Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNS & IMF)

April K. Mills, Management Engineer,

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNS & IMF)

January 2011

Ms. Mills was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. She attended University of Wisconsin – Madison. In May 2001 she received a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Mechanics (with a Technical Communications Certificate). During college, Ms. Mills interned four times with Cummins Engine Company, completing rotations in research, testing, service and manufacturing.

In August 2001, Ms. Mills joined Puget Sound Naval Shipyard’s Reactor Engineering Division as a nuclear engineer. In 2005 she became a project engineer, responsible for implementing Theory of Constraints throughout the Nuclear Engineering and Planning Department. In 2006, Ms. Mills was selected for a rotation as a Nuclear Branch Head in the Controls Engineering Division, managing ten electrical engineers. In 2007 she completed a three-month internship at Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, DC, serving in Shipyard Management’s Financial and Workload Division (NAVSEA 04XF). Returning to PSNS & IMF, Ms. Mills joined the Business and Strategic Planning Office as Command Strategic Planning Manager, responsible for documenting and publicizing command execution plans and strategic plans. In 2009, she joined the PSNS & IMF Management Engineering Office, where she continues to lead the command’s Guiding Coalition. The PSNS & IMF Guiding Coalition is based on Dr. John Kotter’s Leading Change 8-step model.

Ms. Mills is active within the command and community. In 2004 she represented the command in Leadership Kitsap, a servant leadership development program. Prior to being promoted to management in 2005, Ms. Mills served as a Vice President for International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Local 12. From 2004 to 2007, she served as Puget Sound Naval Bases Association Vice President. She traveled yearly to Washington, DC to brief navy and congressional leadership on local community issues. In 2009, Ms. Mills was president of the Naval Civilian Managers Association - PSNS & IMF Chapter. In 2010 she was recognized as a YWCA of Kitsap County Woman of Achievement and was one of Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal’s 40 Under Forty honorees.

Ms. Mills carries her passion for creating positive change into her personal life, self-publishing a change management blog: engine-for-change.com