2024 Alumni Service Award
Lois Findlay is known for her lifelong dedication and support of the Carnegie Mellon alumni community. Her collaborative style, Tartan spirit and keen leadership — along with her enthusiasm and engagement — have been instrumental in the growth of the university's Washington, D.C., and Greater Maryland Networks.
Lois earned her master of science in industrial administration from the Graduate School of Industrial Administration, now the Tepper School of Business, in 1991. Her early career focused on market research, financial analysis and management roles before she entered the world of consulting in the dot-com era. Her firm, Elements Consulting, helped small- to mid-sized technology firms with business analysis, software development and implementation along with cost analysis, quote-to-bill processes and inventory management engagements.
Her involvement with the CMU alumni community began in the 1990s when she revived the Washington, D.C., Tepper alumni network, building the foundation for today's thriving and engaged chapter. After relocating to Annapolis, Maryland, in the 2000s, she continued to lead the D.C. Tepper group while helping to launch a new CMU Greater Maryland Network, which connects alumni from across the state in counties not adjacent to the nation's capital. She would go on to serve as events coordinator and vice president of programming and events for the group, initiating or overseeing dozens of events that brought together CMU alumni from across the Eastern seaboard.
In those roles, Lois worked to increase the number of meaningful events and strengthen alumni connections across the region, ensuring that the Greater Maryland Network offered a varied program of community service, social, university and professional events dispersed across a "geographically challenging" region. Highlights of her tenure include initiating a partnership with the Chesapeake Arts Center in the development of its MakerSpace, a STEM-meets-arts program for members of an underserved community, and planning the annual "Cruise the Chesapeake" event in Annapolis that brought together both the Greater Maryland and Washington, D.C., Networks.
Along with Lois' CMU volunteer work, she is active in her local community, giving her time and resources to help with civic, community, youth empowerment and cycling advocacy activities.
It was a great experience meeting so many interesting CMU alumni in various professions as a result of my involvement with 3 regional chapters.
Lois Findlay (GSIA 1991)