Karen Campbell's workdays are not child's play, but one of her joys away from the job is helping children learn about science and engineering.

As director of the Joint Strike Fighter radar program for Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems in Linthicum, Campbell has a high-profile role in helping the company keep pace as one of the top players in the multibillion-dollar military contracting industry. Northrop Grumman is a principal subcontractor working on the $41 billion development phase of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, along with prime contractor Lockheed Martin of Bethesda and BAE Systems of Rockville.

Campbell also serves as a mentor and role model in company and state efforts to attract more young people to science and engineering, ensuring companies that rely on these skills a steady influx of capable workers.

"I've been involved with Junior Achievement of Central Maryland since 1996, first as a classroom consultant teaching the Economics of Staying in School to high school freshmen who had been identified as being at risk for dropping out of school," said Campbell, 47, a native of upstate New York who now lives in Columbia.

"And in 2008, I led a team of engineers who developed the Northrop Grumman Science Lab at Junior Achievement's Biz Town [a program for young people that teaches them about businesses] in Owings Mills to better familiarize the over 9,000 Maryland students who go through Biz Town each year to the fun of science and engineering."

As for being one of the few women in her field, Campbell said, "I feel proud of my accomplishments, and the leadership role I have. When I went to college to study engineering over 25 years ago, the field was only 10 percent female. As an engineer, I feel that I have been respected for my abilities and accomplishments."

And she says she is "passionate" about encouraging the interests of young people, especially young women, in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math. Her work for youth has garnered her many awards — including one from then-President George W. Bush's Council on Service and Civic Participation.

Of her work leading the team designing the manufacturing of the radar for the Joint Strike Fighter program, Campbell said: "It's exciting technology and our team has delivered radar hardware and software as a part of the JSF vision to deliver and sustain the most advanced, affordable strike-fighter aircraft. ... I'm leading the program that's developing and producing the radar for the next-generation fighter that's going to be protecting our country and our allies for decades. It gives me goose bumps!"

The Business Gazette recently talked to Campbell about her career and work with youth.

What are your priorities for 2010 on the job?

In 2010, a lot of our big focus continues to be on the production part of the Joint Strike Fighter program. The development program runs through 2013 and we're currently starting to build [radar] production hardware and it goes through yearly lots, so we are building our first couple of lots.

I've done radars for most of my career. I spent the first half of my career in manufacturing and the second half in program management. So as a mechanical engineer, my first permanent job was as a manufacturing engineer, so I supported the shop floor where we build our radar products. And from that I went into manufacturing management.

My technical background gave me some unique opportunities in manufacturing to transition a number of programs and products to production. The problem-solving skills that come with engineering help me on a daily basis with program management.

You majored in mechanical engineering. Why?

Mechanical engineering sparked my interest more than other fields of engineering. It's a broad field that covers analysis, design, manufacturing, maintenance. It's integrated with other disciplines. And I loved the hands-on application. The part in the process that really appealed to me was making what I'd designed.

Your father was an engineer?

Yes, he was a civil engineer. He worked for the state of New York, the Department of Environmental Conservation.

So he was your main mentor?

The first was my father. In high school, when I wasn't sure what I wanted to be, my father suggested I study engineering because I was good at math and science and problem-solving, and engineering is a good basis for many careers. Then I had a professor in mechanics in college. That's when I decided to study mechanical engineering.

I started out at community college. As the oldest of seven, I felt a big fiscal responsibility to do things as effectively as I could. I wasn't sure when I started studying engineering that that was ultimately was going to be the career I wanted, so to me it made sense to go where it was less expensive for the first two years.

How did you get to Northrop Grumman?

I was recruited while still in college [Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute] by Westinghouse. They had in those days a program where I could try three or four different positions and decide where I wanted to go from there, so that's one of the primary reasons I came to Westinghouse [whose electronic systems unit was later bought by Northrop Grumman for $3.6 billion in 1996] as opposed to other companies, because that program was exactly what I was looking for. And my first job was here in Baltimore.

What management skills have helped you the most in your manager positions at Northrop Grumman? How did you learn them?

I think the drive for results is key: the commitment to meeting schedule, cost, quality and performance objectives and exceeding customer expectations. Coaching and developing people is important in helping build a team, empowering them and giving them the tools they need to succeed and improve.

And basic skills my parents taught us like treating people with respect — saying "please" and "thank you" — helped build important relationships along the way.

And over the years, you got into doing a lot of mentoring?

I appreciate the mentors who've helped me through my career, and I hope to pay that back to others. I regularly mentor now, both informally and in formal mentoring programs I participate in at Northrop Grumman.

And you will continue to work with the Junior Achievement's Biz Town?

Yes. The Northrop Grumman science lab that we developed and put into Biz Town is a big focus for us. We completed our first year, so now we are doing some tweaking of the experiments and the activities and continuing to evolve that. Our real objective is to have them leave that lab thinking science is fun and "I might like to be an engineer," just to expose them to that at such an early age.

And this is for elementary and middle-school kids?

Yes, this particular activity is on site at the J.A. offices in Owings Mills. It's a 10,000-square-foot miniature city and we've created this Northrop Grumman lab as one of the shops [Biz Town also has a city hall, bank, newspaper, restaurant, technology center and the science lab] that they get to work in for a day. There's preliminary work that they do in the classroom that leads up to that day ... they interview for jobs, elect a mayor ... and their classroom training culminates in that one day when they come in and run the city, and they take out business loans and pay their employees and pay taxes and do each of the activities in those shops.

So kids have interviewed to be a design engineer and a manufacturing engineer and a test engineer, and that's the job they come in and do for that day. So when we do that, we have volunteers who go up and who will spend the day supporting the kids on their visit there. It's neat.

What do you tell young people, girls especially, on succeeding in engineering and the sciences? What should they do to prepare themselves?

I tell them what my parents told us — to do their best. Challenge yourself.

Many of the skills that make them good students are skills that will make them successful in their careers: showing up every day, having initiative, working well with others, finishing what they start.

Math and science can be fun, and engineering is an exciting profession with a wide range of possibilities. Look at the range of opportunities when figuring out what you want to do. Talk to people who have those jobs. Our country needs engineers and scientists.

Karen Campbell

Age: 47.

Position: Director, Joint Strike Fighter radar program, Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, Linthicum.

Previous positions: Deputy program manager, Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array radar programs, and operations manager, F-22 Radar Program, both with Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems; manufacturing manager, Westinghouse Electric.

Education: Bachelor's, mechanical engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; associate degree, engineering science, Hudson Valley Community College.

Professional organizations: American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Community organizations: Board of directors, Junior Achievement of Central Maryland.

Awards: Leaders in the Workplace, YWCA, 2009; Maryland's Top 100 Women, awarded by Maryland Daily Record, 2009; Bronze Leadership Award, Junior Achievement Worldwide, 2008; President's Volunteer Service Award, President George W. Bush's Council on Service and Civic Participation, 2007; Summit Award, Junior Achievement, 2006; Service Award, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2004.

Residence: Columbia.

Hobbies: Music, tennis, knitting and spending time with her 17 nieces and nephews.