Zahraa Issa

Zahraa Mohanad Issa is an Arab American who was born in Baghdad, Iraq but grew up in El Paso, She currently works as a systems integration engineer Sr. at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. She previously worked on nuclear deterrence as an R&D S&E Electrical Engineer at Sandia National Laboratories which operates for the Department of Energy. Besides the defense and aerospace industry, she worked in the medical devices industry she was an R&D Test Engineer at Johnson&Johnson Biosense Webster, a company that makes surgical medical devices for the heart. During her time there, she was involved in developing catheters for patients who suffer from Atrial fibrillation.

She has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso, along with a master's degree in systems engineering. During her master's program, she did an NSF ASPIRE Fellowship West Texas Regional Collaborative program that taught community college students.

Currently, she's pursuing a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington, where her research focuses on signal processing and artificial intelligence. Her goal is to build an AI-based diagnostic and noninvasive treatment device for patients who suffer from chronic illnesses.