Major: Electrical Engineering
Originally from King Ferry, NY
Currently lives in Richmond, VA and Lake Titus, NY
While at Clarkson, Fessenden was a member of the basketball and volleyball teams, the Society of Women Engineers, Student Senate, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), and Tau Beta Pi (engineering honor society), and she worked on campus for food service and admissions, as well as serving as a lifeguard for Clarkson students using the SUNY Potsdam pool. She earned an MBA in 1981 and an MS in Systems Engineering in 1984, both from Clarkson. Fessenden worked at Alcoa from 1977 to 2005 and held positions of increasing responsibility. Her Alcoa career included positions in engineering management, marketing, smelting plant management, executive development, and business leadership. When she retired from Alcoa, she was President of Alcoa Flexible Packaging. From 2005 to 2007, Fessenden was Principal for the Operations Team at American Capital, which provides investment capital to middle market companies. Since 2008, Fessenden has been a board director for various public and private corporations. She was a long-time member of Clarkson’s Board of Trustees.
In this clip, Fessenden discusses her experiences in the workplace in the 1980s with sexual harassment, at a time when sexual harassment prevention was a relatively new concept.