Sabrina Ridenour

Sabrina Ridenour is a proud 2017 graduate of West Virginia University with a B.S. in mechanical engineering and minor in vocal performance. She also holds her M.Eng. in energy systems engineering from the University of Michigan and is pursuing her MBA through Indiana University. Ridenour started her career at General Motors as a manufacturing engineering intern at Arlington Assembly in Texas. Since then, she has located to Michigan and had a variety of product development roles during her time in GM’s early career rotational program within the global propulsion systems organization. Following her job rotations, Ridenour spent four years as a lead software engineer developing charging software for all electric/autonomous vehicles. She served as GM’s subject matter expert on the CHAdeMO charging standard enabling GM to enter the Japanese market for the first time. She has two granted patents and one pending patent in electric vehicle (EV) charging technology. Now she is a vehicle systems engineer owning propulsion systems for several EV programs, including the Chevrolet Blazer EV and Chevrolet Equinox EV.

Ridenour’s accomplishments include achieving “Life Member” status this year with the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), being awarded SWE - Detroit Professional Section’s 2024 “New Engineer Award” and 2018 “Key Contributor Award,” and most notably was selected to moderate a global employee town hall with GM CEO, Mary Barra. Ridenour has presented at the annual SWE conference on the topic “Is this thing on? The science behind public speaking” to offer a full hour lecture on the anatomy and physics of the voice, room acoustics, and microphone design all while sharing exercises singers use to improve enunciation and projection of their voice. She actively recruits with GM at SWE conferences and EcoCAR competitions and goes out of her way to assist any Mountaineer wanting to pursue a career in the automotive industry. Lastly, she founded and led the WVU Alumni Motor City (Metro Detroit) Chapter as soon as she moved to Michigan after having a profound impact by the Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter’s welcome of her during her summer internship in Texas.

In her free time, Ridenour enjoys traveling, cooking through her 80+ cookbook collection, singing soprano II with the Grammy-winning UMS Choral Union out of Ann Arbor, volunteering with SWE in many capacities, as well as spending time with her cats, friends, and family. She is originally from Frostburg, MD and loves having any chance to inspire the next generation of engineers!