hope and triumph. She has also participated in the local STEP Forward event, speaking to other women about her experiences in manufacturing.

In addition, Alyssa has served as a First Robotics mentor for a local team of high school girls. She invested much time and energy in supporting the rookie team as they tackled the concepts of project management and mechanical engineering, and applied those concepts toward their robot challenge. Throughout their First Robotics experience, the girls looked up to Alyssa as a role model and benefited from her advice and encouragement. The team was awarded the Rookie All-Star Award at their Regionals event and even went on to participate at the National Championship level.