She is one of the first female leaders at Northrop Grumman, and considered a pioneer by the Society of Women Engineers.
And so I learned early on to sort of take responsibility for myself and what happened to me, not to find other reasons outside of myself for not succeeding, but realizing that my success depended upon myself and the participation and contribution that I made.
When she moved on to college, she brought the tools with her: sanders, circular saws, miter boxes, drills, and other equipment.
In hindsight, even though her engineering career ultimately succeeded, she regretted the early aimlessness and lack of planning.
My expectations were that I would be a beautician, which is a very honorable vocation in Western Pennsylvania, but never did I ever think of becoming a teacher or becoming an engineer... My whole childhood was a series of bumping into fortunate experiences.
Jenniches completed extensive post-graduate work in international affairs at The Catholic University of America.
[5] Jenniches began her career in science as a high school biology teacher, teaching ecology, in Westminster, Maryland.
At Johns Hopkins's evening school, Jenniches's peers influenced her to work at Westinghouse Electric Company.
She worked there, as an intern and a woman, for two weeks, unpaid, in a plant, with no security clearance, all while still attending evening classes to complete her engineering degree.
As a part of her job, she used keypunch digital tapes to program read-only memories, a PROM programmer.
She worked in computer test engineering, electronic assembly, advanced robotic manufacturing, radar systems, and defense programs.
Jenniches has held many leadership positions at Northrop Grumman Corp: In 1986, she was appointed manager of Systems & Technology Operations.
[1] She has also served on the American Association of Engineering Societies Board of Governors and as an expert witness before Congress on numerous occasions.